So, you sat there wondering how you can take awesome photos that are both unique and different from your typical selfie or food pictures. Every Instagram post begins with a good photo – whether it is to get more likes on Instagram or Facebook, these 3 techniques that I am about to teach you will surely get the job done.
Technique 1
Firstly, I will be teaching you how to take silhouettes. Silhouettes are a two-dimensional representation of the outline of an object, as a cutout or configurational drawing, uniformly filled in with black, especially a black-paper, miniature cutout of the outlines of a person’s face in profile. In photography, a silhouette can look as good as this:
It really does not matter if you are using a smartphone or one of those ridiculously expensive cameras. There is only one rule that matters when it comes to taking silhouettes: Always make sure your camera is against the light. This basically means that you must ensure that your camera faces the light when taking the picture of the object or item. However, if the aforementioned does not work, you may have to do the following:
If on a smartphone, tap to focus on the brightest parts of the image. This will bring the exposure down which will reduce brightness of image, hence creating the silhouette. In summary,
1)Take the picture of object against the light
2)Tap to focus on brightest part of image if necessary.
Technique 2
Next, will be a technique called “Painting with light”. For this technique, you will be taking pictures in dark environments. Therefore, it is highly recommended that you use a DSLR as it will take better pictures in low light and has manual functions which are required. “Painting with light” is basically the same as “long exposure photography in the dark”. This technique can yield beautiful image such as:
Now, to take photos like this, two steps are required. After setting up a tripod and getting a brightly-lit torchlight ready,
- Set your shutter speed to open for 10-20 seconds, ISO 100 and Aperture at f/8
- Snap to start ‘painting’
Important! Always choose a dark environment, have a focal point within the picture and constantly adjust the settings of your camera for best quality.
Technique 3
Finally, I will be teaching you a technique known as ‘Background Blur’. ‘Background blur’, also known as ‘bokeh’ in the photography world is a simple yet effective technique. Many don’t even realise that they have built in cameras that are capable of such pictures. Hence they don’t take advantage of this feature. Why this method is so effective is due to how easy it is to execute and how much better certain pictures look. Some examples are:
With how far technology has come, it is no surprise then that you can take ‘background blur’ photographs using your very own smartphone. Higher-end smartphones that have dual-camera functionality such as the iPhone 7 Plus, LG V30 and Samsung Galaxy Note 8 are all capable of taking images with background blur under ‘portrait mode’. As for DSLRs, to achieve ‘bokeh’, you should use Aperture-Priority mode and set to the largest aperture for maximum effect. It is denoted by a capital ‘A’ on the camera. Hence, these are the 3 possible methods to attain a blurry background.
1) Use the “Portrait Mode” on both smartphones and DSLRs
2) Edit in Photoshop (Post-Production)
3) Set camera to Aperture-Priority mode. Then, set a large aperture, which is a low f-number, around f/1.8 or f/2.
So, there you have it. These are the 3 new techniques that you can use to become Instagram famous. While your number of followers may not increase, at least you can be sure that the photos you post are gorgeous. Who knows? Maybe, you become interested in photography and pick it up as a hobby.
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