10 Tips to improve your photography today!

As it's still early in 2025, I thought that it would be a good idea to revisit the basics. I sometimes go down a particular rabbit hole myself (photographically speaking) and, in so doing, forget something basic but useful. So, I think it's a good idea to periodically go over the basics again.

I've cheated slightly in that I'm talking through a free PDF that I offer on my website; "10 simple steps to improve your photography today". You can go to the download page by clicking the link.

So, while not all of them will be new to you, there might be something in the list that you haven't been doing as often as you might. Here's the list:

1. Have a clear subject
2. Use the "Rule of thirds"
3. Use depth of field
4. Know your camera
5. Use 'Leading lines'
6. Change your point of view
7. Use reflections
8. Be aware of your background
9. Try using black and white
10. Break the rules!

Of course, these tips, and much more, can be found in my online photography courses, so please take a look.

It's time for another podcast...

Transcript

>> Speaker A: 0:17

Okay. So as you may know, being hands on to me is pretty fundamental to photography because, photography is one of those things that you can read about it, there's lots to read about, you can watch videos about it and all those other things. But if you're not actually picking up a camera and taking photographs, then the chances of you improving your photography, are probably pretty remote. So what I thought I'd do in this podcast is to just run through 10 tips that can improve your photography right now. And in fact, what I'm doing, I suppose I'm cheating a little bit because this is a PDF download you can get from my website. So if you haven't come across it before, do please have a look at the website. You will find it under a tab which I believe says improve your photography. And there are a few things there, there's free resources that you can make use of because, as I've spoken about before, I love my photography. That's why I've been doing it so long. And there are various aspects to that and I'm really keen that other people get as much from their photography as they can as well. So that's why, these resources are available. So I'm going to run through the 10 things that get spoken about in this PDF. You're welcome to download the PDF, as I've already said, and I'll put the link in the. In fact, the link is already in the description, I believe, but I'll make sure it's there. So the very first one is to make sure that you have a clear subject. So this might seem fairly obvious, but it isn't to everybody. And what I should say as well is that these 10 things I'm sure that at least some of them you're doing already. So I'm not suggesting that everybody is not doing any of these things. However, what I find is that I tend to go down bunny holes occasionally and I start getting really good at one thing and in so doing that's great, but I forget some of the other things that I was doing. So, that's really the other reason for doing this and suggesting the PDF is that I think it's always good to just step back, go back over the basics again. There is absolutely no harm in doing that. And if you're anything like me, there's probably one or two things that you've either forgotten about or you were doing at one stage and you're not doing them at the moment. So have a Clear subject. And the reason for doing that is that look, obviously photography is subjective, but to me it's really important that you have a clear subject because that's what the photograph'about and looking at it from the perspective of a viewer, ah, somebody looking at your photograph, what are they supposed to be looking at? And I have, and I've spoken about this before, I know in webinars and workshops and things. I've been asked to look at photographs or comment on them. M and they've been really nice, you know, really beautifully exposed, lovely colors, all that kind of thing. But I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to be looking at and what the photos about. So there's nothing wrong with doing something a bit esoteric, a little bit kind of out there. That's great from time to time. But my honest belief is that for most photographs they re just the day to day stuff. We need to be telling something, some sort of a story. I talk about the visual storyteller and I absolutely believe all that stuff. So having a good subject is really important. A clear subject, something that the viewer, can connect with, something that gives your photograph some sort of purpose, some reason for being. And so having a clear subject is one of the first things or one of the first hurdles, if you like, where I find a lot of, photographers keel over. So. And with this PDF there are examples. And if you can hear a page turning, that's because I've got one here. Now, the second suggestion is that you use the rule of thirds. Now you don't have to use the rule of thirds. It's just one of a number of composition techniques you can use. But the advantage of it is that I think most people, when they start out, and I apologize if this isn't you, but I think most people tend to slap their subject. So there they go, they're already doing number one, they've got their subjects and they stick it right in the center of the frame. Which you on one hand is nice. If you're doing a kind of documentary type shot or doing a shot for know, a manual or something like that, that's pretty handy because, if you're trying to fix something on your car and you're looking at a photograph, you really don't want something