4 Skill-Building Photography Exercises That Really Work
Although it looks easy from a theoretical point of view, photography is hard. It is deceptively hard. However, in reality, there are three learning curves that one need to understand in order to shoot the best images. These include the actual composition of a photo, the technical aspect and the theory of the light and shadow.
The first part is one of the hardest of them all for beginners to grasp. Although light is a science and a camera is just buttons, the composition of the two is an artsy component that cannot be easily taught and wished away.
Fortunately, there are some exercise one can take to help them develop an eye for photography. Here is the most effective exercise to help you with your photography skills.
1. Crop someone’s photos
It is worthy to note that great photography starts with the eye, not the camera. This is the best exercises for photographers. Therefore, is it possible to advance your photographic capability without touching the camera? Yes, it is. For this exercise, you will only require a basic photo editing tool like Paint.
Firstly, acquire the central rules of photo composition. It is likely that you might not grasp everything, but you should at least know something. This exercise will force you to start putting the rules into practice. Now that you understand the composition of a photo, you can download a free image online and start cropping it. The main idea here is to give you the feel on how different crops can create a new look and feel to an image and how some crops are aesthetically authentic than others.
2. Shoot about 10 photos with one subject
Here is a common issue with most beginners: they always take photos from the same height and same angle. It is always natural to stand straight and take shots from the angle of the eye, however, that is a boring way to take images. If you want your pictures to be more compelling, start by changing it up.
Just capture the world from different positions and angles. Taking different shots from different angles and heights is an exercise that benefits your sense of angles.
If you take 10 shots from different angles, no two photos will be the same and the smallest tweaks will give a noticeable impact on the resultant photo.
3. With 3 objects, shoot different photos
In most landscape cases or street photography, the main idea is to capture the scenes as they are. While in portrait cases, the idea is to construct the scenes from nothing. Creating something out of nothing is not an easy task, in fact, there are very many factors to juggle up with.
However, the one particular task beginners find hard to deal with is how to position multiple subjects within one frame. So, the exercise here is to find three objects and position them the way you wish. Think of the objects as a photo shoot and rearrange to get the best scene out of it. This exercise over time will stretch your creative muscles and develop an eye for it.
4. Hula Hoop Photo Walks
Photography is something that is always seen as boundless, infinite, and possibilities. Technically, there is nothing erroneous with that, nonetheless, the reality is that inventiveness has to have some constraints and limits in order to flourish. Now, take a hoop and match out.
Toss it and let leap and roll until comes to a stop stand in the hoop and take some few shots. Once done toss it again and take some few good shots. If you do not have a hula hoop, you can be creative and take fee random steps to find the next stop and take a few shots. With this, your creativity will soon start trickling down.