New Uses

Everyone knows you can do cool things with photo filters, but what about putting something in front of the camera lens itself? This picture was taken with some weird kaleidoscopic glasses. You can also achieve crazy pictures through water, cellophane, and anything else see-through. Some things, like these glasses were fine to hold right up to the lens itself, but if you have something with shapes on it you want visible (such as cellophane with a flower pattern), you might need to enlist a second person or some sort of stand with clips to hold it so that the shapes don't blur. This can result in a blurred background as well if your camera focuses on the foreground shapes and it is still too close for both layers to be focused on.

Shapes and Shadows

Sometimes the best photos aren't of an actual real object. This was captured when I noticed it on the front porch on my way to work. Now, I'm not calling this an amazing photo, but it's an amazing example of how looking at objects doesn't always give you the best shot. Sometimes it's the way light, water, or other things play with the objects to make whole new shapes. This was water and stains on the side of the porch wall that look like a skull. I haven't seen this happen ever again, but I managed to catch it the one time it has happened. Shadows are much easier to play with since the light comes back each day and you can move the objects or light sources to make things the way you want them.

Journal the Unexpected

Everyone knows and loved the Mystery Machine! This pic was taken just before Halloween, so I bet I know what this group of meddling kids was planning to be.

 

This shot is a little harder to make out since I was trying to capture both cars in the image. It's a Camaro SS with a tiny exact duplicate of the same car sitting toward the back of the engine. Carception? Or more like "Yo dawg, I heard you like Camaros so I put a Camaro in your Camaro so you can show off while you show off?"

One way to get great photos is through candid shots. As if you're making a visual journal, you can always just photograph random things throughout your day because if you see something weird, you might never see it again. Plus, Instagram and Facebook are great ways to share these little moments with other people! If you remember before the internet, you'd try to tell others about what you saw, but you could never get them to imagine it exactly and god forbid it was something too amazing to be believed!

Even candid shots of people can be the best photos. Capturing someone while they're not paying attention, but also when they aren't blinking or making funny faces, can lead to some fantastic natural shots that are often much more attractive and show more personality than any studio shot in the whole world.

Trailing Off

This picture looks more impressive than the amount of work that went into getting it. One of the tricks to getting a good Instagram photo is that you simply have to start with a good camera or good picture. What I mean is the quality. You want a high-resolution image so that you can't see the individual pixels of an image. Older photos or ones taken and blown up from the internet have a bit of fuzzy coloring and texture to them. With the iPhone this isn't a big concern because it is great quality for a camera on a phone.

When you frame up your shots, you also need to make sure they're well focused. If you tap once on your screen in shooting mode, the camera will try to focus the area you tapped on. If your image is still out of focus, then you are simply too close to the object. This picture was actually taken about 6-8 inches from the subject. Because you've started with a higher quality image, you can zoom in once you're in Instagram and the image will still look crisp and clean because you don't need to zoom in much so there isn't much loss of quality.

After that it was as simple as popping the Lo-Fi filter on this because I felt it gave a nicer, more contrasty, old school feel than the original. The background sinks away more definitively and the flowers pop out.

Shoes

Anyone can post pics of their shoes, but it's usually sterile, plain shots of the shoe sitting on the floor fully in frame. Now this works for selling most products, but as a photo to be enjoyed it often doesn't invoke much response. Instead, try zooming in very close, capturing the texture of the shoe. Or try a strange angle like shooting the picture from underneath or up one side. Just because a person can't see the whole subject of your photo all at once doesn't mean it isn't effective. An air of mystery or a unique perspective can greatly add to an images charm and power. This image, for example, is the inside side of one of my athletic sneakers. There's more interest here because it is a focus of color, pattern, and texture, rather than just a picture of a shoe.