How to take beautiful photos at home. Let's take a good photo of handicrafts at home. Panoramic mode from a moving car will also allow you to create unusual photos

Firstly, such photographs are of poor quality, and secondly, it means that you don’t even have friends who could take your picture.

2. Photo as for a passport

Girls usually show only two emotions in photographs – “I’m smiling” and “I’m mega sexy with a serious look.” The guys in the photo generally have one emotion - “I’m a very serious guy.” It is much better to have a photo of poorer quality, but with interesting emotions, than to take a photo with a good DSLR with a neutral facial expression. Few people are interested in such photographs.

3. Banal poses and plots

Another common mistake is taking photos like “me in front of a monument,” “I’m standing with the sea behind me,” or “me in front of a car.” Who do you want to impress with your Ford Focus?

4. Wrong angle

There is one joke: “A model has two good angles and she knows them, but an ordinary person has one such angle and never gets into it.”

Be aware of the flaws in your appearance and figure and try not to show them in the photo. Know your winning angles and poses, and show them off in your photos. A big nose, a thin face, short stature, plumpness or thinness - for each of the shortcomings there are ready-made solutions on how to hide them.

5. Too many photos of the same type

Many people put several photos on their avatar from one photo shoot, event or party. For the viewer, such a sequence of similar photographs looks boring. It’s better to post two or three best photos from each event than many identical ones (the law of psychology!).

6. Lack of photos with friends

The lack of photos of you with friends indicates that you are an uninteresting and unsociable person. Even complete sociopaths have close people with whom they communicate, study, relax and work. Take photos with friends every chance you get.

7. Cropped limbs - arms and legs

The cropped limbs in the photos give her a very casual amateur look. When taking full-length photographs, warn the photographer that you will tear off his arms if he cuts off your legs in the photo. When photographing from the waist up, make sure your arms are fully included in the frame.

8. (At a party) Taking pictures in an “imperfect” state

If you take photos while the party is in full swing, you run the risk of appearing red-eyed and looking rather shabby. Therefore, if you would like to have attractive photos that you can put on your avatar or post on social networks, then take photos at the beginning of the party, as soon as you arrive.

9. Cut yourself out of a photo

Let's say you turned out well in the photo, but in this photo you are not alone, but with a friend or a group of people. However, you take this photograph and carefully cut yourself out of it. The end result is a photograph where part of your shoulder or arm is cut off, and other people's arms and legs protrude from the edge of the photograph. The question is WHY?

If you like a photo and you are not alone in it, then post the photo with your friends. See point 6.

10. Taking photos in poor light

If you take photographs under the light of an ordinary lamp, the photographs will have an unsightly yellowish tint. This, of course, can be corrected in Photoshop, if you know how to do it. But it is much easier to take photographs in daylight. Or make friends with Photoshop and the “white balance” function in your camera.

Beginners often wonder how to take high-quality and beautiful photographs? And it’s true, after all, a novice master, having bought an expensive SLR camera, immediately hopes to get beautiful and high-quality photographs. This does not work for everyone and not always. We have prepared a list of recommendations, following which you can create attractive photographs. It's about creating thoughtful and compelling photographs from the start. The challenge for a novice photographer is to learn to take attractive photographs instinctively, and spend as little time and effort on editing as possible.

How to take good photographs. Think about the frame

A photograph is not created when you press the shutter button, it is created when you see a potential shot. A photograph can be born in your imagination, at the moment when you come up with a frame, or while looking at a beautiful story. Think about what attracted you to this image? Why do you want to photograph it? What do you want to show in your photo?

When thinking about an image, it is first important to understand what exactly you want to show. Decide what settings need to be applied, what aperture, shutter speed, white balance and focal length need to be set. The settings depend on what kind of picture you want to see in the end, as well as on the lighting conditions of the environment.

How to take good photographs. Composition

Every time you look through the viewfinder or at the display, you need to think about the composition of the future photograph and the placement of objects within the frame. There are many rules of composition, most of which came into the world of photography from classical painting, such as the rule of the golden ratio and the golden spiral.

Perhaps the most well-known and commonly used is the Rule of Thirds: a simple but effective way of composing an image.

To understand what the rule of thirds is, imagine two lines crossing the frame horizontally and two vertically. As a result, you will have 9 squares, three in each row. The principle is to place the key elements of the image on the boundaries of the central square and along imaginary lines.

The use of leading lines, foreground emphasis, and leading lines also help strengthen the painting. Leading lines will add movement to the image and help viewers pay attention to the important points of the photo.

Foreground objects can serve as a beautiful frame for the frame, being something like a natural frame. When photographing a landscape, pay attention to the beautiful flowers or rocks in the foreground.

Don't be lazy and remember to constantly move around in search of the perfect shot.

First of all, when looking through the viewfinder and trying to take a photo, it is worth paying attention not only to how the subject itself looks, but also to how it harmonizes with other environmental elements that fall into the photo. Of course, you can trim or remove excess by processing later, but by planning everything in advance, you will free yourself from unnecessary work.

Golden spiral

This is a more complex compositional model in which important elements of the frame are placed in a spiral. The rosebud used in the example is perhaps the simplest and most obvious example of a spiral composition.

