Inspire the Photographer in You This World Photography Day

Photography is a lot more than just a way to preserve memories, it’s an expression of human perspective and brilliance. Stories that can’t be told in words, can be told through pictures. This World Photography Day, we bring tips from experts that can inspire you to pick up your camera and be a part of the tribe.

Perspective

Perspective is the way you look at things. One way is to absorb things as they appear. But the moment you go beyond what your naked eye sees and imagine your camera’s frame is your first step to capture a brilliant perspective. With this new perspective, you won’t just point a camera to an endearing visual, instead you would capture it in your own unique way.

Tip: Look for patterns, symmetry, layers and colour mixes. Even moving around your head and looking at the same subject from different angles help, no kidding!

Sample Zaid Salman’s perspective, where a stream of ‘chai’ dwarfs a towering statue.

Equipment

As technology evolves, big, bulky cameras with a host of lenses have been replaced by a humble smartphone. With almost every smartphone flaunting a powerful camera, each one of us have the power of photography in our hands. In fact, phones are relatively so much more handy than cameras. So next time you’re on that road trip (and not driving) keep a lookout for objects in your mirror and don’t shy away from taking out your smartphone and exercising your unique perspective ?

Tip: You can invest in lenses for your smartphone. These are powerful accessories that let you go beyond the usual range.

Zaid Salman exclusively uses his smartphones, and pairs them to different kinds of lenses, to capture beautiful images.

Framing

Framing is the placement of objects and composing them in a manner that brings the viewer’s eye to your subject. Suppose you’re out on a road trip in your dashing Ford Ecosport. Stop by on a safe left somewhere on the highway. Take out your smartphone and work on building a nice frame with your car. Take time to think about what is going on in the view finder/on the screen before clicking the picture. If you feel the frame’s empty ask your friends/family to join your existing muse and create more activity.

Tip: Include people in interesting formations, click from unique angles – you can try sitting on the ground and take an emerging shot, notice where light is coming from for a good frame.

Light

Let there be light! Before you frame your shot, observe where the light is coming from. Where you and your subjects are standing vis-à-vis the light will decide how your picture comes out. There can’t be one single rule, but make sure that your is standing against the light for clear pictures. This changes when you’re out in the nature and your subject is not humans, but you’ll figure this out once you get clicking regularly.

Tip: Hold your photography equipment and observe what you’re clicking through the viewfinder/screen. Take time to notice where the light in entering the frame from and how it’s impacting your picture.

Backgrounds

It’s not just the person or the object in your frame, it’s everything else in the background that can make or break a great picture. Imagine, you have clicked a great picture of your car but missed noticing the dustbin, ugly wall sign etc. on the road side in the background, that’ll be such a bummer.

Tip: If there are unnecessary people in your frame, move yourself to avoid interruption in your picture-perfect moment. Sometimes, you can make use of the extra in your frame, just like this picture below.

Practice

Practice breeds perfection. Keep a look out on your surrounding and use your camera every single day. Just like any other art, photography evolves with practice. What your mind doesn’t know, your eyes can’t see. Gradually, while trying to click pictures everyday, you’ll see things that you haven’t before and your frames will keep getting etter.

Tip: Even if you’re at home, spend time reading about photography and try to find frames in regular settings around you.

Inspiration

Do you love clicking your car? Create a list of the best online automobile photographers out there and start following their work on Instagram. Scroll through their pictures every time you’re sitting idle and you’ll find all that scrolling coming handy while you click a picture the next time. You can follow the same for any genre of photography that you like. A little bit of inspiration and visual practice goes a long way!

Tip: While you scroll through the picture of your favourite photographer, notice the angle and perspective with which they have created the picture.

So, don’t bide your time waiting for the perfect moment to happen for the unique photographs, instead get out on the roads, set off for new destinations and create your own.

Picture credits: Zaid Salman, Inspired Traveller, Anupriya Kapur, Nitish Waila, Yasir Shamsi