The Basic Dos and Don'ts of Photography

 Are you wondering why the post that should have been the second is like the seventeenth one? That's what I thought when I started with this. But, here we are. I think the reason is mostly that this isn't an outright guide blog. It is a photography blog, sure, but not exactly a tutoring one. And as for this post, this will be a guide blog.

An example of the usage of the Rule of Thirds

 Let's start with the don'ts. I believe that it's easy to do something when you know what not to do.
Don't zoom and take pictures: This is a pretty basic mistake a lot of us make while taking pictures. If you have the opportunity to move closer and take the picture then please do. Doing so ensures that your picture quality is maintained and you can further crop the pictures if needed. The exceptions to this are if your phone has a dedicated zoom lens and/or the processing of zoomed photos is extremely good on your phone (only Google Pixels have this, as far as I know).

Don't change the aspect ratio from 4:3: This is another thing that people do that annoys me a lot. You know that thing on top that many of you have on full? Yeah, that's the aspect ratio one.

Aspect Ratio setting

The reason to not do this is that changing the aspect ratio only crops the picture, it doesn't widen the area of the frame. It literally can't. You can do that only by moving back.

• Don't use flash: The usage of flash is a thing we all are confused about from the inception of flash photography. Is there a "Right time" to use flash? I am not sure, but there certainly are wrong times to use flash. Like, while photographing a baby, or a pet; shooting close-ups - because this produces a harsh light on the subject. Even if the lighting conditions are a bit on the lower side, don't use flash while shooting close-ups.

• Don't wait for the perfect moment: It may have made sense to take only "right" pictures during the days of analog cameras due to limitations, but it certainly doesn't make any sense in today's world. Take many pictures, as many as you can. You can always delete the unwanted ones later, but you can't go back and take the pictures again.

• Don't hold off until you get the "best" equipment: The best equipment is the one you have in your hand. It's up to you how you use it. Sure, there are limitations. You can't zoom in to take a bird's picture from your phone, or even through the basic kit lens. But, what you can do is practice other types of photography, like, street photography, architecture photography, macro photography, portraits, pet photography, etc. For example, there are dedicated macro lenses for macro photography, but they are pricey. One hack is to use lens reversal rings like this one here. And if you are using a mobile camera, then I would recommend this Skyvik lens.

• Don't forget the basics: Charge your camera/phone before going out, make sure you have more than enough storage, don't forget to check for signs of "No Photography" before taking a picture, and don't take pictures of random people without their permission.

Now, let's get to the Dos of Photography.

• Practice: "Practice makes a man perfect". It may seem like such a basic thing to do, but a lot of us forget this simple thing over time. Practicing something has never depleted anybody's skills. So, go out and shoot. Most of the things I learned, I have done so by trial and error method.

• Learn the rule of thirds: This composition rule of photography is something that everyone in the field knows about, but only a few outsides of this niche have heard of it. It's a simple rule which says that your subject should be in one of the four points of the grids of rectangles. 

When you divide a rectangle into 9 equal parts, you get these points of intersection.

If the image is of a person or pet, you try to fit their eye to the top right/left point. If it's a tree or a building, you try to fit the subject to either of the vertical lines. And if it's a landscape that has a horizon then you try to place the horizon on either of the horizontal lines.

Here, we can see how perfectly the eyes are on the grid points.

The vertical line matches the tree. I could have placed it on either line but chose right because the clouds and the background seemed better in this composition.

The horizon is on the upper horizontal line on this. It's because the clouds weren't particularly good that day, and also I had a really good foreground below.

I would like to make a post just on the composition rules where I will talk about this in detail.

• Use flash: Why is this on both Do and Don't? Sometimes, it's important that you use flash. One very good example is when you are taking a picture outside in harsh sunlight, and your subject is on the same side as the sun. You see that the subject is well underexposed and is looking like a silhouette. Modern camera HDR does a great job in these situations. But, to get the best result just turn on the flash and see how great the image will turn out to be. Now, the subject is properly exposed and the background is not blown out.
• Learn basic editing: Many people act like editing is some kind of sin. It's not. There is only so much a camera can do and you can do while taking the picture. You really need post-processing to make the picture turn out as you intended it to. As a beginner, you need cropping and brightness-contrast adjustments more than anything. Any photo editing apps like Snapseed (for Android) (for iOS) do a good job when you just select the "Auto" setting.
• Ask: This is just another thing that is universally true. Asking about things you don't know will help you very much. There is no such thing as a wrong question. This is applicable to photography too.
  

These are just the basic ones. I have talked about some of these here in our YouTube video, and about the Rule of Thirds here. All the items I have listed are based on my experience and the questions I have been asked over the years. This is not another plagiarized article on "How to improve your photos drastically in 10 minutes". So, if you liked it then please share it with your friends. Thank you! Have a great weekend.