too artistic because you kind of want to get to the point and get it done. However, for other photographs, and I think this is especially true of photographs of people, it's really nice to put them in some sort of a context and basically the rule of thirds. And it's much easier if you actually look at the PDF download, but there you go. all you're doing is dividing the frame by adding four lines. Two of them are m equally spaced horizontal lines, two of them are equally spaced vertical lines. And that gives you this very simple grid. And the idea is that you place your subject or the focal point in your subject. So if it's a portrait, I tend to use the eye closest to me. That's what I'll tend to focus on with my focusing. And that's where I tend to kind, of construct the frame around that point. So put the focal point on one of the four crossings of those lines. So if you think of that grid, you're going to have four points in there where lines cross. If that doesn't work, at least put the focal point on one of those four lines so that you are creating space. So what that does is it pushes the subject to one side and then you've got all sorts of other things you can either put into that space or you can leave it completely blank. And what people will do, when they look at it. We like to create our own stories and we don't tend to do this consciously, it tends to be subconscious. But if there's a gap, if there's space, there will tend to imagine things that could be happening or might be about to happen or have just happened, all that kind of stuff. So, I'll pitch the courses. I've got the DSLR Miralless photography course I talk a lot about, in fact the smartphone course as well. in both of those I talk about composition and the use of space and it's actually a very powerful technique. So if you're finding that your pictures have all of your subjects slap in the middle, do experiment with rule of thirds. And there are others that you can use as well. But just try putting your subject basically off center and just looking and look at the difference it makes visually and what feel how the feel of the photograph changes and then you can experiment with that. And this is how you start to create photographs that have a real impact. So that was number two used the rule of thirds. Number three is use depth of field. So this is another one of those things that I think when I was doing photo walks and stuff like that, that's one of the questions that would come up most often. How do you get a sharp subject but an out of focus background? And it's all to do with your use of depth of field. And depth of field is a really powerful tool for guiding the viewer's eye to your subject. You can take them on a little journey through the frame. There's other techniques for doing that, but depth of field is really powerful. And once you understand that. And the bad news is, if you're worried about technical things, you do need to get a basic understanding of the exposure triangle, which I've done podcasts on before. And in fact, there's quite a lot in the course on that as well. So exposure triangle is one of those things that some people just feel, oh, it's really difficult, and stop right there. But the truth is that it's not half as difficult as most people think it is. And once you understand it, you only need a very base understanding. It's really about a very simple relationship. Once you've got that, you don't need to remember all the numbers. You can just do those as you need to, work them out as you need to. But once you understand the relationship, then all that creative potential of your camera is yours. You have full control. So depth of field, really important in communicating what the photograph is about. It's about, really steering the viewer, to the part of the photograph that you really want them to be looking at. The most important part of the photograph, which, again, if it's portrait, it'generally the eyes. And when I'm shooting wildlife, I tend to focus on the eyes of animals. And then I'll put. So I've got pictures of lines and bushes and stuff like that. So I'll just shoot with the depth of field. Excuse me. Sorry about that. Just king over something. Right, so lying in the bushes, I focus on the eye, but then use depth of field to put as much of the bush out of focus as I can, both foreground and background. That way you can see where the line is. You've got context, but you know exactly what you're supposed to be looking at. Because I tell you what, if I'm. Even if I'm in a vehicle, certainly if I'm walking and I see a L in a bush, I'm looking at his eyes. So. Because I want to know what it's thinking about, just how hungry it might be. Okay, number four. Now your camera. So, again, this is really important. And again, it's one of those things. It's really important, but also it's not half as difficult as you might imagine. Because for most of the time, I'm going to speak personally here, I don't dive into the menus very often it's generally if I need to dive into something, it might be checking my batteries, which are charged, how they're doing, all of that kind of stuff. I might be nuking some cards just because I've pulled everything off them and I now just want to initialize, reinitialize them and then start again. Those tend to be menu functions, but beyond that I don't use much. So most of m. The controls that I tend to use when I'm taking the photographs tend to be the controls on the body of the camera. And this is and again, just for context, I'm using the Canon EOS 5DS and Canon EOS 7D Mark II. Those two pretty much drive. The