How to take good photographs. basic settings

Before you start taking photographs, make sure that the basic camera settings are set correctly. Often technicians forget to double-check what parameters are set on the camera, which is why the pictures turn out unsuccessful.

First of all, check if the memory card is in place. This may seem obvious, but sometimes, thinking she's always on camera, photographers forget to make sure she's okay. Of course, you need to check the presence of a memory card at home before it’s too late to fix it. It should be formatted before going out to shoot.

Next, set the file type: JPEG or RAW. The RAW format is preferable if you plan to process your photos in the future. When choosing JPEG, decide on the file size. Set the maximum image size, with minimum compression, for optimal photo quality.

Finally, don't forget to check settings like white balance, autofocus mode, exposure settings, etc.

How to take good photographs. Aperture to control depth of field

Aperture is one of the most important parameters of your camera. The aperture not only regulates the amount of light passing through the lens, but also controls the depth of field.

For best results, the aperture should be between f/8-f/11. However, the optimal value is not always convenient for shooting specific scenes. To obtain a shallower depth of field and better background blur, the aperture value should be around f/3.2. In addition, by shooting with a large aperture opening you can. For deep depth of field and background clarity, the aperture is set to f/16-32.

Blurring the background and/or foreground is necessary to draw the viewer's attention to a specific element of the frame. On the other hand, a small aperture (eg f/36) will reveal the fullness of the photo, depicting everything in great detail. In landscape photography, it is common to shoot with a small aperture opening to show the scene as clearly as possible.

How to take good photographs. Use fast shutter speeds for creative effect

The aperture controls the amount of light passing through the lens, and the shutter, in turn, controls the amount of time light reaches the sensor. Depending on this, photographs may be clear or show blurred motion. Shutter speed helps control movement in the frame.

If you want to depict a smooth blur of water while shooting a seascape, then you need to set the shutter speed to a few seconds. If your task is to show a clear jump or jerk during a sporting event or photographing animals, then the shutter speed should be 1/800 sec. or faster. It all depends on the purpose of the shooting. The easiest way to control your shutter speed is to set it to shutter priority mode.

When photographing with a tripod and having a remote control with you, you are practically unlimited in choosing shutter speed. When photographing handheld, you cannot shoot well with a slow shutter speed, as the pictures will look blurry. The shutter speed must be no less than one divided by the focal length.

Of course, the image stabilization system helps in creating a clear frame, but its capabilities are not unlimited and caution will not hurt.

How to take good photographs. White balance

The color of the world around us is constantly changing due to light - be it the light of the sun or an artificial light source. Each of these sources has its own color temperature, which is measured in degrees Kelvin. The lower the temperature, the warmer (more orange) the light, the higher the temperature, the cooler (blue) the light.

Visually, we do not notice changes and see no difference in the color of the light, but the camera is very sensitive and records any fluctuation in the temperature of the light. Used to compensate for light distortion.

For example, when looking at a sunset, your eyes recognize that the warm orange color of the sun and sky is natural, and you perceive it “correctly.” But the camera simply captures a scene with too much warm light and tries to correct it. In this case, the automatic white balance mode may not correct the color correctly. For this reason, it is better to use preset white balance settings (for example, daylight or cloudy) or select manual white balance mode.

If you shoot in JPEG format, initially incorrect white balance is difficult to correct, even by adjusting it in a graphics editor. When shooting in RAW format, changing the white balance is possible when converting files.

How to take good photographs. ISO Setting

The ISO setting on your camera controls the sensor's sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the sensor becomes, and the less light is needed to create a bright shot. A high sensitivity value results in grainy frames. Grain is called “noise” or color noise (colored specks appear).

Depending on the quality and level of the camera, performance and noise reduction may vary. Some cameras are better at shooting at high ISOs, while others are worse. In any case, it is advisable to use the lowest ISO value. However, when shooting with a short shutter speed and a small aperture opening, you will not be able to reduce the sensitivity.

Using the Flash

If you're shooting in low light and don't want to set your ISO to high, you'll likely need to use flash. Some cameras have different flash modes to suit different types of shooting.

Don't forget that you can use flash in daylight. This is necessary to fill in shadows and create more harmonious photos.

How to take good photographs. Manual focus

When photographing with an advanced camera, you can focus not only automatically, but also manually. When shooting with autofocus, you have several modes to choose from. You can focus on several or one point, and serial shooting is also possible. With manual focusing, the master is aimed at the subject manually.

When shooting a moving subject, give preference to continuous shooting. This way the camera will focus while keeping the subject in constant focus. When shooting a static object, choose one point of focus

Manual focus

In some shooting situations, manual focusing may be the best choice. In this case, by scrolling the focus ring on the subject, you focus on a specific area. Manual focusing is preferred for sports and wildlife photographers. You also need to manually focus when the subject is in the background, because the camera automatically focuses on the nearest object.

At first glance, it may seem difficult to focus manually when shooting moving objects, because an athlete, a car or a running animal is moving too quickly. But you can focus on a specific spot in advance, and when the subject passes through the focus area, you can take the shot.

Using hyperfocal distance

Starting from the hyperfroctal distance boundary, objects in the frame become sharp. The boundary changes depending on the focal length and aperture used.

You have the ability to determine the hyperfocal distance for various focal lengths and apertures at www.dofmaster.com.

How to take good photographs. Browse photos

Once you've taken a photo, or a series of photos, check out how they look right in camera. In this case, you need to not just look at how the images turned out, but evaluate the histograms of the frame. Histograms will help you make sure your exposure and white balance settings are correct. If the main part of the histogram is shifted to the left, then the image is too dark, but if to the right, then the image is overexposed. In this case, you need to change the exposure setting.

Checking the frame is especially important if the camera's viewfinder does not offer 100% coverage, because the shot is different from what you saw in the viewfinder.

In case the photos don't look right in terms of composition or settings, then you will have a chance to change everything.

How to take good photographs. Viewing and editing images

Listed above are the basic recommendations for creating high-quality and beautiful photographs. By sticking to them and keeping them in mind as you shoot, you'll be sure to take good photos that require minimal processing time. If it happens that when you come home and look at the material, it turns out that the photographs have flaws, you will have to spend some time processing them.

Look through all your photos and evaluate them in terms of composition, lighting, color, focus, depth of field and exposure. Without regret, delete those frames that even Photoshop cannot help with; such pictures will only waste space on your computer. In the end, if even 10 photos from one shoot turn out to be beautiful, this is already a good result.

Steps

Composition

Find the shadowed side of the face. Look in the mirror or take a test photo and see which side of your face is further from the light source and therefore looks darker. Take your photo from this side to achieve an artistic effect and appear slimmer. In bright sunlight this technique may not work.

Take creative photos. Instead of a traditional frontal self-portrait, try taking an artistic photo with a completely different composition. Here are some ideas:

• take a photo in profile, that is, from the side;
• photograph only half of the face – left or right;
• Take a close-up photo of an eye, lip, or cheek.

1. Don't place your face strictly in the center of the frame. The best photos usually follow the rule of thirds. This means that the eyes (the compositional center of the portrait) should be one third vertically from the top border of the photo and to the right or left of its middle. The photo will be more interesting, and the angle will probably be better.

   Keep the camera away from your face. The lens distorts objects that are too close. Selfies are usually taken with the camera or phone held at arm's length, which is a very short distance, and therefore the nose often looks larger than it actually is - definitely not the effect you want to achieve.

   • If you want to take close-up photos, it's better to use the optical zoom and shoot from a greater distance. You can also take a waist-length or full-length photo, and then crop it.
   • If your camera has a timer, lean it against something stable, set the timer, and step away. Such a photo will most likely be more successful than a selfie taken handheld.

2. Use your phone's main camera. It’s more convenient to take pictures of yourself with the front camera of your smartphone, but the main one allows you to take much better pictures.

   Place a mirror behind the camera. Taking photos is easier when you can see yourself, so placing a mirror behind your camera or smartphone will help you achieve a better pose or facial expression. Make sure your smile is natural!

   Ask someone to take your photo. This is not always possible, but it is preferable to have someone else take your photo. You'll be able to focus on posing without having to think about holding the camera and pressing a button at the same time.

   • Ask a friend to take your photo. He may tease you a little, or he may ask you to take a photo of him too.
   • If this is happening at a holiday or other event, ask someone present to take a photo of you (and your friends, if you came in a group). It's better to be someone you know, or at least someone who seems trustworthy, so your phone or camera doesn't get stolen.

Poses

1. Avoid double chin. One of the ugliest features that a bad photo can give you is a double chin. This can usually be avoided by elongating your neck and moving your chin slightly forward, away from your body. It will seem strange and awkward to you, but in the photo it will look just right.

   Straighten your shoulders. Slouched shoulders and poor posture don't look good on anyone, so move your shoulders down and back. This will give you a more alert look, visually lengthen your neck and thereby improve your photo. You can slightly raise one shoulder or turn it towards the lens, rather than standing in an even, static position.

   Change your attitude. If you take a lot of self-portraits and post them online, and you look serious in all of them, without exception, you may seem overly serious and even boring. Try to fool around and take a funny photo. When you allow yourself to relax and have fun, you can suddenly end up with a surprisingly good shot.

   Face the camera at an angle. Instead of standing strictly frontal in the photo, try turning your face or whole body slightly. Experiment to find your sweet spot. Standing half-turned in a full-length photo will make you look slimmer and highlight the curves of your body.

   Don't look directly into the lens. Even if your eyes are your most beautiful feature, try looking away from the camera to make the photo more interesting.

   • You can still make your eyes pop by opening them wide and looking over or away from the camera.
   • Try not to look away too obviously. Looking slightly away from the lens will make it seem like you don't know you're being filmed. If you look away even thirty centimeters from the camera, it will already look like conscious posing.

2. Show emotions. Sincere emotions are usually immediately visible on the face. A forced smile usually doesn't make you more attractive. So if you pose for a photo smiling, think about something really nice or funny.

   Dress appropriately. If you're taking a self-portrait for a specific purpose, think about how you should dress.

