Step up your game with these simple methods

No more are the days of spending hours developing miles of film just to get one good picture. No more are the days of using a portable light meter to make sure your photos are not washed out or ultra dark. NO MORE are the days of having to purchase film, or even a camera for that matter.            

Today, we have SD cards, automatic cameras, and even phones that rival many digital cameras. Everyone can be a photographer. However, everyone is not a great photographer. That’s okay.

If you are looking to take better pictures, there are easy ways to make even the most basic pictures look better, no matter the lens you use to shoot.

Keeping in mind the theme of MLP, there are three methods that may be useful to your photographical journey.

Meter

This one is a bit of a stretch, but it works. One of the most important parts of photography is lighting. While physical light meters may not be used often anymore, you can still visually measure the amount of light in any scenario.

Find places that aren’t completely dull or dim. Use interesting shadows to give your picture some character. Try to find natural light. Sometimes it can be hard to find good natural lighting, so you may need to plan ahead for what time of day you take a picture, if at all possible.

Layers

Layers is the second simple fix to simple pics. A shot can almost always benefit from having a foreground, middle ground, and a background. This basically means that there is depth. If you’re taking a portrait, it’s not just someone standing in front of a wall (although that can look good sometimes).

For instance, if it is a portrait around trees, there would be the person in the middle by the tree, maybe some leaves blurred out in the foreground, and then a clean background with more trees in the distance.

For a landscape shot, such as of mountains, it would mean having some land in the foreground and then a couple different layers of mountains. Just make sure something in at least one of the layers is in focus.

Perspective

Perspective is key. Your thought on what you want out of the photo, as well as the angle of the photo are both important. Make the picture your own.

Experiment with ways that other people maybe have not looked at a scene. Take the picture laying down, at an upward angle. Or try finding a natural frame in your surroundings to take a portrait, which also relates to Layers.

It’s fine to take a picture straight on, just be willing to change the perspective or mess around with it.

All these methods are very variable. It’s up to your interpretation to experiment and make photography your own. Use these MPL’s and you’ll be a Major League Photographer in no time.