controls are almost identical. And the only program control I have is back button focus, which I think I've done a podcast on. But if not, it's definitely in the course so please check it out. And the only other stuff I tend to use regularly are just the basic menus on the back of the camera. So these are just sort of basic setups which even then I won't change them that much. Tends to be more things like ISO. I'll change through a menu most regularly and that's only because the light'changing and I need to just keep the modified the exposure so that my shutter speed and aperture of where I want them. So the reason I say no your camera though is to practice with this stuff so that you understand where it is. Because if you are it could be a family event, it could be this holiday of a lifetime where you could be being chased by an animal and you want to get some good photographs of what's about to eat you. But whatever it is, you don't want to be hunting through menus to try and find out how to set things. You need to know how to do that because the pressure's on. You might be taking a shot that's only there for a moment and that's not the time to start trying to remember which menu you need to dive into. So the regular stuff, get to know that so you don't have to think about it too much. And then the other stuff you're probably not going to worry about too much. How do you know which of the things that you are going to use most often? Well, you learn that by using the camera a lot. So shoot different subjects. whatever it is that floats your boatoot, shoot that. So if it is wildlife and you don't get regular Exposure to wildlife. Just photograph birds because they're everywhere. And, they're quite tricky actually, to photograph well. So they make really good training subjects. If it's portraits, just grab portraits of people, obviously, with their permission when you can. But just practice. That's really the heart of it. Just practice as much you can. And with that practice, you'll be changing the settings you need to change. And so you'll know which ones those are. And you'll also know exactly where they are. And you'be in the end, you'll do without really thinking about it too much. Okay. Number five is used to use leading lines. This goes back to composition, where we're guiding the viewer'eye through. Take them on a little journey through the photograph. So what are leading lines? Well, essentially there any line, and I'm going to use that word line fairly, loosely. But it's something that when you look at a photograph, itaturally naturally takes you from one part of the photograph, one part of the frame to another. So examples of leading lines could be to use train tracks, for example. So I think we've all seen photographs where somebody stood on some train tracks and just sort of photographed, looking down the tracks to something on the horizon might be a train. but, you know, having a look. So your eye is drawn, though, from where the train track'really wide, where they're close to you, so as they narrow. And that takes you on that little visual journey to this oncoming train that, you want people that see, but there are many others. So you can look at lines of trees, streetlights, paving stones, windows. Ah, I've got a. In the PDF, there's an example of one I took on a train somewhere where it's just a row of seats. so there's many examples. And the great thing about leaning lines is that once you start thinking about them, you start to see them everywhere or things you can use to create leading lines. And of course, when you start to incorporate them in your photograph, and you might do that by using the rule of thirds, by the way. So these things do obviously overlap. You can combine multiples together to get really interesting photographs. but once you start to combine these things, then you do start to get much more interesting photographs that certainly for somebody who's viewing the photograph and, maybe hasn't seen that subject, they may be seeing it in a different way or they're getting, they're definitely getting a much more interesting photograph than just something sort of slapped in the center of the Frame. So that's number five. Use leading lines. Number six is to change your point of view. So again, most people when they take photographs that they'll tend to just take the view they see as they're standing there. The more exciting people will crouch down a little bit so you've got that lower view and that's good. But the thing to remember is that there are many other views you can take. So the first one I'm going to talk about is just orientation of the camera itself. And it used to be before we had smartphones that most photographs were what we call landscape format. So the widest part is, the sort of wide axis and the shorter bit was the up and down axis. X might trying not to get too technical. so that was fine. But most photographs will be taken landscape. Now that with the advent of mobile phones and smartphone, well, smartphones I should say, and the cameras that they have. So I'm just getting over something cold or something. I having m. A quick slurp to keep me going. yeah, with smartphones it's become normal to shoot in portrait format. So then the longer axis is the vertical one and the narrow axis is the horizontal one. So it doesn't really matter how you start out, but look at a subject and experiment with both orientations because that can significantly change the feel of an image just by the way you shoot it. So that's the first thing to experiment with. The second thing, changing your point of view is to