   • If you need a photo for work or for a page on a professional network, choose clothes in a discreet, business style and a simple, neat hairstyle.
   • If you're taking photos for a dating site, you can wear something bright or funky, but don't dress too sexy (this photo will immediately show that you're trying your best to look sexier!). Hair doesn't have to be perfect; let it be casual, but show that you pay attention to your appearance.
   • If the photo is for your social media page, think about how people will perceive you. The choice of clothes is very wide, but a dirty T-shirt is still not the best choice for a selfie (unless, however, you are demonstrating that you just returned from a twenty-kilometer hike).

3. Don't do duckface! The so-called duckface (a face with duck lips) - lips folded into a bow and stretched out as if for a kiss - has become boring to everyone and has become an example of bad taste when taking selfies. There are plenty of other, cuter facial expressions.

Situation

Shoot in natural light. Natural light is always preferable for photography. However, direct sunlight, especially at midday when the sun is directly overhead, is not ideal for portrait photography: you don't want harsh shadows on your face!

• If you have a choice, it is better to take photos on a cloudy day.
• Indoors, try to take photos near a window, in natural light (but not in direct sunlight).
• If you must use artificial light indoors, avoid fluorescent lamps and overhead lighting. You may find more favorable lighting if you turn off the ceiling lights and turn on table lamps and sconces.
• If you're shooting with direct overhead lighting (whether natural or artificial), use flash to fill in shadowed areas so your photo doesn't have shadows under your nose or eyes.

1. Check the background. When posting a photo on the Internet, you are unlikely to dream of the fame of the person who captured himself against an absurd or indecent background.

   Think about visual frames. The photo can be more interesting if the composition forms a kind of frame. Here are some ideas for such visual frames:

   • pose in a doorway;
   • hold the camera in two outstretched hands, not in one;
   • stand between two objects - for example, trees or bushes;
   • Grasp your chin or prop it up with your hand to create a visual frame underneath.

Editing

1. Zoom into the desired area. If you want to highlight a part of your face or body, use a photo editing app to zoom in on it and save the edited version. Most smartphones and computers have photo editing software, many of which are very easy to use.

2. • Try taking photos in different rooms to see which has the best lighting.
   • When editing your photos, use the soft focus effect to keep details sharp and your skin looking flawless.
   • There is nothing more banal in a selfie photograph than an outstretched arm in the frame. Try setting a timer instead. You can also experiment with different shooting angles to hide that ever-present hand.
   • Take many pictures to choose the best one.
   • Let your feet be the heroes of the story! A photograph of your legs against a stunning landscape will document your presence - without you having to worry about how you look in the photo.
   • Before taking photos, look in the mirror and, if necessary, adjust your clothes, hair and makeup.
   • If you don't like certain features of your face, highlight others. For example, if you don't like lips, then use bright eye shadow to highlight your eyes.
   • Be happy with yourself. There is no other person like him in the whole wide world. You are one of a kind and unique - embrace it!
   • Place the phone on the floor or other flat surface, resting it on something, and sit opposite. The phone camera should be facing you. Start the timer and start posing. Look to the side and smile mysteriously if you think that such a photo will show you in a favorable light; if not, try something else.

Working on photography projects with a variety of themes is a great way to break away from routine photography and focus on the creative process of creating photographs. Limitations in shooting subjects and equipment sometimes really force you to resort to very creative solutions.

We have prepared 52 great ideas for filming in 2015. For every week of the year, in theory. We've divided them into three sections: easy indoor projects you can do today, ideas you can do outdoors, and temporary projects you can start right now.

Photo ideas for home

1. Manipulation with water drops

To implement this idea, you need to install a container of water with a small hole through which drops of water will flow. Your task is to press the shutter button at the moment when the drop is forming or is already flying. The most important thing is to determine the time to close the shutter as accurately as possible. We achieved the best results using two flashes set to their lowest power (1/128th). The aperture was set to f/22. To give the water a more viscous consistency, we added a little food thickener to it. We also used the SplashArt Kit series device, which helps regulate the size of the drops and the frequency of their fall.

2. Photograph the splash of water

For this project you will need a remote control flash, a water container with clean, clear sides, a colored background, and a tripod. Set up a container of water and a colored background, then place the flash over the container. Place your camera on a tripod and switch to manual focus mode. With an aperture of f/8 and ISO 200, set the fastest shutter speed possible. Don't forget about flash synchronization. So, throw the object into the water and press the shutter button as soon as it touches the surface of the water.

3. The art of painting with smoke

Many photographers, for example, lovers of still lifes, are happy to use smoke in their photographs. What if you take it to the next level and use the intricate shapes of billowing smoke to create paintings? You can create an unusual art project in Photoshop. So, after taking a few good shots of smoke swirls, create a new blank document in Photoshop. Then copy and paste one of the resulting photos onto it. Set the blending mode to Screen and use the Warp Transform command (Edit > Transform > Warp) to change the shape of the smoke. Keep experimenting by adding more pictures to your document.

4. Cross polarization

The basis of this fun idea is the effect that polarized light creates when hitting plastic objects. You will need two polarizing filters, ideally one of them should be a sheet of polarizing film. An A4 sheet of Lee 239 polarizing film can be purchased for around £50. The sheet of film should be placed on a lightbox or any other light source. The iPad screen and most computer screens have a built-in polarizing filter, so if you don't have polarizing film, you can easily create a blank white document that fills the screen and use your gadget. Attach a polarizer to the camera and rotate it until the colors appear on the clear plastic parts.

