How can I be better at photos?
March 14, 2016 9:59 AM Subscribe
I'm in an Instagram battle for most awesome posts with one of my friends. I would like to know how to figure out what he might be doing to his photos to make them so awesome? Due to the obviously competitive nature of our competion, he isn't going to tell me.
He does all kinds of things... These little worlds made of panoramas, stuff like his hand in the close up and the entire back of the photo besides the foreground blurred and out of focus, his nature shots have bright bright deep colors and saturation, he uploads videos that have something happen and then the same thing happen again in slow motion. He is light years ahead of me. Any idea what he might be using or doing to achieve any of these things?
He does all kinds of things... These little worlds made of panoramas, stuff like his hand in the close up and the entire back of the photo besides the foreground blurred and out of focus, his nature shots have bright bright deep colors and saturation, he uploads videos that have something happen and then the same thing happen again in slow motion. He is light years ahead of me. Any idea what he might be using or doing to achieve any of these things?
Here's an explanation of depth of field if you're interested.
For the colors, he's likely editing the photos in software like lightroom... or even Apple's Photos app can handle basic editing of brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. You can make pictures look MUCH better (or much worse) with minimal adjustments.
posted by Huck500 at 10:21 AM on March 14, 2016
For the colors, he's likely editing the photos in software like lightroom... or even Apple's Photos app can handle basic editing of brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. You can make pictures look MUCH better (or much worse) with minimal adjustments.
posted by Huck500 at 10:21 AM on March 14, 2016
Can you post some examples? That would make it easier to break it down technically.
But I have a feeling that the biggest reason he takes such better photos is just because he's creative?
posted by like_neon at 10:22 AM on March 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
But I have a feeling that the biggest reason he takes such better photos is just because he's creative?
posted by like_neon at 10:22 AM on March 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
Or he might be stealing the pics from other people's accounts.
posted by like_neon at 10:23 AM on March 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by like_neon at 10:23 AM on March 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
There's lots of ways to edit photos to make them pop. But like_neon has it right, that your friend has a compelling vision that he executes (assuming they're not stolen). You merely imitating him isn't going to make you a winner - you need to come up with your own ideas and then figure out how to make them happen. From your description, it sounds like he's winning because he deserves to win.
posted by Candleman at 10:29 AM on March 14, 2016
posted by Candleman at 10:29 AM on March 14, 2016
He could be using a high quality camera and manipulating the photos in Photoshop. Or, he could be using his phone's camera, but using a non-stock camera app that allows for more settings and manipulations (there are some really interesting options out there, and most are free or cost a few bucks - Google around to see what people are trying to up their Instagram game). What he's almost certainly not doing is using the Instagram app to take the pictures and manipulate them.
posted by quince at 10:31 AM on March 14, 2016
posted by quince at 10:31 AM on March 14, 2016
If I may make a suggestion - take photos imitating what he does but don't post them, maybe even delete them. Just copy. Copying to the best of your ability will teach you a lot about what kinds of choices he's making in the moment and it will give you ideas of your own. This is how I've learned a lot on Photoshop - when I need to make something for real, I do my own work, but when I'm trying to improve, I spend some time mimicking cool things I've seen elsewhere.
posted by Frowner at 10:37 AM on March 14, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 10:37 AM on March 14, 2016 [5 favorites]
I have the wirecutter's budget pick for iPhone lenses. There's a ton you can do with editing, but having some lens flexibility is awesome.
This video on composition explains the basics.
posted by 26.2 at 11:46 AM on March 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
This video on composition explains the basics.
posted by 26.2 at 11:46 AM on March 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Download the phone apps Hyperlapse, Boomerang, Camera+. Camera+ is my all time favorite. All kinds of colors, filters, saturations, videos, effects. It's 2.99 and well worth it if you love messing around with photos, which I do. You can do all of the things you've mentioned with those three apps and then import the photo to instagram. If I recall, you're an app hoarder, so try them out and then delete the ones you don't care for ;)
posted by the webmistress at 11:51 AM on March 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by the webmistress at 11:51 AM on March 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
Echoing that he may not be taking the photos/videos with his phone in the first place. Whether he does or not, an editing app like Snapseed does wonders to photos. Almost all of my Instagram posts go through that app before I post.