look at other viewpoints. So get right down low. One the things. One of the things I like to do when I was in photo walks, which I was doing in Sydney with we're observers. And I think when I started we were doing them every week and then it became every two weeks. But we tended to be in the same places. well, there'd be two or three different places we would tend to go. And when you're doing it every time, you can get a little bit jaded on occasion. So all I did anyway, I'll being totally honest about it and it was great. I loved it. It was great fun working with people. But I've kind of seen this shot. I've seen this view about, you know, 50 times. So, how can I shoot it differently? And the thing that I would tend to do just to get my inspire myself really was just put my camera right on the ground and take a photograph from there. And obviously you can do this with the smartphone too because, if you don't want to use the button on the Screen. Generally with most smartphones, if you press one of the volume buttons, that will also, when you're in camera mode, that will also take a photograph. So you don't have to be lying on the floor or anything like that. But just try something like that, get down really low, look at something the way you wouldn't normally look at it. Or if you can get a really high viewpoint so you're looking down on it, or turn the camera at an angle, how does that turn out? So again, it comes down to experimenting. And a lot of these things won't work. I mean that's the nature of experimentation. A lot of it you just think, oh, that's pretty horrible. but what can happen is the actual shot you've just taken isn't that spectacular. But it's just given you an idea of how you can use what you're looking at. It might be there are leading line you haven't noticed or there's certain ways that the scene is lit that you can get a more interesting take on it by just shooting from a different position. So do try different ways of shooting, shoot from different viewpoints. And often it's more interesting if you shoot from a viewpoint that you wouldn't normally naturally have. So just standing there, taking the shop without moving at all is not really going to get you much, to get you thinking differently about a subject if that's your aim. But if you can get down low, get down close, all those sorts of things, try those things out. So there as many ways of shooting differently as you can think of. Now number seven is to use reflections. And they're great. So depending on where you are, there are likely to be sources of reflection. The obvious one is water. So if you're near a river or a body of water, so there's Well, I live near a river in France. So there's bridges around. So if the water is fairly flat, there's a place up the road, actually, Bergerat, which has a really nice arch bridge. And when quite often the river is relatively smooth going through there, so you get these lovely circles, ah, created by the reflections. So look, things like that. But don't forget you've also got windows. So if you're in a town, you can look for reflections of plate glass windows and just have a look around and see what's there. And a great tip I got from a colleague of mine, actually from we observers, was to take a botle of water. Because in living In Sydney, I'd normally have water with me anyway, just to, you know, keep hydrated. But his suggestion was, and it's really good when I've seen this elsewhere. But if you want to use a reflection but there isn't a source nearby, just get a bottle of water and pour it on the ground and you know, have a look. Make sure to make sure you're doing it in the right place. But just pour the water on the ground and then getting quickly and take a photograph. Use that reflection so you can bring your own reflective surface. Pretty much. So that's another good one. And they tend to be very effective at night as well. If you can find a good source of reflections at night. Okay, number eight is to be aware of the background. So, the reason I put this in there is that I've seen great people, have taken some lovely photographs and they've clearly been very focused on what their subject is. And they've, you know, thought about getting photograph from exactly the right moment. So they get the expression in the subject, all that kind of thing. but what you don't have is to have a great picture of kids, for example, they playing around, doing whatever. And that's all perfect. But there's a couple of dogs in the background that are clearly making up after an argument or something. So it's getting rid of the tree growing out of somebody's head issue. That, is one that I remember from when I first started my photography when I was a kid. That was a common error. I used to see other people making mostly, So this is again where the visual storyteller idea comes in. The idea of it is to look at the whole frame. So you're looking at your subject. you're looking at where you're placing your subject within the frame so that you've got some context. You're telling more of a story about your subject. It doesn't have to be a long story, but it's some sort of short, story about them. But also you're looking at exactly what is in the background as well. And there are elements usually in the background that you can use. Once you start being aware of everything in the frame, you'll find that there are elements that you can make use of that again, just add that something else to the photograph so that it becomes a lot more interesting. Okay, number nine, try using black and white. So, I would shoot in color. I always shoot in