5. Edible landscapes

Spice up your food photography! All you need is to creatively place figures on the food, for example Hornby. They are ideal, as this company's men are offered in a variety of poses. It is important not only to place the figures, but also to tell a story. In this photo you watch as two heroes help a climber trying to climb a potato mountain with advice.

6. Food as art

Turn your dinner ingredients into photo art using a lightbox and a very sharp knife. Slice the fruits and vegetables as thinly as possible and then place them on the lightbox. Place the camera directly above your subject and use Live View to manually focus on details. Set your aperture to f/8 for optimal depth of field. It's worth resorting to exposure compensation and setting it to +1-+3 stops, since the bright light from the lightbox can mislead your camera's light meter.

7. Flowers in ice

A relatively inexpensive way to take great macro photos is to freeze flowers in plastic containers filled with distilled or de-ionized water. The flowers will float, so take care to secure them in one position. Place a piece of ice on the surface of a clear glass or bowl in a white sink or other container so that light will reflect off all surfaces of the container. Place the flash on one side and point downwards, and place the camera on the opposite side.

8. Oil and abstraction

Oil stains spreading across the surface of the water are a great idea for creating bright abstract photographs. This project utilizes the refractive quality of oil to highlight and distort colors. All you need is to pour water into a transparent bowl and add a few drops of regular vegetable oil. Place the bowl approximately 25 cm above the table. Place multi-colored paper under the bowl, illuminate it with a regular table lamp or using a flash.

9. Oily reflections

This idea echoes the idea described above. But in this case, the color pattern is created using a colored overlay for the lamp, and not a multi-colored background. Start by making a table lamp cover using construction paper, film, and tape. For safety reasons, make sure that the paper does not touch the light bulb. Place a container of water in front of a table lamp and add a few drops of oil to the water. Spread the oil over the surface, bring the camera as close as possible and shoot.

10. Psychedelic soap film

This project is a great idea for a colorful desktop or abstract wallpaper for the wall. You will need liquid soap mixed with glycerin; this combination forms a durable soap film. Arm yourself with a wire loop, a black background and a macro lens such as 100mm. The colors formed by the soap film appear only at a certain angle of incidence of light. Position yourself near a window and choose the right angle for shooting.

11. Refraction effect

Passing through water, light has the property of being distorted, i.e. refract, as a result, objects under water visually change their appearance. This phenomenon is called refraction, and we will use it in this small photo project. All you need is a few clear glasses, a flash, a tripod and a black and white patterned backdrop. Simply place the glasses of water against the patterned background and shoot.

12. Macro photography in the kitchen

Your kitchen is the perfect place for macro photography. Its reflective surfaces can be used to create an interesting background for photographs, and its shallow depth of field can transform the most ordinary objects. By combining several pictures together, you can create a wonderful decorative element for your own kitchen, but before you start shooting, think about how the frames will resonate with each other. Our series consists of three photographs taken at the same angle and with the same depth of field.

13. Bokeh

Something as simple as a crumpled piece of foil can easily become the basis for a beautiful photo project. Place your subject on the glass, and place a piece of dark material under the glass. Hold regular kitchen foil in your hands a little, then straighten it and place it as a background. Direct light from a table lamp or any other source onto the foil. With the camera on a tripod, open the aperture as wide as possible. Light the foil with flash while shooting.

14. Bokeh bubbles

Small light sources always create beautiful bokeh. Garland is perfect for this. Place the garland at such a distance that when the aperture is open, its bulbs are out of focus. The subject of shooting, in this case the glass, should be close to the camera, and the focus should be on it. Position the garland itself in such a way that the bokeh eventually takes the form of multi-colored bubbles flying out of the glass. This technique is also used to create this “flow” bokeh from mugs with hot drinks.

15. Drawings with light

Streaks of light and light patterns can be used in a variety of photography genres, and are ideal for still life photography. To do this, you can use a simple flashlight, and to make the light less diffuse, you can remove the top cover, thereby exposing the light bulb. Use insulation tape to attach a piece of colored paper to the flashlight. Set the shutter speed to about 30 seconds and the aperture to around f/8. While exposing the frame, make smooth circular movements around the bottle, drawing a spiral.

16. Light spirals

Tie the lantern to a rope and hang it from the ceiling. For this photo, you'll need the widest angle lens you have in your arsenal. Mount your camera on a tripod and point it straight at the ceiling. With the room light on, manually focus on the tip of the flashlight. Set your aperture to approximately f/11 - f/16 and use Bulb mode and a remote shutter release to take pictures. Keep the shutter open for about a minute after you launch the flashlight.

Ideas for outdoor activities

17. Portraits with the Brenizer effect A

The Brenizer method, also known as a portrait panorama or boquerama, provides an excellent basis for a series of portrait photographs. The method was invented by New York wedding photographer, Ryan Brenizer. This technique allows you to create photos with the effect of an ultra-wide-angle lens. The point of this method is to create a series of photographs that, when stitched together, form a full-fledged frame. You can put the mosaic together using the Photomerge option in Photoshop or in a program designed for gluing frames together. Use manual camera settings, starting with white balance and ending with focus, so the parameters will be the same for all shots. Take 30-80 frames to create one photo, and do not forget that each subsequent frame should overlap the previous one by about a third.

