How to Make More Interesting Photos

Practical ideas:

1. Hyper colors

Photograph hyper colorful images. Post process the images to push the colors to the extremes.

A tip: shoot with high contrast color and flash to further accentuate the colors.

2. Minimalism

When framing with a prime lens, put your subjects to the extreme top or bottom of the frame to make the scene more minimal.

More minimal compositions = more focus on your subjects.

Another tip: use -1 or -2 exposure compensation to darken the background, to make the scene more minimal.

3. Eye contact

Keep shooting a scene until you get your subjects to make eye contact with you.

4. Colorful abstracts

Section your frame into different colors, and channel your inner Piet Mondrian. The more abstract and difficult to read the photo, the more engaged the viewer will be. Thus the more interesting the photo.

Tip: Don’t make the photo too easy to decipher. Mystery in the photo is good.

5. Depth/layers

Include more depth and layers in your photo to engage the viewer more.

6. Curiosity for the viewer

Make open ended images which stoke the curiosity of the viewer. Let the viewer interpret the photo and come up with their own version of the story behind the image.

7. Textures

I think that textures are fascinating in photography. They encourage us to take a closer, deeper look.

8. Shapes in the frame

Note the high contrast between black and yellow, and the triangle shape in the frame.

Another shape which is good in photo are arrows. Arrows quite literally direct the eyes of the viewer a certain direction: