10 Tips for Taking Great Photos
Every (great) picture tells a story: Hot Shot Eastbound at the Drive-In, Iaeger, West Virginia by O Winston Link (1956)
I’m obviously not saying I take great photos but, please, do as I say, not as I do (or don’t) to enhance your photographic process.
1. Look behind you
It’ll probably be more interesting than the subject you’re photographing.
2. Take photos about something, not of something
99% of photos are of something: a cat, a building, a person, a tree. But great photos have emotion, meaning and tell a story; they’re about something.
Joel Sternfeld, McLean, Virginia, December 1978
3. Get closer to your subject. Then get closer still
But don’t fall off the edge or get eaten alive.
4. The single image is pointless
I know your Instagram feed is full of single images – but they’re rather pointless. Of course there are many brilliant single images but a series of photos, known as a photo essay, often collected in a book format or featured in magazines and newspapers, is a far more rewarding and meaningful experience.
Robert Frank, The Americans (1959). This photo is apparently of a parade in Hoboken, New Jersey. We will have to take Frank’s word for it.
5. Mystery is good. Avoid being obvious, boring or clichéd
I don’t care if it’s out of focus, badly composed or underexposed (a contemporary review of Robert Frank’s now-seminal photo book The Americans complained of “meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons and general sloppiness”), the crime is an obvious, boring (unless you’re someone like John Myers purposely taking boring photos) and/or clichéd photo. A sunset, sunny golden beach, or rainbow will always be a beautiful thing to behold, but they have rarely made great photos (unless you’re making a comment about beach culture, as, say, Martin Parr has).
6. Don’t take photos of what you think a good photo should look like
Photography still hasn’t really advanced beyond old-fashioned paintings and concepts of beauty – i.e. we mainly take rather conventional shots of landscapes, buildings and people similar to what artists were painting hundreds of years ago.
This so reminds of Goya’s The Clothed Maja (1801-03). Richard Billingham’s highly acclaimed photobook Ray’s a Laugh (1996) has just been reprinted with extra photos. The images of his parents (along with various pets), and the effects of poverty and alcoholism, presented a stark yet intimate picture of ‘squalid realism’, with a painter’s eye.
7. The snapshot is the most important kind of photo
I tend not to take any photos of people but I recognise that personally, historically and culturally they are the most important kind of photograph, and that the casual snapshot of captured time the most vital kind of photo there is (partly because buildings and landscapes tend not to move).
8. The photos in your mind’s eye are always better than your photos
Your eyes have the ability to see much more information than a camera. You generally can’t just take a photo and expect it to turn out how you imagined it. A photo of the moon is an obvious example: an image taken with a smartphone generally looks like a bright dot in the distance; nothing like the detail you can see easily with your eyes. What’s needed for that perfect moon shot is a DSLR camera, tripod and zoom lens. Mostly, what’s needed for the perfect shot you have in your mind is a fair degree of technical acumen to translate from mind to camera.
I often think such and such a scene would make a great photo, so I take it and it mostly turns out rubbish. Hence my best photos are ones I’ve never taken but have stayed in my mind (and I’ve written a book about them called Missed Photos).
9. Don’t use flash or zoom
Like all rules, this should be broken, and of course there are many examples of amazing flash and zoomed photos. However, generally, and especially on a phone, flash and zoom have a detrimental effect on the quality of a photo.
William Eggleston… embrace the ordinary – and the magic hour.
10. The sun is the enemy
I know this sounds contrary as photography is based on light and the sun provides a lot of it but the midday sun in particular makes landscapes look flat and bleaches out details. Sunsets mostly look dark with a bright blob on the horizon. Embrace the magic hour just before dusk and early morning to get some misty shots.
Finally, memorable to you isn’t necessary great to anyone else but who cares?
That photo of your parents laughing together, the one of your girlfriend/boyfriend looking beautiful or that sunset on holiday in Greece might be great memories (the main point of photography after all) but probably aren’t great photos. But if you make the photos for yourself and no one else, that’s great. We don’t need to see them on Instagram, keep them for yourself and treasure them.
Previously on Barnflakes
Top ten reasons Instagram is rubbish
Top ten photography books I want but can’t afford
Flickagrams
Instagram hasn’t heard of climate change
Notes on...
Barnflakes on Instagram
Top ten most boring Instagram subjects
A brief history of photography (part three)
A brief history of photography (part two)
A brief history of photography (part one)
Photo opportunity
Top ten photographers