18. In the right place with the wrong lens

Force yourself to look at things differently. When going for a walk with your camera, choose the opposite lens to the one you would most likely take with you. For example, take a wide-angle lens to the zoo or limit yourself to the focal length of a telephoto lens the next time you go out to photograph landscapes.

19. Landscapes in pieces

Try to explore your surroundings in a new way by creating compositions from several fragments taken during a walk. Go outside for literally 20 minutes. Don’t spend a lot of time on settings, just select aperture priority mode, don’t take a tripod and various filters with you, and give up complicated techniques. Take photos of everything that catches your attention. When you return home, create a document with a grid in Photoshop and insert the resulting images into its cells using layers.

20. Minimalist landscapes

Instead of confining the view in front of you to one boring shot, try shooting a series of minimalist landscapes with long exposures. A symmetrical composition and square format will help emphasize the simplicity of the frame. You will also need a neutral density filter, which will give you the ability to use long exposures throughout the day. Use a tripod and remote shutter release.

21. Starscapes

To capture the perfect starscape, you need a completely clear sky. It is advisable that the moon does not fall into the frame, otherwise many details may be lost. For a high-quality photo with clear, unblurred stars, you should photograph at fairly fast shutter speeds; to do this, go to manual mode, set the ISO value to about 1600 or 3200 and the shutter speed to two seconds. Even with these settings, you'll have to set your aperture wide open: f/4 or even f/2.8.

22. Take pictures of things that never inspired you.

Write a list of objects or places that you find uninteresting, boring, or even ugly. Now force yourself to take attractive and interesting photographs of these unphotogenic places and objects.

23. Looking for abstraction in a parking lot

You don't need to travel to distant countries to carry out an interesting photography project. The photo opportunities are plentiful, and even in something as mundane as a parking lot, it's possible to create something interesting. For this project, all you need is a digital camera. Without focusing on technique, look for and photograph different textures, color combinations, interesting shapes and patterns.

24. Selective colors

Instead of using glorified techniques to make a subject stand out from the rest of the frame (for example, when the main subject is left in color and everything else is converted to black and white), try choosing a color and looking for its embodiment in all the diversity of the world. Draw attention to this color using the right composition.

25. Night photography

Take up night photography. Limit yourself to the use of additional light sources, take the maximum from the available lighting.

26. Optical illusions

As part of this project, we invite you to play with perspective, which affects the viewer's perception of the relationship between objects of different sizes that are in the frame. It's best to start with objects whose dimensions are known and unquestionable and have them interact with larger objects in the background. For these types of photographs, shoot with a small aperture to ensure greater depth of field.

27. Miniature world

Shoot miniature toys and models in natural environments. Such projects are popular and very common today, and there is nothing difficult in their implementation. Just take a small figurine or toy with you and shoot it in different situations, everywhere and always: while traveling or on a walk, or even on the way to work. In order for the figure to blend into its surroundings, you should, firstly, shoot it from a close distance, and secondly, properly balance the lighting.

28. Create a tilt-shift effect

The well-known and beloved “toy town” effect is obtained by using a special expensive tilt-shift lens. But a similar effect can be achieved in Photoshop by blurring everything in the photo except a small area where you want to focus attention. For greater verisimilitude, photograph from an elevated position and preferably in sunny weather.

29. Photo alphabet

No, we do not suggest that you look for letters of the alphabet in inscriptions on stores, road signs, etc. Instead, look for items and objects that are shaped like letters of the alphabet. You don’t have to look far for an example; let’s take a children’s swing on the playground. What does their frame resemble from the end? That's right, the letter A. And the curved river from a bird's eye view is the English letter S.

30. From 1 to 100

Similar to how we suggested you create a photographic alphabet, you can expand this project a little and try to find illustrations for the numbers.

31. Faces in unusual places

Another simple and fun photo project idea. Sometimes we can observe how familiar things in our everyday life, and simply surrounding objects, have some similarities with a human face or take on a form that vaguely reminds us of facial features. Learn to look at the world of things differently. For inspiration, check out the blog dedicated to this topic.

32. Light orbit

Painting with light gives you a limitless variety of different ideas for photography. But what about a series of images with light orbits? You don't need complicated equipment. All you need is a bright LED backlight, powered by batteries, and a hoop on which the backlight is wound. Place the camera on a tripod, select the optimal shutter speed and simply rotate the hoop.

33. Burning steel wool

To carry out this project, make sure that the shooting takes place in an open area away from flammable objects. Place steel wool in a metal whisk and attach it to the chain. Then set fire to the wool and rotate the whisk on the chain, burning sparks will fly around. You'll need a dedicated volunteer, a tripod, and a shutter speed of about 15 seconds at f/11 and ISO 100.

34. Car movement

For a change, try capturing the movement not from the outside of the car, but from the inside. Of course, you should shoot at night. Ask a friend to drive smoothly and slowly on a well-lit road. Set the shutter speed to about 30 seconds. Mount a tripod on the passenger seat and use the remote shutter release.

