Five exercises that will make you a great photographer

Why automatic mode is better than you think

Un-master the technology

“A good photographer only uses manual mode.”

I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Guess what—it’s not true.

Each photo is the result of three components:

1. Composition
2. Focus and exposure.
3. Enhanced technical settings.

Now which is the one I should start with?

Leave focus and exposure to the camera, it’ll do a pretty good job with it. Don’t bother with all the enhanced settings; most of them can be applied electronically later, and none of them can solve a poorly framed photo.

Focus on number 1! Composition, the subject of a photo and its framing, is the principal ingredient that distinguishes a boring photo from a good one.

It’s like driving a car. It doesn’t matter whether you know how the injection system can be tweaked if you can’t stay on the road.

Exercise 1

Relax about the overwhelming number of features on your camera. Learn how to reset your camera to the default settings and switch it to automatic mode.

Un-zoom

Already more relaxed about your camera? Let’s take it one step further. Do you have a zoom lens on your camera? If not, skip this section. Otherwise: don’t use it.

Yes. Don’t use your zoom. The ability to zoom is the perfect excuse to get lazy about the composition of your photos. Pick a focal length (=zoom level) and stick with it (=don’t touch the zoom keys/ ring any more).

It’ll feel weird at first. What if I don’t get all of my subject on the photo?

Well, that exactly is the point. You’ll find yourself forced to be creative. Maybe walk back and forth a bit to find the best perspective. Or choose a side angle. Or maybe grandma’s feet don’t really have to be on the photo, and it gets much more interesting when you pick a detail to focus on.

That’s where creativity and good picture-taking starts.

Exercise 2

Zoom all the way in. Take a photo tour for a whole day without ever touching the zoom buttons/ ring. How about another day with the lens being zoomed all the way out?

Review and analyze

I’m sure there are pictures that fascinate you. “I wish I could take photos like that!”

The first step is to understand why you like a certain picture. What about it appeals to you, makes it interesting, unique?

I found the following seven items a good structure to analyze a photo.

1. Format: What’s the format of the photo? Is it square, rectangle, panoramic? Portrait or landscape?
2. Subject: Is the artist showing a common object/ situation, or are they showing us something new?
3. View point: Is the photo taken from eye level? High/ lo? From an angle?
4. Framing: Is the whole subject on the photo, or is it cropped? Where on the photo is the main object located?
5. Focus: Is everything in focus, or only parts? Where is the focus located?
6. Colors: Is the picture in black and white, or in color? Are the colors vivid or muted? Does the photo look new or aged?
7. Finishing: Is the photo framed, or has a border? Are the corners darker than the center (vignetting)? Any distortions or grain? Does the photo look aged?

Exercise 3

Find some photos of artists you admire and analyze what you like about them. Do the same for some of your own photos that you like/ don’t like. Get a friend’s opinion as well.

Composition tricks

There are some very simple tricks that almost all photographers use to make their photos more interesting without any effort.

Find a view point that shows your main subject naturally framed by trees, grass, flowers, rocks, houses and so on. Maybe only one one side, maybe on several.

Don’t put everything in the middle or center. When you’re taking a photo of a single person, put them to the left or right of the center. When the horizon is on the photo, put it lower or higher than the middle.

Think about both: foreground and background. A photo with only a mountain range is boring, put something in the front. Persons, a path, rock, flowers. Same for a portrait: choose a background that is interesting but not distracting.

Exercise 4

Take several photos, each using one or more of the three tricks described above. Analyze the photos on a big screen.

Post-process

No photo is perfect straight from the camera. Post-process your photo to make it stand out.

• Crop the photo to make it more interesting
• Try it out in black & white
• Increase or decrease contrast, exposure and saturation
• Adjust the white balance, or add some fill light for the shadows
• Add a border or frame

There are different ways to do this. Some cameras offer built-in post-processing options, but why not use the big screen on your computer? Some free software with great options are Pixlr, Picasa or PicMonkey.

The trick: Don’t overdo it. A simple test: show it to a friend. If they are more fascinated by the “look” of the photo than what’s on it then you know that you did too much.

Exercise 5

Take your favorite photo and create three versions of it: 1. color, 2. black and white, 3. cropped to square format.

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The author is a photographer, strategy consultant and entrepreneur living in San Francisco, CA. Comments welcome.