Pho­tog­ra­phy Tips

One of the best pho­tog­ra­phy tips I can share is to think less about the tech­ni­cal aspects and more about the impact your photo has on the peo­ple who view it. While it’s impor­tant to under­stand the ele­ments of expo­sure, those tech­niques won’t guar­an­tee an emo­tional con­nec­tion with your sub­ject. Here are five ways to help you cap­ture the moment that con­nects with your viewers.

1: Patience

Wel­come to Florida — © Copy­right 2011 by William Beem

What makes a pho­to­graph art instead of a snap­shot? Patience! Just because you want a pho­to­graph right now doesn’t mean the sub­ject is ready for your right now. You may have to wait for a sun­rise or sun­set. You may have to wait for a bird to land on a post in the water. You may have to wait for the per­fect wave to crash. Maybe — just maybe — you may have to wait for all of these ele­ments to coin­cide to get a shot that no other pho­tog­ra­pher will get because they weren’t patient enough to let things hap­pen. Maybe they weren’t patient enough to see what hap­pened next. The world will unfold on its own sched­ule, so pick a good spot — be patient — and be ready to cap­ture the moment.

2: Tim­ing

The Itch — The Itch

Some pho­tog­ra­phers enjoy shoot­ing rapid-​fire to get an action shot — spray and pray — and hope they have some­thing good when the action is over. That isn’t con­trol, though. It’s trust­ing your fate to luck.

It doesn’t mat­ter if you’re shoot­ing wildlife, sports or a model in a stu­dio. There’s a con­cept known as the peak of action, and that’s the shot you want to cap­ture. You may get it with spray and pray, or you may not. Rather than fir­ing off a blast of shots, think about your sub­ject. Put your­self in the subject’s posi­tion. Look for pat­terns, rhythms, or any clues that will help you pre­dict when and where your sub­ject will be at the opti­mum moment to cap­ture the peak of action.

A big part of tim­ing is know­ing your sub­ject. You need to know when is the opti­mum time for that sub­ject to arrive in just the right place.

3: Inti­macy

Body Shots — © Copy­right 2011 by William Beem

Your pho­tos need to show a con­nec­tion. Some­times that means cre­at­ing a con­nec­tion between the sub­ject and the view. In other cases, like this one, it means show­ing a con­nec­tion with your sub­ject and some­thing impor­tant. Our sub­ject, Con­nie, is a body builder prepar­ing for a com­pe­ti­tion. She goes through a num­ber of exer­cises, of course, but I chose this one to tell her story.

From this per­spec­tive, you see that she’s strong. She’s intent. She’s focused. The story is about her, but the han­dles show a rela­tion­ship that helps define her as the sub­ject. She has a rela­tion­ship with the weights she’s lift­ing. She needs them in order to be the woman she wants to be. We show this rela­tion­ship with those han­dles close to her. That’s the peak of action, when she bears the most pres­sure. That’s when the rela­tion­ship is at its most intense and inti­mate moment. Intimacy helps the viewer under­stand her story.

4. Light

The Surfer

As a pho­tog­ra­pher, light is both your enemy and your friend. If you don’t have light, there’s no photo. If you have too much light, there’s still no photo. That’s because an evenly lit photo is lit­tle more than a dull snap­shot. Noth­ing stands out. Noth­ing is spe­cial because you see every­thing. There’s no mys­tery — you see it all. With­out shad­ows, we have no sense of depth or dimen­sion. Shad­ows are cru­cial. Their sense of dark­ness give shape, form and a sense of impor­tance to the part of the photo in the light. I heard a say­ing from Scott Kelby, who heard it from Joe McNally, who heard it from his edi­tor at Life (who I sus­pect may have heard it from some­one else).

If you want to make some­thing inter­est­ing, don’t light all of it.

If there’s any­thing about this photo that gives a sense of mood­i­ness, it’s the absence of light that does it. Those shad­ows give a sense of gloomi­ness, they show the edges of carv­ing along the walls and stat­ues. Those fea­tures stand out because of dark­ness and light work­ing in con­cert with each other. With­out that con­trast, you have no story because it won’t have any­thing to hold your inter­est. It’s just a snapshot.

5: Story

Kelsey — © Copy­right 2011 by William Beem

I’ve men­tioned this in the pre­vi­ous tips, but those were tools to lead you to the ulti­mate tip. If you want to improve your pho­tos, then your photo needs to tell a story. It needs to say some­thing to the viewer. It needs to draw them in and make them won­der. It needs to piqué their inter­est. Peo­ple look at images that are inter­est­ing. What makes them inter­est­ing? The photo com­mu­ni­cates some­thing to them.

Why is the girl in the water? What is the surfer think­ing before he enters the water? I wish I had her ded­i­ca­tion. Why does this dan­ger­ous beast look so con­tent? Where is this relax­ing scene? There are sto­ries for any emo­tion. If you can feel an emo­tion, then there’s a story to go with it. That’s what you need to cap­ture and share with your viewers.