8 Steps Before You Take a Photo

Contrary to popular opinion, good photographs not because of luck, but more to the decision-making. Many things to think about before take a photo. For beginners, it’s hard to think so many steps. However, with a continuous exercise, I am sure we will be able to do it naturally.

1. Find an interesting object

Try to choose an interesting object, for example on busy roads, try to take photos of people, a building, car or an activity. Be careful not to put too many elements in your photo. Too much detail will make people who see the photos become confused about what you want to say.

2. The quality and direction of light

Knowing the quality and direction of light greatly affect the atmosphere of the photo. In general, there are three types of light

1. Hard Light: Usually obtained from a relatively small light source / concentrated. For example: sunlight, camera flash, and flashlight.
2. Soft Light: Usually obtained from relatively large light sources. For example: soft boxes, reflectors, and the surface of the ceiling.
3. Diffused light: This model of light coming from the light source is relatively very large. For example, when the overcast sky or covered with clouds.

Direction light (front, rear, side, top, bottom) is also an important aspect to give a certain impression. Look carefully at the direction and quality of light.

3. Composition

The first step in creating a good composition is start from choosing the background. The clean/smooth background is a good first step. Arrange in a way that the photo compositions looks interesting. If you are just starting photography, you can learn the formulas of the composition as a reference. Many rules of composition that can help you make an interesting composition, such as rule of thirds, golden ratio, scale and others.

4. Select the aperture

Lens aperture determines how much light coming into the camera body. Aperture also set the depth of focus. We should determine whether the photos we take have a thin depth of focus or in.

5. Select the shutter speed

If we want to freeze the object, we need to set the shutter speed carefully. To prevent blurry due to hand we also have to follow rules one / lens focal size. Then we observe how fast the object image moves. The photo objects that moving at high speed requires a very fast shutter speed.

6. Choosing a lens

Not all lenses that produce similar results. There is a wide lens, standard lens and telephoto lens. Wide lens gives the impression of the dimensions, distortion, and depth of focus in. On the other hand, telephoto lens to make photographs into two dimensional (compression effect). Make the depth of focus becomes thin and distant object raising.

7. Determine the optimal exposure

The camera usually determines automatically the optimal exposure. However, sometimes setting that made the camera is not in accordance with our wishes. For example, if we want to take photo low key or high key, we have to set back the camera settings, to suit our desires.

8. Timing

For photos still life (no moving objects), timing may not be too important, but for candid photos, especially sports, timing is very important. So, practice to be able to take photos with good timing. Exercise anticipation, patience and take control of your camera, so that it can take a picture with the optimal timing.

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