35. Deliberate mistakes

Make a list of the most common mistakes a photographer can make. And then try, by deliberately making these mistakes, to create a beautiful photo. You may overexpose or underexpose, crop your subject incorrectly, or focus on the background rather than the subject.

36. Cinemagraph

Create a series of animated GIFs that illustrate subtle movement. This project requires minor work in Photoshop. You will have to create not just frames, but video sequences, but the result may exceed all your expectations. You will need a tripod; the background must remain unchanged throughout the entire video sequence. Choose a scene in which some action occurs continuously or cyclically so that the starting and ending points in the finished cinemagraph are not obvious. Record movement, such as the wind moving leaves on a tree.

37. Intentional camera movement

You are used to doing everything possible to ensure that your photos are as clear as possible. But to make the photo metaphorical and mysterious, try doing the opposite. For relatively long shutter speeds, move the camera intentionally. Shoot in shutter priority mode. For inspiration, look to the work of British photographer Chris Friel (http://www.cfriel.com).

38. Retro effect

Various noises and distortions are very easy to add in Photoshop or Lightroom. As a result, you will get a more colorful and atmospheric photograph, but you should think about its final style already during shooting. The retro effect works well with simple photographs that are not overloaded with details, where the subject is easily recognizable.

39. Time-lapse photography

Many of us may well have time to engage in time-lapse photography, which is on the border between video and photography. The subject of photography can, in fact, be any phenomenon in your everyday life. Master this exciting technique in 2015.

Projects designed for a long period of time

40. Project 365

A classic project where you take a photo a day for an entire year. You can go down two possible paths: limit yourself to just one shot per day for a given project, or take several photos and then choose the best one. Can't spend that much time on photos? Then think about an alternative project for which you need to take one photo per week, so there will be 52 photos in total.

41. 50 strangers

This idea is also not new, but that makes it no less fascinating. You should meet and start a conversation with people you don’t know, and then, with their permission, keep their portrait as a souvenir. You can decide the number of strangers you should photograph. The most important thing is to overcome yourself and take the first step.

42. Project 50x50x50

It's simple: 50 days, 50 photos taken with a 50mm lens. An extremely simple project that will help develop your vision as a photographer.

43. Creative selfies

Of course, you can take self-portraits at home, but how boring it is! Why not challenge yourself to create a series of self-portraits outside the walls of your home? Check out a series of beautiful self-portraits taken by renowned photographer Vivian Maier. She portrayed herself as part of some big scene, playing with light, shadow and reflections. It will be easier for you if you choose a specific theme for the project, as, for example, photographer Alex Bamford did as part of his series of works called the ‘Sleepwalking’ project (http://www.alexbamford.com/sleepwalking).

44. The world under your feet

Every day at the same time of day, take photos of what is under your feet. Arm yourself with a wide-angle lens and look for new and interesting places.

45. Portraits without a face

Take portraits of different people, but don't include their faces in the frame. Try to convey their personality in other ways. Using colors, surroundings, lighting, paraphernalia, and even parts of their body - especially their hands - will all help you reveal their character to the viewer.

46. ​​Photo game

Ask someone to write 30 things on paper cards. Things can be very different, but always easily accessible. At this time, you will describe 30 different aspects of the photograph (50mm, black and white photo, long exposure, tilt-shift effect, etc.). Take a card from each pile and start completing the task.

47. Monochrome month

The name of this idea gives it all. Force yourself to take exclusively black and white photographs, forget about color for a month. You will learn to see the most appropriate scenes and subjects to photograph in black and white. This project will help you develop your vision. Shoot in Raw format, but change your camera settings to monochrome beforehand. As a result, while shooting, you will be able to see the scene in black and white, and the image itself will store all the color information. You can use this information to process the photo.

48. Four seasons

Unlike the project, which involves shooting every day, here you will be shooting the same subject every three months for a year. The idea of ​​this project is to show the change of seasons. When choosing your subject wisely, imagine in advance how the chosen scene will look after the transformation caused by the change in weather. A lone tree in a field is certainly perfect for this project.

49. Geocaching

Download a geocaching app to your smartphone and head to the cache location to artistically capture the surrounding area. Don't take pictures of the cache itself, because you don't want people who go looking for it to lose interest.

50. Create a texture library

Textures can give your photo a special look. You can apply texture to a photo in several ways, such as using multiple exposure mode. It is much easier to use Photoshop for this purpose and apply textures through layers. Although you can find textures on the Internet, you will agree that it is much more pleasant to use your own. Wood, old crumpled paper, plaster falling off the walls and other things can serve as an excellent texture for your photo.

51. Pinhole photography

With your own hands, using available tools, turn your expensive camera into an analogue of a pinhole camera and try to shoot without using newfangled equipment.

52. Make a photo book

Take the project you worked on last year as a basis. Think about the structure of the book, about the placement of photographs on its pages. Try distributing them according to color scheme, theme or style of execution.

On your phone simply because it is always at hand, and you don’t need to take a special camera with you.

But if you go on a trip and want to capture various sights and interesting moments of your trip, then you want the photo to be beautiful. A DSLR camera is best for this, but it is not cheap, it weighs a lot, and it takes up a lot of space.

