Some basic photographic advice.

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MOVE IN CLOSER.

Each time you spot a subject, snap a shot and then move in closer for a better shot. Having your subject almost fill the frame helps your viewer understand and appreciate your photo. Also, details are often more interesting than an overall view.

Keep moving in closer until you are sure the photo will successfully represent your subject.

BE QUICK.

If it is at all possible that your subject may move, bolt, fly away, stop smiling, or just get tired of waiting for you to take the picture, shoot once right away.

Practice getting quicker and quicker to shoot your photographs.

Do not worry about taking too many pictures and do not wait until you're absolutely certain all the knobs and buttons are in their correct position.

As it used to say in the old cowboy films "Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

COMPOSITION.

Strive to lead the eye along an interesting path through the photo, with the use of strong lines or patterns.

BE SELECTIVE.

Discern what you are really interested in and center your efforts on getting the best photo of this subject, whether it a still life, your cat, your dog, a friend, a family occasion, a mood, a place or culture.

Keep anything that would distract out of the picture. 

The easiest way to do this is to watch your borders - the edges of the view you see through the camera's viewfinder. Then recompose if anything - such as an unattractive telephone pole, a tree, a distracting sign, your finger, or your camera strap - hangs into your picture.

It can become more difficult if you want to, for example, shoot a Double decked London bus without a single distracting telephone line. But even in such a difficult case, you have many options.

You can:

• Focus in on a close-up that tells the whole story;
• Move around until you arrange the telephone lines into a neat pattern that leads to the subject.

FOCUS ON YOUR SUBJECT.

You will find that a smaller depth-of-field (and smaller f-stop) focuses all the attention upon your subject. This is great for taking a picture of your child, your dog, or your wife - subjects stand out best against a blurry background.

Likewise, you will find that a greater depth-of-field (bigger f-stop number) will make everything from here to infinity appear in focus. This will help make those landscapes fascinating and lovely.

LEARN TO CAPTURE TIME.

One of the most basic overlooked and fun aspects of photography is that you have the power to slow time down or catch a split second.

One image happens so slowly that we could never see it and the other happens so quickly in real time that we would never notice it. Play with shutter speed!

Use a slow shutter speed and a tripod to make a pretty picture of any river or stream. On the other hand, you can use a fast shutter speed (1/500 and up) to capture an object in motion.

LOOK AT THE LIGHT.

It is essential to see what kind of light you are working with. Which way are the shadows falling? Unless you want a silhouette effect, where your subject is black against an interesting background, it's generally best to shoot with the sun behind you.

How is the light affecting your subject? Is the subject squinting?

Is the light blazing directly and brightly upon your whole subject? This works well if you are in love with the bold colours of your subject.

Side lighting, on the other hand, can add drama but can also cause extreme, hard-to-print contrasts.

Lastly, indirect light can be used to make your subject glow soft and pretty.

LOOK AT THE WEATHER.

Look outside and decide whether or not you are going to want to have the sky in your picture.

If it's overcast, simply keep the sky out of your pictures as much as possible. This is usually the best way to avoid both muted tones in your subject and washed-out skies in your background. You might also find black and white pictures of an overcast day more pleasing than colour.

When the day is beautiful, go ahead and make the most of it.

If your camera allows for the use of filters, purchase a polarising filter. This will help you render deep blue skies against bright white clouds, richly contrasting colors, and other wonderful effects with a simple twist of the wrist.

KEEP IT SIMPLE.

While you may wish to have a camera case packed with spare lenses, flash units and other gadgets “just in case”, you will probably get the best results if you do not try to use them all the time and instead learn a simple set up that works best for you in most situations.

This doesn't necessarily mean keeping your camera set on "Program" - while this mode may be perfect in its simplicity, it may limit your creativity.

Instead of relying on a fully automatic program, pick a simple, semi-automatic program such as aperture-priority and master shooting in that mode. Then, you'll be able to control certain basics without letting the other basics control you, and thus keep that 150 page manual where it belongs - in your camera bag.