Beginners Guide: 4 Quick Tips for Absolute DSLR Photography Beginnerswww.sleeklens.com
Photography is a learning-by-doing process, the more time you invest in photography the better you will get! If you are an absolute beginner let me give you 4 quick tips to improve your photography skills.
Table of Contents
1) Don’t carry too much gear with you
Too much gear will confuse you and with every lens and every piece of new equipment that you buy things will get more complicated. You should first get familiar with the camera settings and how they work – you definitely should be familiar with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO before you walk in the store and buy a super expensive camera body or lens. Always keep in mind: buying expensive camera bodies or lenses will NOT improve your photography skills and also guarantee better images. Honestly, you really don’t need expensive photography gear and equipment to get started in photography and buy just basic stuff to learn the basics of photography before you start getting all the big and expensive cameras or lenses. So, having a super expensive lens or camera does not necessarily mean that your images will be outstanding or spectacular.
Don’t forget it’s not the camera which takes good images, it’s the photographer. Your camera is just a tool that will help you realize your ideas. So many photographers spend their time thinking about which lens or camera they want to buy next because they think an expensive camera will automatically bring special photographs. What is more important is to spend your time to think about stunning photo ideas or to plan a project you want to spend some weeks on. Gear is going to matter when you are beyond the basics and when you’re going to specialize towards a specific genre of photography. So it’s really necessary to learn how to operate your camera by using your camera in fully manual mode, it isn’t as hard as it first might seems. Manual mode allows you to set your aperture, ISO and shutter speed separately to any value you want, this means you have full control of all your camera’s settings. Trust me, no professional photographer uses the automatic mode.
2) Begin to specialize:
When you start approaching photography, you are going to exploring all the basics and you will learn about composition. But within the time you are going to drift towards specific genres, whether it’s fashion, street, landscape, macro, wildlife or any other photography genre, to specialize means that you can focus and invest your time & energy into genres of photography you like most. The more you specialize in a genre the wider your horizon will be and the better results you will get.
3) Be familiar with Image composition:
Last year I have written an article about image composition, where I explained how important composition rules are. There are a few different composition rules, for example, the golden section which is one of the most common composition rules. Or the rule of thirds which is another well-known composition rule. Make sure you get familiar with different composition rules in order to improve your photography. Over the years you will develop a creative eye and it will become easier for you to approach in different situations. It’s just important that you develop your own style.
4) Don’t use your built-in Flash
Honestly, using the built-in flash often can ruin an image, don’t use it if it isn’t necessary. Natural light is the best light source you can have unless you are in a studio where you depend on an external light source. In that case, I would recommend using an external flash. Furthermore, in order to achieve a soft and even light, I would suggest buying a softbox, it will minimize the shadows, will reduce contrast and will produce a smooth and even lightning. Softboxes are great for product-photography, food photography or for fashion photography.
I really hope you have found the tips and ideas in this article useful!
Thanks for reading & see you next time!
Julian Rad is a self-taught award-winning wildlife photographer, who was born in Vienna, Austria in 1991. When he bought his first camera at the age of 20, he found an expression for the fascination he had about nature & wildlife. He already had many publications in national and internation magazines and newspapers (New York Post, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, The Times, GEO, Digital Photographer Magazine...). He has won several photo competitions such as the comedy wildlife photography awards in 2015.
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