When I’m not selling buildings, making capes and aprons, writing this blog and my book, going to the weight room, or testing out new camera gear, I’m usually editing videos and photos. So toady I’m going to share a thing or two about the fastest, easiest and cheapest way for you to take a great photo. learn some of what I know. Fast because it’ll take about 5 minutes. Easy because I’m a pretty good splainer. And cheap because hey, I didn’t charge you, did I?
The Problem
Let’s start with the problem. We live in a world today where the greatest battle is the battle of attention. “Good enough” just isn’t good enough anymore. And when it comes to photos, as the price and barriers to technology have dropped, people’s expectations have raised in response. If you share bad photos – especially for use in your business, you are going to look like a hack instead of a member of the “A” Team. For sure you want to be on the A-Team and the great part about being on the A Team with your photos (and videos) is that just a few simple steps will get you there – fast, easy and cheap.
What I’m going to teach you next works on pretty much any camera, but to keep this simple, I’m going to focus on photos with phones and not full-fledged mirrorless or dslr cameras. Full disclosure: I’m an Android user. iPhone is awesome, but I’m an Android guy (Pixel 3A to be specific). But don’t worry, no matter your photographic drug of choice, these tips will help.
Phone Orientation
Let’s start with camera orientation. Most people taking a phone photo just hold up their phone vertically as if they’re talking into it. Nope. Vertical isn’t wrong, it’s just not right. What we’re talking about here is “aspect ratio”. A horizontal aspect will give you more width for landscapes and it’s the proper screen orientation for tv’s, tablets, and monitors. So here’s the rule: turn your phone sideways before pressing the red button. I know some of you will remind me about Facebook Live and Instagram, but trust me on this one: horizontal is a better way to take a photo than vertical. It’s probably the easiest way to get on the A Team.
Use the Grid
A most basic composition method in photography is something called the “rule of thirds”. This dictates where you put the object of focus on your screen. For most people, the natural go-to is to put the main thing in your photo in the middle of the screen (like a person). That was ok in the ‘70’s, but we’ve evolved. Today, we use the grid. The grid is like tic-tac-toe on your screen. Phones and cameras these days pretty much all have a “grid lines” feature you can turn on (so do that). After you turn on the grid, figure out what the subject is you want the viewer to focus on, then put that subject at the intersection of one of the two lines. Doing this will put the main object of your photo to one side or there other on the grid line intersection. This is the rule of thirds. It will make your viewers happy and that will make you happy. Something for everyone.
Fill the Frame
If you’re taking photos of people, the rule is simple: fill the frame with the folks. This applies regardless of whether they’re at a backyard birthday or in front of the Kremlin. If your pic is about your peeps, they should occupy 60-70 percent of the screen real estate. And with a smartphone here’s the zoom rule: don’t “pinch and zoom”, instead, “walk and zoom”. Pinching = pixilation = bad resolution. Leave the zoom all the way out, walk up to your folks, dangle the cheese, and click. You can still get in the background, but make sure it’s mostly the people in the photo. And please, not too much blank headroom above the heads. Totally B Team.
Leading Lines
This is a pro trick that’s simple and it works. Before you click, look at the geometry around you. Maybe a road. Or a clothes line. Or the side of a deck. Maybe a stove. It could be most anything, just look for the lines around you. Then compose your photo using one of the lines to draw the viewer’s attention to where you want it. Line up the road and put the house at the end of it. Line up the horizontal line from the signpost and put the face at the end of it. Line up the edge of the stove and put the cat at the end of it (or on it if you prefer). But however you do it, figure out what you want the viewer to focus on and put them at the end of that line. This is leading lines.
Bokeh
Photos are 2 dimensional. A cool look is when you separate the subject from the background. To do this, use something called ‘bokeh”. This simply means focus on the object in the front, blur the background. “Real” cameras do this optically with the glass. Smartphones do it with software. The latest generation of phones all have something called “portrait” mode which creates the bokeh effect. There’s also defocus and depth of defocus. But it’s all bokeh and it all does pretty much the same thing. Boken is cool. I use it all the time. People think you’re an A-Teamer when you use it.
Edit
Yes, edit. People who haven’t done this much (or at all) often weigh photo editing versus a 3-hour root canal, but it makes a pretty big difference in the final photo. All phones these days have some kind of editor built in, and then there’s the desktop variety. Whatever your tool of choice, get something and cleanse your photos before pressing send.
Personally, I use the Adobe Premier suite. Photoshop for photos, Elements for video. With the Elements suite, you pay for it an own it, it’s not a monthly license thing (thank you Lord). You can pick it up for about a hundred bucks usually online and at Costco too. Here’s the reason I prefer Adobe: time. It’s laid out to do the work quickly and correctly. But if you’re the kind of person who saves the cotton balls from a new jar of aspirin to one day hopefully have enough to knit an argyle sweater for your weiner dog, then maybe a free photo editor is better for you. If so, check out “Gimp” (gimp.org). I still like Adobe better, but I don’t have a weiner dog, so maybe I’m not the right person to ask. Whatever you do, just edit.
Here are a few simple and powerful things to remember when phot editing:
Saturation
Most smart phones over saturate the colors, especially in low light. I don’t know why, they just do. Saturation is when your oranges are too orangey, reds are too reddy, and so forth. This is a pretty easy fix with software. Once you see this you’ll probably never go back.
Lighting
Everyone’s a hero when there’s enough light. It’s low light that’s the problem. Low light separates A Teamers from B Teamers and it all starts with the sensor. The sensor is probably the most important part of the camera and phones have puny sensors which means they typically struggle to get a good shot in low light. Photo too dark and grainy? Software will allow you to push this (some).
Shadows
Shadows are a pretty big deal in photos. They define the lines of your composition. Like lighting and saturation, fiddle with this stuff. Small button, big difference.
Cropping
Sometimes I get my photos onto my laptop and I realize that I changed my mind about the best composition for the shot. Cropping will let you change the aspect ratio and push stuff around as needed.
B+W
For extra credit, try black and white. Both phone and computer software allows you to do this. For certain shots I love it and so does the audience. If you convert to B + W (and you should), I’ve found that pushing the contrast and lighting is usually necessary. Any software will let you do this too.
Alrighty then. To finish up, please raise your right and repeat after me:
“I (say your name),
do solemnly swear,
that I will turn my phone sideways,
fill the frame,
turn on the grid,
use leading lines & bokeh as needed,
get some editing software,
and never share a photo of a weiner dog in an argyle sweater that hasn’t been properly edited,
so help me God.”
Good luck and have a good week.
Joe Still
2019.06.02
Cite
“In 1976, Kodak’s first digital camera shot at 0.1 megapixels, weighed 3.75 pounds, and cost over $10,000.”
– Peter Diamandis