Shoot PATTERNS AND SHAPES

As a photographer, you can choose from many elements to draw attention to your photographs. Patterns and shapes can often become the strongest elements in a photograph, and you can find them everywhere after you develop a skill for noticing them and capturing them with your camera.
Our minds are always working to make sense of what our eyes see by looking for patterns and shapes in the complex and often over-cluttered environment that we live in. The result is that patterns and shapes are pleasing. Patterns are formed by the repetition of objects, shapes, lines, or colors. Sometimes it is the pattern or shape that makes a photograph a good one, rather than the subject itself. In fact, many good photographs feature a strong pattern or shape that is made by something that is not even recognizable.
When you find a pattern or shape, think how you should shoot it to make an interesting photograph. Use light to make a silhouette, or maybe even use bright highlights to strengthen the pattern or shape.

SHOOT WITH A PLAN to edit digitally
After you start taking photos with a digital camera and editing them with an image editor, you have moved into an entirely new world of possibilities. Each time that you shoot, you should be thinking about what it is you can or cannot do with your image editor after you have taken the photograph; otherwise, you will be vastly limiting what you can create photographically.

Because you can combine one or more photos or parts of photos, remove unwanted parts, substantially modify contrast and tonal range,and much more, you need to think carefully about what you decide to shoot, how you shoot, and even what you may not want to shoot. In the past, because of the cost of film, you may have avoided taking a landscape photo that featured a telephone line or maybe a car that ruined the photo. Or maybe you avoided taking a photo because the contrast was too extreme. When you shoot and edit digitally, you can frequently correct these problems with an image editor.
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