As said above, it's hard to know if he might be using that app or another without seeing the photos in question.
posted by veggieboy at 11:54 AM on March 14, 2016
As said above, it's hard to know if he might be using that app or another without seeing the photos in question.
posted by veggieboy at 11:54 AM on March 14, 2016
Get a couple of books -- books -- on how to take interesting and beautiful photographs, and then read them. Even a few chapters can have a large impact on your art.
posted by amtho at 12:18 PM on March 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by amtho at 12:18 PM on March 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
There's a subtle art of using Instagram's filters and parameters in a tasteful way. You might want to try this kind of method, and see what happens:
1. Find some kind of scene that has something interesting going on in terms of shapes, lights, or colors.
2. Bring up the viewfinder and move around a bit to find some suitable framing: experiment with angle, distance, height from the ground, etc.
3. Use the "straighten" tool carefully so that either the horizon or some prominent vertical line is perfectly straight.
4. Use the "shadows" and "highlights" parameters to create a nice balance of light. With a recent camera phone, there is often quite a lot of hidden detail in the photo that you can bring out with these tools—this is what HDR means, that the range of light is larger than what you see, so you can brighten dark spots (or the opposite) after taking the photo.
5. Use the "structure" parameter at a subtle setting if it seems to suit your photo.
6. Slight vignette, barely noticable.
Some of this is the kind of thing that photographers would do while processing negatives, and I think most photos straight from the camera need work with shadows/highlights at least.
Grayscale can also turn a photo with drab colors into a cool artful photo.
Maybe the most important thing is to just get away from the snapshot mentality of just pointing at a thing, and seeing the photo as a whole...
posted by mbrock at 6:42 AM on March 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
1. Find some kind of scene that has something interesting going on in terms of shapes, lights, or colors.
2. Bring up the viewfinder and move around a bit to find some suitable framing: experiment with angle, distance, height from the ground, etc.
3. Use the "straighten" tool carefully so that either the horizon or some prominent vertical line is perfectly straight.
4. Use the "shadows" and "highlights" parameters to create a nice balance of light. With a recent camera phone, there is often quite a lot of hidden detail in the photo that you can bring out with these tools—this is what HDR means, that the range of light is larger than what you see, so you can brighten dark spots (or the opposite) after taking the photo.
5. Use the "structure" parameter at a subtle setting if it seems to suit your photo.
6. Slight vignette, barely noticable.
Some of this is the kind of thing that photographers would do while processing negatives, and I think most photos straight from the camera need work with shadows/highlights at least.
Grayscale can also turn a photo with drab colors into a cool artful photo.
Maybe the most important thing is to just get away from the snapshot mentality of just pointing at a thing, and seeing the photo as a whole...
posted by mbrock at 6:42 AM on March 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I apologize. I think my inherent explanation of my question wasn't as accurate as it could have been - the contest that has developed between this guy and myself is not so much a contest of photography and composition as it is novelty and finding new things to do to pictures that the other one can't figure out how the effects were achieved. I have had my moments, but I'm out of ideas that I know how to implement. (I do think he's a great photographer but that's not the main point.) I moreso wanted to know what he might be doing to achieve these novel affects because they're so cool, but I suppose my question should have been - is the stuff he's doing even doable on an iPhone alone (if so, how?) or is other equipment going to be required for things like that, and secondly, are there any novel things I can do to my photos that I haven't listed here that maybe would leave him feeling as impressed as I feel with the effects he finds? Thank you.
posted by jitterbug perfume at 4:33 AM on March 18, 2016
posted by jitterbug perfume at 4:33 AM on March 18, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
2. He could be monkeying about with apps on his phone before uploading. I particularly like Enlight for this sort of business, but many others are available
posted by bonaldi at 10:16 AM on March 14, 2016 [2 favorites]