How To Take A Professional Looking Photo

Taking a professional-looking photo cannot be learned overnight. It takes years of practice when it comes to achieving a great image. It can be tricky given that a lot of new cameras have been released in the market today. But with enough knowledge, practice and a decent camera, anyone can take a professional-looking photo.

Whether in business or personal need, a professional-looking photo has a lot of benefits. Producing quality photos for some companies demonstrate credibility and trust from the consumers. With the rise of social media, the company's social media presence, website and other marketing tool is the first impression a client is looking for.  

Photos are usually used on any marketing profile of the business aside from the product and services offered by the company. Low quality and non-professional photos reflect poorly on the business. Visual language has become the primary means of communication between business and customers.

In business, one of the important aspect when it comes to establishing an attractive brand is to convey what your business is appropriate. Professional photos empower you to tell this story without saying a word. Here are some of the steps on how to take a professional-looking photo.

 

Capture Photos with Best Light

Proper lighting is sometimes neglected when it comes to photography. But did you know that it is the most important in making a photo look professional? What makes lighting interesting is that it highlights the subject and present it in the right way.

A great subject with poor lighting often results in bad images, and this is the common mistake that a new photographer often neglects. To capture the best light that professional photographer often mentions, it is best to take photos during the golden hour. This is an hour before and after the sunset. Taking pictures at the middle of the day is not a good idea, but if this will be done look for open shade. Open shade means that your subject is standing in the shade so that direct sunlight won’t hit. It provides the best photos when it is bright and sunny.  

 

Remove Aberration

The professional-looking photo should not have any clutter from the subject. This is usually found on the edges of the photo. When taking pictures, be mindful not only on the subject but also on the clutter that you will see in your LCD.  You need to pay attention to your background to avoid ruining a good shot with something distracting that you don't want in your picture.

It is important always to check the foreground and background of your shot for distracting features. Seeing trees or poles coming out of the head of the people is one common mistake that should be avoided. What makes a great photo stand out is not just about what you add in your framing of the image but what you don't include.

 

Find the Unique Angle

To get a unique angle, it is a must to position yourself down low or up high when taking your shot rather than just standing with the camera straight in front of you like everyone else.

It is important to move around in finding the right angle because you need to find the balance between your subject, central parts of the image and the bottom of the image. This is called the rule of thirds where eyes naturally fall on the places where the grid lines are. It is important to take the shot and look for elements in the frame that are sitting along these lines.  

 

Capture Unique Perspective

Perspective in photography is the spatial relationship between objects within an image. It makes a two-dimensional photograph feel like a three-dimensional scene. Perspective is always added in an image to make it more unique.

In doing perspective in photography, here are some tips to help use depth and scale, and create some stunning images.

Adjust Your View. Take photos at different heights. One of the best ideas when it comes to adjusting your view is trying to get low and capture some interesting foreground in your composition or try composing your shot by stepping to the side of the scene.

Look for Converging Lines. Making use of converging lines to show a sense of distance is a common technique in photography. This is a great way to add a sense of depth and drama to your images.

Use Colour Contrast in Your Photos. Colour and contrast can help to add a sense of depth to a photograph, making it come alive. Photos that are blurry and less in-focus tend to be further away, and you can use this to indicate depth or distance in your photography.

Using these different depths, it can help bring photography to life. A sense of depth helps to create images that look more real, and have a sense of energy and drama.

 

Look for Proper Exposure

When it comes to finding the proper exposure in photography, this means the brightness and the darkness of the photo. Digital cameras are often suitable for neutral exposure, but it is not always the best exposure. Taking pictures during a sunny day, it will likely make it face of the person dark and the background too bright. The neutral exposure is mid-way between exposing for the face and the background.  

But when you take a photo, you know that the face is far more vital than the background, so it will brighten the exposure for the face and let the background go bright. Go for the proper exposure, not the neutral one.

An HDR (high dynamic range) photo technique can also be applied. A dynamic range is a difference between the lightest and darkest that you capture in a photo. Once a subject exceeds a dynamic range, it is difficult to snap a picture, but with modern techniques and advanced processing of software, a photographer has a way on how the device can make it happen.

 

Edit like a Professional

People often forget that the best thing to capture a good photo is to how this is process after taking a shot. This is merely editing which can quickly make decent photos look more attractive. Adjustment on low, high and colour and depth are one of the most important aspects to look for when it comes to editing.

Images or Photos need to be edited to bring out the full colour, bring up the shadows or dark spots, add the natural warmth back to a scene, sharpen the image, and more.