Just Keep Shooting

As a photographer I find that I am asked the same several questions over and over again and I've realized that they really all come down to the same basic core idea, "I want to take better pictures."  I decided that while I learn something new about photography everyday (usually in the form of, "wow, I should definitely NOT do that again"), I have actually learned enough over the years that I know I can help you take better pictures. First off, let me assure you that I still think that you should hire me, KSG Photography, for your portraits and special events, but since I can't be with you everyday to capture all of your everyday memories (well actually, if you have deep pockets and want to hire me to do that we can talk) I want to help you take great pictures.


So, where to begin?  I think that first and foremost, what you can do to take better pictures is to take MORE pictures!  No matter what kind of camera you have, as long as it is digital, memory is cheap, yet people tend to treat it like we were still in the film days where you had to pay for your 24 exposures of film and then had to pay to develop it.  Thankfully those days are behind us, so take advantage and snap away!  Think about a photo shoot, how many photos do you think a photographer takes to get that one cover shot?  Ok, I don't know from personal experience, I'll let you know when Vogue calls, but I know it's a lot!  It's not unusual for me to come home from an event with 600 photos.  I upload them to my computer right away, make a backup copy and then erase and reformat my memory card.  Did you hear that?  Right away, people, not 3 times a year (you know who you are).  Don't let them sit in your memory card taking up space and risking being lost forever because you or someone else accidentally erases all your photos, or because your card gets corrupted (yes, it happens).  Then I ruthlessly delete the rejects and select my best photos to process (since I shoot RAW files they require processing to become jpegs) and the ones that are not bad, but not great I just leave alone.


Why take more photos?  It's not just because by dumb luck if you take 200 photos one of them is bound to be good (although that might be partially true). I'm sure you look at your LCD display to see what you took after you shot it, right?  What do you do if you don't like it? Leave everything the same and take another hoping it will magically be better?  If you are like most people, yes.  Well if everything was great except that grandma had her eyes closed, then that would be the right thing to do, otherwise, not so much.  Take a different picture.  Change your settings (yes, you might actually have to, gasp!, read your manual to figure out how to do that, but you want to take better pictures, right?), or change the composition, get closer, much closer to your subject, or go off-center or at an angle.  I'll have more specifics on settings and fill-flash and all that good stuff in later posts, but the basic idea is to try different things.  Go ahead and make lots and lots of mistakes.  Just try to make them different mistakes so that you are actually learning something!  And have a really good time doing it!