How to Take the Perfect Shot
By Julie Falk
2 July 2007
I believe most people don't think about taking pictures as much as I do. It's a passion I've had ever since I was a child. I drive my kids nuts!
Of course, all my photos are not perfect – far from it. You only see the best ones. But I can still offer my opinion of how good photos – sometimes even perfect ones - occur.
When grandpa is sitting in his favorite chair, pipe smoke floating, a lamp backlighting his white hair like a halo, you think, "Wow. This is my grandfather. How many more moments will there be like this? Better preserve it."
When your son is getting his first haircut at a barbershop, and you like the way the light is reflected by the mirrors and the serious look on his little face, the concentration of the young hairstylist – That's when you pull our your camera and quickly snatch a few photos to help you re-visit this moment ten or twenty years from now.
When you are on your way home from work and the sun is making shafts of light as it filters through the clouds, and there is a rustic foreground to complete the picture, you take a photo so you can share this joy with someone later.
Good photos result from the following elements:
1. Always having your camera with you. I can't tell you how many fabulous photos have passed into oblivion, un-captured, because I didn't have my camera with me. That's why I bought an ultra-compact I can carry with me in my purse. I've never regretted that purchase.
2. Being in the frame of mind that you THINK about taking pictures when a good opportunity presents itself.
3. Experience in knowing what the camera can do and can't do. Also how to adjust your camera to compensate for poor lighting conditions or anything else that doesn't happen to be just right. This is most of the time.
4. A background in composition. I was an art minor in college and the understanding I gradually attained about balance, values, use of color, pattern, etc. has contributed much to my understanding of what is aesthetically pleasing in a photo.
5. Wait for it...wait for it... have patience - especially with kids and animals. Sometimes you have to wait for a person to move in (or out) of the picture. Sometimes you have to wait for the sun to come out from behind (or go behind) a cloud.
6. Taking lots and lots and lots of photos. I read somewhere that the average professional photographer takes around 120 shots for every ONE that he/she actually uses and gets paid for. I took over 400 photos while on vacation this summer, a proliferation made possible by the digital camera.
7. Luck. Being in the right place at the right time, turning around at the essential moment.
8. Talking to other photographers, sharing ideas, receiving suggestions. You might join a photography club. I'm the only person in my family who likes photography at the fanatic level. However, I found a whole asylum of photo-crazies on Flickr.com, and have been admired, criticized, critiqued, and challenged. I've learned a lot from the Flickr gang.
9. The person looking at the photograph. Some people will have an emotional connection with the subject of a photo, while someone else, looking at the same photo, will feel nothing.
But in the end, it has to be something you love. Passion is the key to good photos. Sometimes. Eventually.
Happy Hunting!
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