Practice your photography by copy and trying to duplicate other photos
Here is a tip for those who want to take pictures and are not sure where to start. Find some photos that you like. It does not matter if they are scenic, outdoor portraits, studio shots of people or ‘things’. start with some simple photographs and set things up to try and duplicate the shot. Get the lighting, exposure, everything as close to the picture that you are trying to copy as you can.
Sometimes this is all you will do and other times this will give you a starting point for something else that is creative.
The idea is that you want to be able to control all the aspects of your photography and be able to call upon these skills when you need them.
If you are taking a picture of a model, figure out how the lighting works for that picture. What was the focal length of the lens. Was it a 50mm lens, an 80mm? What was the depth of field? Set up the lighting and angle that you are shooting and softness or hardness of lighting. Take a picture. Change your settings and keep track of the changes – if you can, write things down.
If you are doing a scenic shot there are a lot of variables here. Time of day, time of season, sunny? cloudy – definitely trickier. I find shooting outside it more ‘catching’ the moment and in the studio you can be more at cause on the results. If you are shooting a model you are still ‘catching the moment’ of his or her expressions and movements.
Some beginner’s magazines such as Popular Photography are great for this as they often put up photos with suggestions to duplicate.
As you get better try harder photos but start with something less difficult.
