How to Take Great Photos in 4 Simple Steps
When I think of how to take great photos, I think of these 4 simple steps.
First I think of a great concept. I think of movie posters or book covers. Or even just think up a story in your mind. I use teddy bears in a lot of my photos, so people make the connection with Christopher Robin. Here is a concept I turned into a photo.
Now start planning the concept. Think of wardrobe, location, time of day. Tell the story through colors. Make the scene come to life.
Now capture the photo. I typically want my backgrounds and foregrounds to be blurred. So I use a very narrow aperture to get that creamy blur. I use composition and the rule of thirds to help tell the story. Notice how I have the boy on the upper right third and the bear on the bottom left?
Now that we’ve captured the photo, it’s time for the final step, post-processing. I use Photoshop and Lightroom to crop the photo of it needs it. Edit out anything that might be a distraction. And get my color tones how I imagined them.
Obviously, there are a lot of technical things behind taking a great photo as well. Things like understanding cameras and lenses. And things like post-processing.
Conclusion
If you’re brand new to Photography and you would like to learn how to take photos like this. Take my ‘All Things Manual’ course where I show you exactly how I capture my photos.
If you would like to learn how to post process your photos. Check out my ‘Watch me Edit’ videos where I show my entire editing process from start to finish.
Now it’s time to think of a concept. I would love to hear your concept ideas! Post them in the comments below.