raw. And when I talk about photography, I talk about post processing as being an essential step in the process, which I believe it is with digital photography, if you grew up with film photography or if you're getting back into film photography, it's a little bit different. And certainly when I was shooting in film, all of that, those decisions were made before I got anywhere near my subject. Normally in that I have black and whiteite film stock with me or color film stock and then certain speeds of film and all that kind of thing because the film itself had its own characteristics. It might be very grainy, it might be very smooth, might. The color film might have a particular hue, it might lean towards blue or it might be quite vivid in its use in the way the colors came out. So film photography is a bit different. And basically those decisions that we would make as film photographers before a shoot, you can now make post shoot, in post production. So whether you're using Lightroom, Photoshop or something else, these are the options that you have available. So occasionally though, when I photograph, as I say, I always shooting raw, always shooting color, but I have taken shots knowing that that was going to be a black and white shot because what I'm looking at, I know from experience of doing it that that is going to look pretty nifty in black and white. And the reason that I know that is that I understand the difference between color and black and white. So it might not sound like much, but remember we see in color. So when we look at a color photograph, that's our normal way of seeing that subject, whatever it is. So it's kind of normal. You, that's how it is, it's just color. However, when you switch to black and white, that's not how we normally see things and the emphasis is on slightly different things. So what we tend to see in black and white are ah, shapes and textures. So if you think about, if you look at a black and white photograph, particularly if you look at something there might be a geometric design that's colorful. so the image that popped into my head was the tiles on the Sydney Opera House. But of course taking photograph them in color and then in black and white isn't that different because they're pretty much're, kind of a light gray. so there's not much change. But if you think of something that's in color, like a colour, pattern of some sort, maybe of different materials. So some are smooth, some are quite rough. switch that to black and white, you've got a very different image equally. And it's something to be aware of, very mindful of actually. If you are photographing people, if you're photographing someone who doesn't have perfect skin. And what I mean by that is they've got like, little pits and blemishes and things like that in them. If you switch to black and white, those are, likely to be much more obvious than they will be in color. So switching to black and white does have its, issues. But, it also can make a scene look very different. And if your aim when you're sharing a photograph is to have people really look at it and maybe see something in that image, they. It might be a subject they're familiar with, but see something in it that they hadn't noticed before then using black and white is one quite powerful technique to do that. And, something just to add, I suppose, from doing wildlife photography. One of the things that I've noticed when I've, Because I experiment a lot with flipping things into black and white just to see what I've got. Because that sometimes gives me, a much more interesting image, in my opinion, than the color. But when I look at photographs of animals in the wild in black and white with no kind of human evidence there at all, it's just, a wildlife in its natural setting. To me, a black and white shot could almost have been shot at any time. It might have been shot last week or 100 years ago. And I guess that's because I associate black and white with earlier photographers because generally that's all they had available. But that's what I mean about black and white, can give an image a different meaning if you are kind of tuned into it. So that was number nine. And the final tip is to break the rules. So, I've spoken about this in webinars, if you've been on one of my webinars before. But I'm actually big believer in breaking the rules. But equally, I think it's really important that you understand what rules you are breaking. And the reason for that is simply that that way you can replicate what you've already done. And if you can replicate it, that becomes part of your style. It's a choice you can make. Whereas if you're just playing around and you get a result but you don't know how you got it, that's just luck, really. And, where I like to help people get with their photography is to sort of get past the luck stage and be able to look at an image and know how it was shot. So I could. So I've given a couple of images in the PDF, one is photographing straight into quite harsh sunlight. And that's using black and white in fact, and given a very harsh contrasty image. And then the second image I've got there is relatively ah, slow exposure panning in itsur kind of evening. shot on the Carhiilll Expressway actually in Sydney, which is kind of a little. It's full lane road runs over the top of the circular key. But it was taken a time where there's a lot of traffic going one way, not much going the other way. And I just panned with this car. So everything's blurry, everything's moved. But those shots I think can be very interesting. And I may have spoken about this in the photograph about