Abi Coop
Melissa Richard
Kristen Ryan
Your Photos are Awesome! | by Stephanie Schweitzer
Your Photos are Awesome!
Let’s Make Them Awesomer!
Hey! Did you know that you take awesome photos? Yes, you! Your photos are awesome! How do I know that? Well, let me ask you something:
Why do you take photos?
A) for the memories
B) for the fun of it
C) for my walls
D) because my parents keep begging for me to send more photos of the grandkids
E) to pay the bills
Pretty photo to stare at while you contemplate your answer.
And the answer is . . . it was a trick question! There’s no right answer as to your own personal why. No matter your reason, if you love the photos you take, you’re taking awesome, beautiful, heart-worthy photos.
Now, perhaps, as an eager photographer, you sometimes wonder: What are some simple things I could do to enhance the storytelling in my awesome photos?
Well, well, wellwellwell! You’ve come to the right place. Today, we’re going to talk about 3 relatively quick things we can do to make our awesome photos even more awesome. These three things fall under these three essential concepts: lines, exposure, and cropping.
Maybe you’re thinking, “Oh! Those are beginner’s concepts. I don’t need to read up on those!” To which I say: “I’m loving the confidence! I bet you do know a fair bit about lines, exposure, and cropping, but also, my tips may surprise you. (Insert winky face here.)”
The secret is this: it’s so much easier to tell great stories with your photography if you’ve really mastered the essentials. So, let’s talk about some essentials, shall we?
Lines
Look around for a moment and you’ll quickly realize lines are everywhere. And because of that simple fact, lines will also be present in a majority of your photos: horizon lines, fence lines, building lines, window lines, post-office lines . . . so many lines!
So it’s our job, as storytelling photographers, to try to get our lines straight. Are crooked lines inherently bad? Well, no, of course not! You can have crooked lines in every last one of your photos and that won’t stop them from being awesome photos.
But! Crooked lines are communicating something to the viewer.
Consider this photo:
Crooked
What was your first impression upon seeing the photo? Maybe you were initially drawn in by the precious moment I captured: finding my daughter hiding behind my jacket one morning after breakfast. Isn’t it adorable? It’s one of my personal favorites. (Heart-eyes emoji!) But as you continue to study the photo, perhaps you noticed it feels a little . . . tipped. Maybe you get this uneasy sensation, staring at all the lines that surround her, noticing that they’re not quite straight.
So, now that you’ve studied the slightly off-kilter photo, take a look at the straightened version:
Straightened
Is that not even awesomer?
The point I’m making here is this. Your photos aren’t bad if there are crooked lines in them. They can still be adorable and beautiful and inspiring, crooked lines and all. But, if you don’t want to accidentally make the viewer feel a little off-balance, then it’s worth studying all the lines in your photos as you edit and straightening the prominent ones to the best of your ability.
Exposure
The simplest definition for exposure I can think of is this: the overall brightness or darkness of a photo.
(You’ve hopefully already mastered the big three, aka the exposure triangle — shutter speed, ISO, and aperture — and are shooting in manual mode. So we’re going to skip right past those three technicals and move on to some other important exposure-related details.)
An accurate exposure is key to getting your photo to:
1) match the scene you’re capturing and/or
2) set the mood you’re trying to convey.
2) set the mood you’re trying to convey.
Here’s an example of a not-quite-right exposure:
Underexposed
I know the photo’s exposure is too dark because:
1) Scene-wise, I remember what this room looked like when I captured this photo, and it was much lighter than it appears above.
2) Mood-wise, while I could have intentionally underexposed this image to convey a darker, moodier, dimly-lit sort of story, that’s not what this photo was about for me. This is a joyful midday moment between my two boys and I wanted a brighter, happier exposure to reflect that.
So, combining those two things, I use the hover tool in Photoshop to check that the skin tones are at the right exposure level (more on that later, if you’re curious), and voila!
Properly Exposed
Getting exposure within range is so important because it ensures that 1) skin tones will look good, 2) printing will go well, and 3) your photo is telling the story you want it to tell.
Cropping
In photography, cropping has the power to change where a photo begins and ends. We can remove or adjust the four sides of an image to: 1) improve composition, 2) draw a viewer’s eyes to our subject, and/or 3) change the aspect ratio of the photo.
In simpler terms, cropping is: removing the unwanted parts of an image.
With that definition in mind, it’s clear that, when we crop, we need to be sure to maintain the wanted, important parts of the image.
Take a look at this next photo:
Not-So-Successful Crop
I love this birthday portrait I took of my husband. With his free birthday Starbucks coffee in hand (did you know that was a thing??), in front of a beautiful green wall we found on his birthday outing, in gorgeous filtered light, and he’s handsome to boot! This one is a keeper for sure.
But! As you continue to study the photo, do you notice a feeling of imbalance? Like it ended a little too soon at the bottom? Does a little part of you wish I had stepped back or adjusted my camera just a smidge and captured his feet in full? Maybe you didn’t initially feel that way, but do you see it now if you look at the photo again?
It’s absolutely ok to think this photo is beautiful and awesome, because it is! Though, if I could have stepped back just a bit, it would have been even awesomer, right?
Thankfully, in the moment of this photograph, I did step back just a titch and capture his whole body in the original photo. The foot-chopped photo above was created for educational purposes only (wink!). Since I knew that the story would be nicer with the crop under his feet, I remembered to step back and get it all in the frame.
Successful Crop
Hopefully now you’re feeling quite inspired to get out there and take awesomely awesomer photos today! If you’re interested in learning even more about mastering lines, exposure, cropping, and seven other essential photography concepts, may I humbly suggest checking out my mini course in the Hello Storyteller Academy:
The Confident Photographer: Following Rules, Cleverly Breaking Them, & Loving Your Photos
It includes over 70 photo examples, 30 minutes of editing video tutorials, a powerful PhotoShop trick for getting exposure right in every photo (using the hover tool!), lots of words of encouragement, and so much more — think of it as your friendly little photography guidebook. It covers all the traditional rules, teaches you how to cleverly break them, and builds your confidence along the way.
If you’re not quite ready to buy a course, no sweat! I suggest taking any new bits of knowledge you’ve gained here today and go practice. Practice all the time. And please, pretty please, have fun while you’re at it! Because remember: the mark of an awesome photo is that you love it. If you love what you’re creating, it doesn’t get much awesomer than that.
Don’t be shy! You can find me on Instagram, and if you’d like more content by me, you can check out these other blog posts I’ve written:
Toodles!
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