I made the opening photograph for this article on South Georgia Island during a 2020 Antarctica expedition. It’s my favorite image from the adventure for one main reason: It’s exactly the type of photograph I envisioned before I left home to explore the bottom of the world.
I like this photograph for another reason, which is more important to you: It illustrates many techniques, 22 to be exact, that help to make a good photograph.
In reading this article, keep in mind that even if one of your photographs illustrates only a few of these techniques, you’re on your way to making a picture rather than taking a picture; in other words, turning
a snapshot into a great shot.
You’ll see that several of these techniques somewhat overlap, and I hope that overlap will help you to remember them. In addition, it’s sort of like Orsen Welles’ philosophy: You need to see a movie three times to get the most out of it. Let’s go.
Tip #1: Set a Goal
In our photography, as well as in our life, of course, it’s important to set a goal. If we don’t set a goal, how do we know where we’re going? My goal for this photograph was to shoot low and close to the animals, which illustrates two techniques: First, the low angle adds a sense of power (“kingliness”) to the king penguins. Second, the closeness of the subjects adds a sense of “being there,” because the closer you are to the subject, the more intimate the subject (and the photograph) becomes.
Here’s the unprocessed shot I took just before I took my favorite shot. For both shots, I was holding my Canon EOS R with flip-out screen and 24–105mm lens (set at 24mm) low to the ground. My camera was set to a high frame rate in an attempt to capture the moving subjects, separated from each other, against the awesome background. This photo is one of 43 outtakes (taken in rapid succession) from the photo session.
Tip #2: Visualize the End Result
Famed landscape photographer Ansel Adams talked about visualizing the end result: knowing how a photograph will turn out before the shutter is snapped. This technique, of course, comes with practice, experience, and knowledge. We need to visualize how camera settings, lens choice, exposure, and image-processing techniques will affect our photograph.
In this case, I knew I wanted a picture that showed the foreground penguins in sharp focus against a fairly sharp background. To accomplish that goal, I used a wide-angle lens setting (24mm) and a small aperture (f/16) for good depth of field. And, I had to set my focus point on the foreground penguins.
Tip #3: Tell a Story
Photographers, and all artists, are storytellers. Famed guitarist Carlos Santana, for example, can tell a love story by plucking a few pieces of wire strung on a long and relatively thin piece of wood.
When I was on South Georgia Island, I also took tight headshots of the king penguins (with my Canon 100–400mm IS lens at 400mm). Headshots also tell a story, but it’s a totally different story, one of how magnificent, majestic, colorful, and cool these animals look. In reality, you or I might be able to get this type of shot in a zoo or wildlife park.
Tip #4: Compose Carefully
Photographer Edward Weston said, “Composition is the strongest way of seeing.” I agree and I’ll add to that: Knowing about composition makes photographers appreciate the world around us and the gift of sight, because we see “frames” of life rather than a cluster of moving scenes.
When composing a picture or deciding what to put on a canvas, keep in mind that painting is additive (the painter adds to the canvas); whereas photography is subtractive (the photographer, with composition or with cropping, subtracts distracting and non-important elements from a scene). When composing and cropping, keep this philosophy in mind: If something in the frame doesn’t add to the image, take it out.
Tip #5: The Name of the Game Is to Fill the Frame
I have lots of “Sammonisms,” tips or one-liners that drive home a photo tip quickly and easily. One of my favorites is: “The name of the game is to fill the frame,” which means just fill the frame with interesting elements.
Of course, there’s something to be said for negative space in the frame. That open space can add, naturally, a sense of openness to a photograph. Negative space is also important in music. In fact, the space between the notes is just as important as the notes themselves. Claire de Lune by Claude Debussy is a good example of the effectiveness of negative space.
Tip #6: Get Up Close and Personal
(As I said, some of these techniques overlap each other.) I mention getting close again because this technique is so very important if you want to try to establish an intimate connection between the subject in your photograph and the viewer of the photograph.
The photograph above shows the same penguins in the foreground and background as you see in my opening photograph. It’s a kind of behind-the-scenes shot. Because I was standing up, and not close to the animals, the picture doesn’t have the same personal connection and intimacy as the opening photograph.
Tip #7: Use Border Patrol
Before you take a picture, run your eyes around the edge of your camera’s viewfinder or LCD monitor (or smartphone screen) to see if any elements are sticking into the frame that can be distracting to the viewer. If you can’t recompose or zoom in to eliminate them, crop them out when processing.
When photographing animals (and people), check the borders of the frame to make sure the subject isn’t cut off at the joints: wrists, ankles, knees, and so on. Here’s a good way to remember this idea: Don’t amputate the subject at the joints.
Tip #8: Consider the Rules of Photography and Art
Sure, rules were meant to be broken, but it’s a good idea to know the rules before you break them. My photograph illustrates a basic rule of composition: Place the main subject(s) off-center. When you do that, the viewer of the photograph looks around the image to see what else is happening, as opposed to getting stuck on the subject when it’s placed dead center in the frame. Another “Sammonism” is: Dead center is deadly!
Tip #9: Choose Your Camera Settings Carefully
Our basic camera settings—ISO, shutter speed, and aperture—comprise the exposure triangle, and when you change one, it affects the others. Also important, however, are exposure mode (aperture priority, shutter priority, manual), focus point, type of autofocus (one shot or focus tracking), and white balance.
I talk about this stuff in my KelbyOne online classes. For now, my advice would be to get to know what each and every setting does so you don’t miss a once-in-a-lifetime moment, such as when three penguins walk right past you on a remote island at the bottom of the world.
