Taking Better Photographs

July 28, 2011

Interview with Scott Kelby, author of the book The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)

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Mike Carruthers:
Do you take good photographs?

Scott Kelby:
When most people go to shoot a vacation picture, they center everything. The horizon line is in the center of the picture, the person is in the center of the frame, every single thing is centered.
 

Digital photography expert Scott Kelby…

If you want to make your work look more professional, you're going to either put your horizon line in the top third or the bottom third. And you're going to put your subject either to the left third or to the right third. And that is a huge, huge thing in composing the pictures like the pro. They call it the rule of thirds and you'll hear photographers talk about that quite a bit.

Scott says try to avoid taking photographs of just things.

Unless you're out there like trying to shoot the Grand Canyon. One of the things that brings life and excitement to photos is people and getting people into the act. And shooting from angles that, you know, a lot of times when you're shooting low you want to get your kids in the picture. Don't' be afraid to get down on the ground and shoot upward. You'll get some amazing pictures. It's great to climb up on a bench and shoot down at the kids lying in the grass. Anytime you change the perspective from what everybody else always does, all of sudden people will go, "Wow, you've got a really good eye."

And now with digital photography, Scott says what you do with the picture after you take it is very important.

When you go from your camera into your computer and start cropping and retouching and being creative, that's where the fun is, that's the part that you couldn't do before.