10 Practical and Simple Photography Tips

Practical and simple photography tips to get you motivated to shoot more!

1. High elevation

Stand up high, then shoot looking down. This will allow you to get more interesting layers and depth in your photos.

2. Shoot lots of photos of the same thing

If you see something epic (like an epic sunset) shoot tons of photos. Shoot verticals, horizontals, tilt your camera, and experiment with different framing.

3. Shoot indoors

Don’t just shoot in the streets. Often what happens indoors is very interesting; especially when shooting indoor at coffee shops and restaurants.

4. Colors

Whenever you see interesting colorful things, make a photo that divides up the colors.

Top left corner circle, top right curve, and color in bottom right:

5. Photograph designs you like

Photography is also useful as a memory recollection tool. Whenever I see design or fashion I like (design, the color combination, functionality), I like to photograph it for future reference.

6. Shoot things with and without a flash

Without flash
With flash

Whenever I see an interesting scene or textures, I always like to shoot the scene both with (and without) a flash. Sometimes it looks better with a flash, sometimes it looks better without a flash.

You can use the integrated flash on your camera (if it has one, like the RICOH GR II), and even experiment with it on your phone.

7. Keep shooting until you get eye contact from your subject

Keep shooting a scene and intentionally attempt to get detected. Photos with eye contact are generally stronger than photos without eye contact, because it feels more intimate. It feels as if the subject is looking at you!