Since the weather in Toronto is so beautiful, I though I would give you a few tips for the summer and snapshots.
- Be prepared: Battery charged 100%; lens cap removed; lens hood on!
- Expose the background properly – and often, to avoid blown-out skies that means slightly underexpose it. Then use flash, if needed, to fill in the foreground.
- You can also use a polarizer.
- Use the Rule of Thirds (look it up here if you need).
- Simplify your pictures. In the snap above, I am doing that by tilting. You can also do it by zooming in, getting closer, blurring the background, changing your position, etc.
- Consider wide angle lenses – 10mm on your crop camera gives you a picture like the above.
- For depth in your images, use that wide angle and get close to something. Anything. Even an orange.
- Think about your composition, not the tech stuff. That should be automatic.
- Always think: “where is the light”. This is a key question you should ask before you take any photo, every time.
- Have fun and shoot a lot, while always thinking these thoughts.
Now go out and take some snaps… reinvigorate yourself as a photographer. I may do the same today.