For these and other reasons, people continue to take photos with their smartphones, but the photos don't always turn out well. What can you do to improve the quality of your photos so that your phone photos are colorful and interesting?

Photos taken with your phone

Here are some tips from the creator of several original Instagram filters, Cole Rise:

1. Find out more about your phone's capabilities.

It doesn’t really matter whether you have an iPhone or an Android smartphone, you should get to know it and its camera better. Click on the "Settings" button and view all camera options.

Each phone has different options, but each device has some. For example, HDR is a feature that will help improve the quality of a photo using various settings.

If you take several identical photos, but with different exposures, then HDR will instantly combine all the options into one. The result is an improved photo: bright areas will become brighter, dark areas will become darker, and little things you didn't notice will suddenly appear.

2. Try to think outside of the photograph.

It’s very easy to pick up your phone, look at its screen and take a photo, saying “that’ll do.”

But try to build an image beyond the focus point. Try to make sure that the details surrounding the main element of the photo also play a role.

Rise advises building a story in photography. The photograph itself tells a story, but it must tell something interesting.

Program for photos on your phone

3. Use the right apps.

The factory camera app on your smartphone will certainly allow you to take photos without any problems, but it won't give you all the options to enhance your images like apps in the app store. There are literally thousands of photo apps to choose from.

In addition, when you upload photos to Instagram, for example, you automatically get many options for visually improving the image.

If you want to take it to a higher level, you can use apps like VSCO, Snapseed, which will turn your photos into small works of art. In addition, there are such good applications as Pudding Camera, CameraMX, Photosynth, Slow shutter cam, Pro HDR, Camera+, Pixlr Express, Photoshop Express, SnapSeed, Touch retouch, Afterlight.

4. Go against the rules.

Every app has instructions on how to use it to improve your photography, but that doesn't mean you're bound by those rules. Creating something new that goes against certain instructions can end up working to your advantage.

"I like to overuse tools. I think one of the roads to success is through misusing certain things," says Rise. He believes in being as creative as possible.

Photos from a smartphone

5. Look for unusual angles.

Anyone can point a camera at something or someone and take a photo. But to make sure you take a good photo, you should look for new, unique angles.

Rise said he was once allowed to get close to one plane to take a photo. He decided to shoot the plane from below, which created a very memorable photo.

The main thing is to look at the world differently.

6. Don't overdo it with filters.

The popularity of Instagram has finally put an end to the fashion for "untouched" photos, and it is now almost impossible to find an image that has not been enhanced by some filter or another.

However, the expert who created some of the most popular filters for Instagram says that you shouldn't go overboard with them, and it's probably worth listening to him.

“Photography doesn’t need to be suppressed, it needs to be embellished,” says Rise. “The intensity level of a particular filter can be reduced to a minimum so that its use is almost unnoticeable,” he added.

Rise himself says that when editing a photo, he starts by reducing all the effects by 50% to see how the photo looks. After that, he starts working on it.

7. Share photos in doses.

Today, the best photos are determined by the number of likes, retweets and number of users who share it.

To prevent your photo from getting lost among many other images, and also to prevent it from drowning in a sea of ​​spam, it is enough to publish 1 or 2 photos a day.

Choose the best photos.

Beautiful photos on your phone

Here are some more useful tips:

After you have edited the image, set all settings to 50%.

The main thing is that your photo looks as natural as possible. Just edit the photo as you usually do, and then return all settings to 50 percent.

To control the intensity of filters on Instagram, click on one filter, and then click on it again.

Important: Try not to use the LUX feature on Instagram, as it is designed to correct the lack of contrast, which in turn makes the image less natural.

An original photo can be taken from a car window

Start burst shooting. On an iPhone, you just need to hold down the shutter button and hold it, and on Android smartphones, just activate this function in the settings (Burst Mode or Burst Shot). You can also use an app like Slow Shutter Cam, which creates a blur effect.

How to take beautiful pictures on your phone

If you want to focus on one thing, lower yourself closer to the ground.

Many smartphone cameras don't have good depth of field, which means you'll need a little trick.

A good photo can be taken in bad weather.

Beautiful patterns of nature can be captured in rain, snow, fog or cloudy days. Not many people want to go out in bad weather, but bad weather is a good motivation for good photography.

Take several identical photos and choose the best one.

When there is so much to choose from, there is bound to be a photo that best captures what you need. Do not rush to delete images from your smartphone; first view them on the screen of your computer or laptop. This will give you a better idea of ​​which photo is better.

How to take photos with your phone correctly

Use the flash on your phone carefully.

This flash distorts the colors and shadows in the image. It is better to use it only when you need to quickly remove something so as not to miss the moment. Still, light is very important for good photography. This means that you better look for a good light source to get a beautiful photo - the sun, a flashlight, etc. Very beautiful images can be obtained during sunrise or sunset, and also when the sky is covered with clouds and it seems that a thunderstorm may begin.

Try taking photos using your fingerprint.

A fingerprint may blur a certain part of the image a little, and this is exactly the effect that the photographer may like. Sometimes you may not even notice that there is a fingerprint on the smartphone camera and take a photo. Take a closer look - maybe among the photographs you took there will be one in which the print looks “on topic”. You can make a print specifically for a specific shoot.