How to Take a Good Photograph

Taking a photograph is as easy as pushing the shutter button. Take a good photograph is a much different process. There take some thought about the different elements of the photograph, and some knowledge of how to photograph your subject. Knowing the basics will give you a better quality photo.

This takes into account the rule of thirds, the golden ration, and balancing a photograph. The rule of thirds and the golden ratio both address the issue of subject placement.

The rule of thirds is used by placing the subject on the intersection of a tic-tac-toe grid in the view finder, or using the lines of grid as a basis for the edges of building or horizon lines. The golden ratio is a bit more complicated, and takes a lot of photographs to master. It is determined by dividing the viewfinder sections and half over and over, and gets to a point where the eye is naturally draw.

Balancing a photograph is exactly what it sounds like. You want to be able to balance objects in the photo as if the photo were a scale. If your subject is in the upper left, you want an object towards the bottom right to get the right balance.

Exposure ensures that you get the right amount of light into the camera. This is done through a combination of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Using this triangle (or pyramid, depending on how you see it), you can determine what settings you need for any particular subject.

The importance of the aperture setting, which is one way to determine the amount of light coming in, is that it also controls the amount of a photograph that is in focus. There blurrier the background, the more likely the eye will travel to the subject. You would use a low number setting for subjects like people, or animals. If you were photographing a landscape, you would use a high number setting.

Mastering the basics of photography, and how to use the settings, will greatly improve the quality of your photographs. Learning one skill at a time is easiest. Make sure that you take plenty of photos to practice the techniques, and fiddle with setting just to see what they do. Practicing and trying to get a perfect photo will help to improve the overall quality of the photograph.