On that latter note, many folks missed getting great shots on the 2020 Antarctica and South Georgia expedition because they didn’t know their camera settings. This was mostly because they brought with them new cameras bought right before the trip—never a good idea!
Tip #10: Look for Gesture
Gesture is very important in wildlife photography. Perhaps my favorite part of my king penguin photograph is the gesture of the penguin on the right: See how he’s stretching his neck back toward the two other penguins. Another cool gesture is the position of the middle penguin’s right foot, showing that he’s walking, which adds a sense of motion to the still image.
Tip #11: Seek Separation
We see the world in 3D (height, width, and depth), but a photograph and a painting show the world in 2D (height and width). As photographers, one of our jobs is to try to create a sense of depth in an image. Separating the subjects, as you see in the first image, is one technique. Shadows and leading lines, as well as photographing close to a subject in a wide-angle scene, are other techniques.
Composing in layers is yet another technique for creating a sense of depth. In the main image, the foreground penguins are on one layer, the background penguins on another, and the mountaintop in the background on yet another layer.
Tip #12: Crop Creatively
Cropping gives us a second chance at composition. For my penguin shot, I cropped some of the boring rocks in the bottom of the original frame and part of the dull, overcast sky at the top of the frame to add more impact. Basically, cropping can add more impact to your image.
Tip #13: Use Your Camera Like a Drone
I used to say, “Use your camera like a spaceship,” meaning move it up and down, tilt it left and right, and pitch it forward and backward for different and creative effects. As you’ll note, I’ve updated my saying to, “Use your camera like a drone.”
I took the image on the right while standing on the shoreline of South Georgia Island, and it’s a boring snapshot. I was using my camera like a drone, but in the wrong way.
The image below shows the same penguins and the same beach; but here I used my camera like a drone effectively by getting down low. That low camera position produced a much more interesting photograph of the same penguins than when I was standing.
Tip #14: Watch the Background
The background can make or break a shot. In most cases for me, the background is equally as important as the main subject. In fact, many times I’ll find an interesting background with good light and wait for a subject (such as penguins) to walk into the scene. Many street photographers I know do that, too.
Tip #15: Check Your Exposure
On a digital camera, the histogram and highlight alert are your in-camera light meters, helping you to get good exposures. Check them often to make sure your image reflects your creative vision.
Tip #16: Set Your Focus Point
Just because you have an autofocus camera, it doesn’t mean that the camera knows where you want to focus. Before you photograph, check your focus point setting to make sure what you want in focus will be in focus. Many cameras also let you set an AF point display, which shows you where you focused after you took a photograph. This feature can be especially helpful when checking images on your camera’s LCD monitor.
Also learn about focus zones, from one-point focus to super-wide-frame focus. For birds-in-flight shots, I choose super-wide, but for most of my shots, I set one-point focus and place that one point on the main subject.
Tip #17: Consider Your ISO
My dad had a great saying: “If a picture is so boring that you notice the noise, it’s a boring picture.” Today, many photographers are obsessed with noise (zooming in 400%), and they’ll do everything possible to reduce or eliminate noise in Photoshop and Lightroom, programs that actually have amazing noise-reduction features. But, like everything else in life, reducing noise has a tradeoff: It can soften an image. My advice is to set a low ISO, rather than letting the camera automatically choose the ISO, so you start with a clean (little noise) image.
Tip #18: Create a Mood
Knowing all these tech tips is great, but that’s not the most important element in creating an artistic image or an image with impact. It’s the ability to create a mood or feeling in an image. For my penguin photograph, I was actually quite lucky because the cloudy and overcast sky created the perfect mood for the scene. If the sun had been shining brightly, I think the soft mood of the scene would have been lost in the hardness of the light.
Tip #19: Respect the Subject
When photographing animals, respecting the subject is of the utmost importance—for the photographer and for the subject. You don’t want to harass animals to get your shot. For my penguin shot, I waited for them to walk past me because the rule on South Georgia Island is that you can’t get closer than 15′ to the animals (but it’s okay to photograph if they walk up to you, which they often do).
Tip #20: Process with Purpose
We live in the “slider generation,” meaning that with a simple slider adjustment, we can change just about everything in an image: brightness, contrast, saturation, shadows, highlights, color, and much more. Many photographers adjust the entire scene when processing, making what are called “global adjustments,” but for more creative control, it’s much better to think like a painter: Work selectively on individual parts of an image using brushes.
Tip #21: Create Your Own Reality
This isn’t a technical suggestion, but rather a philosophical one that no doubt helped me get my favorite penguin shot. In my Photo Therapy book (which is all words and no photographs), I talk about creating our own reality, creating the life we want to live, and achieving the goals we set.
In thinking about this photograph, I was trying to trace how many steps I took in the right direction in my life that brought me to that exact place on the planet at that exact moment in time. Without going into the long story, I’ll say that meeting and becoming friends with one person about 15 years ago was the main factor.
Consider all your encounters and actions, and always remember that we’re all in control of creating our reality—to a degree. I say “to a degree” because sometimes negative things happen to all of us over which we have no control.
Tip #22: Have Fun!
If you have attended any of my sessions at Photoshop World or have seen my KelbyOne classes online, you know that one of my favorite “Sammonisms” is this: “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing something wrong!”
So, keep all the aforementioned tech tips in mind, but also remember to have fun, because that spirit of fun will be reflected in your photographs.
This article originally published in Lightroom Magazine issue 58 (February, 2020). All images ©Rick Sammon.
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