Digital photography has advanced so much that it has become part of our daily lives. Thanks to the advancement in social media, taking photos and sharing them have become a norm. Almost everyone carry some sort of camera with them, mostly their smartphones. Although the photo quality can be really good in the right hands, it is hard to beat the quality that you get from a DLSR camera or even a mirrorless camera. Whichever camera you choose to shoot, remember that the best camera is the one that you have at any moment.

For the sake of this article, I shall be using a DLSR as reference. Why might you want to use a DLSR when a smartphone camera can take decent photos? Well, there are much more features in a DLSR that you can use to control how you want to photograph. For example, try photographing your active kids using a smartphone. Chances are that your photos will be blurry or you missed the shot.

But before we explore the fun features of a DLSR, it is good to learn a few important guides about photography. Although photography is an art and should be a form of self-expression, these guides are a starting point to take your photography to the next level. The most important one is the rule of thirds. When you are framing your image, some cameras have the ability to display these guides, check your manual. If they don’t, just imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically). As you can see from the image 1, you will have four intersections. The idea is to place your subject in one of these intersections like the example.

In both images with the model, I have placed the intersection on her face.

Just apply this rule and soon you will find that your photos start to look more interesting.

Don’t be afraid of cropping out some parts, which leads us to the next guide, which is less is more.

Photography is about telling a story and framing is one way of doing that. Sometimes hiding a part of an image is necessary in telling a story. Keeping it simple and allowing the viewer to only see what you want them to see. This allows the viewer to imagine and that is what makes a photo interesting.

In my next article, we shall discover about exposure. How to expose an image will also be part of telling a story to your viewer.

About the author

Jeffery is the owner and photographer at STUDIO81 photography located in Newmarket and East Tamaki. STUDIO81 is one of Auckland’s leading portrait photography studios and specialises in modern glamour transformation. Jeffery is an award-winning photographer and has the title of Master of Photography by NZIPP.