Taking Better Outdoor Photographs

One thing I get asked a lot is "How come your pictures pop and mine don't?" The answer is quite simple, but like any hobby, it just takes practice. It's not about the camera or the equipment, it's all in how you take the picture. You'll only need the newest and greatest digital camera if you've managed to master everything below it while also looking for the challenge of learning how to bring even more control into your photos. If you wanted to learn to play the guitar you wouldn't go out and buy a Les Paul and start studying blues scales right away. You'd start with a basic guitar and learn the basic chords: C, G and D. Once you started to feel comfortable with those you would begin to branch out to a few other chords until slowly but surely, you could perform a few covers of some radio hits and maybe even write a few of your own songs. It's no different with photography. In my case I started with a Kodak 2.0 megapixel point-and-shoot that I got for Christmas in 2000. When I felt that I wasn't getting the full control I wanted of my photos, I bought a Canon 300D Digital Rebel in 2004. That provided quite a challenge for a while and it wasn't until late 2006 that I was really comfortable with that and discovered there was more I could do with my photos if I had something that truly opened up all the doors for me. I found a good deal on a Canon EOS 5D, and set out into the world of photography to give it my all in making a name for myself.

The first step in a good photo is a rule that goes with any art piece, the rule of thirds. You've probably heard of it and may even have a hard time remembering it when you've actually got the camera in front of you ready to shoot. For those that haven't heard of it, the rule of thirds is a basic rule of composition that breaks up your potential shot into nine pieces, all evenly divided into thirds. Rather than trying to visualize the potential image in thirds, the easiest thing to remember is simply to not put your main subject in the dead center. If your main subject lies dead in the center of the photo, it leaves the eye without anything to carry it around the rest of the photo. Placing it off-center, or on one of the thirds' intersections, creates movement and more potential for your eye to wander around the photo, and thus, an aesthetically pleasing image.

The previous section can be helped out tremendously by another very simple step. Instead of holding the camera out in front of your face, try kneeling down to get something in the foreground. If you're taking a photo of a large landscape you'll create much more depth if you find an object, such as a plant or a fallen branch, to place in the foreground with that great landscape in the background. What you'll find by putting this rule into place is that you'll have a much deeper photo rather than a flat snapshot of great, wide open space. Another key point to remember when shooting landscapes that applies to both this rule and the former is always try to avoid putting the horizon in the vertical center. It winds up cutting your image in half and there's typically not enough in the scene to bind the two together. What you wind up with is an image that almost looks like it's two seperate images; one of a sky and one of a landscape, simply stacked together. To avoid this, crop out more of the sky by focusing on that foreground object. If you're in a situation where the sky has to be included because of perhaps some interesting cloud formations, try cropping out more of the ground by getting lower and finding a plant, for example, that sticks out into the sky. If you follow this rule, you'll find the first rule just happens to fall into place automatically.

While on vacation in Alaska in 2006, I picked up the book, Photography Outdoors: A Field Guide for Travel and Adventure Photographers. I unfortunately didn't start reading it until after I got back from my vacation. It offers a huge resource that expands on the tips I've provided in plain english and other tips for other types of settings, such as night shots. I was even able to see an improved difference in my photos after I read it. Lastly, it includes the final rule I'll provide that I read in it that helped me out immensely. To put it plainly, if you're shooting a large landscape, shoot vertically, if you're trying to tell a story, shoot horizontally. You'll capture much more depth and mountain majesties by shooting vertically, and by shooting horizontally you'll be subconciously instructing people to "read" your photo as they've been taught: from left to right.

As I first stated, you don't need the best equipment to take a good photo. You only need to follow a few simple rules. Try to practice all, or even just one of them and you'll be amazed at how much more depth and content begins to speak from your photos. Once you put them to the test, you'll see if you really want to graduate to something higher further down the road.