10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Photography

1. Always carry a camera with you and get in the habit of taking pictures every day.

2. Look at your pictures as soon as possible after you have taken them and critique them. Do the pictures you took match the images you had in mind when you decided to take the picture? Learn to interpret the feedback that your camera gives you after you take a picture (blown highlights, histogram, etc.).

3. Learn the basic control features of your camera: exposure, ISO, white-balance, flash, etc. Stray beyond the green mode of your camera and shoot in aperture/shutter priority or in manual.

4. Consciously think about composition: how do you want to frame things? Shoot horizontal (landscape) and vertical (portrait) pictures with wild abandon.

5. Fill the frame. Get close either by using a zoom or zooming with your feet!

6. Pay attention to the light: try to shoot at different times of the day and notice the difference that makes in your photographs. Also notice the impact of indoor lights on your pictures. Use your flash on sunny days outside. Use no flash in low light.

7. Pre-focus or focus and recompose. Don’t be afraid to manually focus.

8. Shoot at the highest resolution and in raw if possible (you will have more choices to post-process if you have the best information that your camera can capture).

9. Look at the pictures that other people are taking and talk to other photographers. Learn from other people who are interested in photography!

10. Don’t be afraid to play. Take pictures for the fun of it and be experimental with different techniques, subjects, approaches.

A great starting point to find more info on how to take better pictures is Fodor’s tips on photography (composition, techniques, styles…)