Experiment to create UNIQUE PHOTOS

Experiment to create UNIQUE PHOTOS
Break all the photography rules and guidelines that you know. Shoot with a slow shutter speed without a tripod. Zoom or pan your lens with the shutter open while shooting with a slow shutter speed. Intentionally overexpose and underexpose, shoot in high-contrast light, shoot in low light, shoot in the rain or a snow storm. Shoot a subject that you ordinarily do not shoot. Take 50 photos while shooting from ground level. Take 50 photos with your camera set to the smallest aperture. Shoot using extremes extreme vantage points, extreme focal lengths, extreme aperture settings, and extreme distances to the subject.

Shoot in low light for RICH COLORS
Long exposures in low-light environments can create rich, glowing colors that can make spectacular photographs. City streets at night, building interiors, or nighttime reflections in windows can be good subjects to shoot. Fairgrounds with brightly lit moving rides can result in some spectacular images with the brightly colored lights represented as blurred streaks of heavily saturated colors.

When you shoot in low-light levels, you need to use a tripod to get sharply focused photographs. To minimize camera shake caused by pressing the camera’s shutter release and to further reduce

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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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SEASONS CHANGE

SEASONS CHANGE
You can usually get out-of-the-ordinary photos by shooting when the seasons change. In early spring, you can find new buds that can be fascinating to watch as they open. Spring can also bring a nice contrast between the dark browns of winter plants and the green colors of the new spring plants.

Undoubtedly, the rich bold colors of fall can also be a key factor for getting extraordinary photos that are hard to match when shooting at any other time of the year. Determining the exact time to get the best
fall colors and when various plants and trees bloom is more a matter of chance than planning. The best approach for deciding when to go to shoot fall colors is to watch them yourself or find someone who can give you a daily update if you live too far away to visit except when shooting. These wonderful and rather short periods between seasons can provide you with some of the best photographic opportunities of the year.

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Shoot photos with a “WOW!” FACTOR

Shoot photos with a “WOW!” FACTOR
No matter what subjects you like to shoot, there are times where you can capture a photo with a “Wow!” factor. If you shoot sports photos, it may be a photo of two soccer players up in the air heading a ball at the same time, showing the intensity of the play with sweat flying off their faces as you capture the perfect moment when the ball is compressed between their heads.

Nature photographers are always looking to photograph elk with record-setting antlers, or the perfect red fox in golden light, or maybe a black bear mother with four cubs (a rare occurrence). To get photographs with a “Wow!” factor, you need to look for exceptional light, perfect natural specimens, or unusual occurrences, or maybe you just get enough of the photographic variables correct that you get an outstanding photograph through good vision, camera settings, and composition. Often the trick to getting a photo with a high “Wow!” factor is being in the right place at the right time and then using your skills to capture the perfect shot.

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Shoot photos for a PANORAMA

Shoot photos for a PANORAMA
As long as photographs have been taken, it has always been a challenge for photographers to capture the beauty found in wide-sweeping scenes. A wide-angle lens can capture more of a scene than a shorter focal length lens, but wide-angle lenses tend to add unwanted distortion to the photos, and they still do not capture as much of a scene as you often want. Using one of the digital stitching applications or a feature such as Adobe Photoshop Elements Photomerge, you can shoot and later combine multiple photos into a single, long vertical or horizontal panoramic photo.

When you shoot photos that you will later combine using a digital stitching application, you need to overlap each photo by 1/3 to 72 so that you can match and blend the images seamlessly. You also need to be careful to maintain the same exposure throughout your photos. Avoid shooting moving subjects such as clouds or ocean waves that make photos too different to be combined. Finally, you should always use a tripod.

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