Think First Before You Take The Pictures

What are you thinking when you are taking your pictures? If you are like me, I sometime didn't think much. I just want to keep the moment in pictures. And if you want to start getting good pictures, we should start thinking before we take pictures.

1. What's the message?

Before you snap the picture, you have to ask yourself,

"What is the real message I want to convey through my pictures?"

Different messages will require you to perform differently in terms of framing and composition. If you want to create a romantic feeling for the portrait, you probably have to create a silhouette of the couple during sunset or a black and white portrait of the couple holding hands together.

2. Proximity

How close are you to your subject? If you are too far from the subject, you will lose the details and you will take in too much distraction in your pictures. If you are too close to your subject, you might highlight the flaws in the subjects and some might misunderstand the theme in your pictures.

And if your subjects are uncomfortable with you getting too close, you can always zoom in to the subjects. However, I personally like to get close personally. I probably just want to bond with the subjects. I don't know how to explain this in words. It is a feeling that needs me to get close to the subjects.

3. Background

Now, when you are taking pictures, it is common that the background will draw your viewers' attention from the subjects. So, that is why you see sometime photographer purposely blur the background so that the subjects will stand out in the pictures.

And sometime you are force to take pictures even you know the background is distracting. Imagine you are taking a portrait at a hot tourist spot. It is difficult to get a clear picture with only your subjects when there are tourists all around the place. Since that is the case, you ought to blur the background to avoid the distraction.

4. Lighting

Have you ever thought of the lighting before you take your pictures? Your pictures will lose clarity when they are poorly lit. And when you are using artificial light (flash), is it too strong to your subjects?

And do you know that light coming from different direction can also affect your pictures? Try taking a picture of fruit bowl and you will know what I mean. So, the next time you take another picture, try to look for where is light coming from and you create a different feel in your pictures.

5. Habit

Now, as a photographer, I have developed a certain habit of mine when I take pictures. It was not until that when my brother asked me why most of my pictures are taken horizontally.

Do you have certain habits when you take pictures? If you do, that certainly limits the diversity in your pictures. So, if you have been fond to taking pictures horizontally, you probably want to start taking picture vertically. If you have been taking pictures vertically, you may want to look into taking pictures slantingly.

6. Angles

Talking about habits, many photographers also take the same when they pictures and I am one of them (I still do even I realize my problem). And you have to think about new angles the next time you try to take a picture. Before that, why don't you take a look at the pictures you have taken, are they taken from a similar angle? If they do, you might want to start lying down, crouching or simply hold your camera high above the subjects to take the pictures.

Although it might seems there are a lot of things you need to ask yourself before you start taking picture, it is alright that you can't remember them. It took me quite a while before I develop the habit (see, is habit again) and punch my thigh when I review the pictures. Just take more pictures and you will build that habit. :-)

Happy taking pictures,

Michael Wong. :-)