what makes good, what makes a good photograph. I've certainly spoken about it recently in one of the things about what's a good photo. And the reason I mention is that particular evening we were on a photo walk and we had a group of runners, so some sort of running club we're running on the pedestrian part of the Carhia Expressway, which is obviously where we were. And they ran past us and one of the people in the group turned around as they were running away and took this photograph. And it was all a bit blurry because it was low light, it was evening, the light was dropping off. You've got to kind of keep adjusting your ISO if you want to keep your exposure where you want it and everything else the same. but one of the runners had turned, just turn. I think it was a woman turned her head to look back at us. And I just loved it as a shot because what we were looking at was a whole load of out of focus stuff. All these bodies that were sort of bouncing up and down through the movement of running. And there was this one face looking back at us. Now whatever meaning you want to give that is up to you. And then that's, you know, another aspect of photography. That's where it becomes art in my opinion. but I just loved it as a shot and that was definitely breaking the rules because. Yeah. Was it a good exposure? Really? Was everything sharp? No, but it did have a good subject and it was definitely different. So I think the point about this really is the more that you learn about photography, you learn what the rules are'so a rule of thirds, leading lines, all these things, the things that can lead to a certain composition, you, you'll no exposure. You know how exposure works on your camera. you'll know how to get the best from your camera. And you should be able to shoot a perfectly exposed shot. Nice composition, very clear what the subject is. Very good. Perhaps eye connection with the subject, if it's personal or an animal, whatever. But every now and again it's good to shoot something that's very different and just try things out because. And all of this evolves into, our individual style as a photographer. Does style matter? Probably not really, to be perfectly honest. But, it's really up to you. You might want to have a style, doing what I do with selling my photographs, then I'll tend to stick to a particular style, at least with the images I put on sale because people who like me and follow my work. So again, that's true of Instagram, where I publish, a lot of photographs. They tend to be very similar because the people who follow me on Instagram like those kind of photographs. And I have tried experimenting at different times and putting up photographs I thought were pretty cool actually. But things I just tried out might be some urban photography or something like that. And I got like very few likes. And that's simply because the people who are following me want people like consistency. So that's where style comes in. So if you are doing your photography to sell and you already have a following, then always look after the people who are looking after you if they're buying you work and give them what they want. But also there is room for that alternative collection, the sort of back room collection that's got your other stuff where you were experimening and you've come up with other things and maybe at some point you branch out and create a new following of the new stuff. Okay, so that was the podcast. So 10 simple steps to improve your photography today. They're in the PDF. So just to recap, suppose have a clear subject was number one used Rule of thirds was number two. Use depth of field was number three. Know your camera. Number four use leing lines was number five. Change your point of view. That was number six. Number seven was to use reflections. Number eight was to be aware of your background. Number nine was to try using black and white. Give that a go. And number 10 is to break the rules. So I hope you found that interesting. If you, if there are things in there you haven't been doing, you know, please give them a go. And as I say, you can download the PDF from the website. So, well, there's a link in the description. You should be able to get to it through, www.ge.photography. and in fact, if you can't, please let me know because it means something's not working. And yeah, please let me know if there is anything you would like me to cover in a future podcast. So that's it for now. Enjoy your photography. I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye now.

>> Speaker B: 32:48

Just before I go, I want to let you know that there's a couple of ways you can support me if you feel so inclined, with the podcast Buzzsprout, which is, the platform I use, full of my podcast.

>> Speaker A: 32:59

They have a subscription model, so if.

>> Speaker B: 33:02

You feel that you would like to subscribe a few dollars, a few euros, whatever, to the podcast that we've much appreciated. The other option is my Patreon membership. So if you'd like to become a patron, and that starts at the price for cup of coffee every month you'll get access to exclusive material, behind the scenes material, photography tips, all this kind of stuff depending on which tier you're at. So there is some information available through my website and also on the written text to go with this podcast. So if you choose either one, thank you so much in advance and whether.

>> Speaker A: 33:36

Or not you do, I hope you.

>> Speaker B: 33:37

continue to enjoy the podcast and let other people know about them. Thank you very much.

>> Speaker A: 33:42

Bye for now.