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Better Photo Thoughts

Be aware of defaults

  • White balance?
  • ISO (1600 sucks!)
  • EV compensation?
  • Lens settings?
  • Bracketing?
  • TTL flash?
  • Aperture/shutter?

Composition

  • Walk around the subject
  • Use dorky frame hands
  • Look around the edges in the viewfinder
  • Background
    • Think about the background color
    • Think about background vs. focal length
    • Watch for bad perspective (trees, buildings, patterns)
  • What are the 1000 words?
  • Where are you directing the eye?

Lighting

  • Super-bright sun
    • Think about the composition of contrasty shadows
    • Be careful with the angle between camera and sun
    • Fill flash (careful with white balance, use bracketing)
    • Underexpose and fix it later (RAW?)
  • Shade
    • Watch the white balance
    • Use a tripod instead of increasing the ISO
  • Indoor
    • Watch the white balance :)
    • Try long manual exposures with curtain flash
    • Maybe switch to the 18-55mm?

Focus

  • Default to f/8!
  • Think about the plane of the object vs. the focal plane
  • Close focus: think carefully about what should be clearest
  • Take the time to use the tripod or wide angle