1 - Always catch a smile
Your pictures will be a collection of carefully planned moments as well as spontaneous and unexpected ones. And your best shot might actually appear when you’re least expecting it. Just like a smile. It´s the smile on your motif that turns your best shot into a perfect one.
But however you do it – always remember to have fun photographing. Learn the first and most important lesson of all: Enjoy the moment you are about to create and capture it.
2 - Change your perspective
Here’s the real secret of taking a great photograph. Stop looking and start seeing. Looking is what we do all the time. We look — glance at a dog, a flower or a baby, a wedding — and take a pretty picture. Seeing is entirely different. It involves doing what great photographers do: taking the time to perceive the world and its components, and then taking time to turn these perceptions into works of photographic art.
Looking has one direction. Seeing perceives a 360 degree view. To really see an object, we have to look at it from all angles. And, since we don’t have eyes on our backs or hands, that may require us to lay on the ground, climb a tree or simply look straight up before taking the picture.
3 - Play with light
Just as white is a complement of black, light is a complement of shadow. Try photographing the object’s shadows rather than the object itself.
They’re always a sure thing for a great image. And they’re all around you!
Is it dark outside? No reason not to take your camera along. Here is our proof: It shows you what the powerful Xenon flash is capable of: turning the dark into a source of high-visibility images.
Make the sun the star of your photo.
4 - Use reflecting surface
Great photographs tell stories. Dare to tell the story behind your motif. Just take a look in the mirror
and let the reflection create the suspense for your picture story.
Start looking for the shots your surroundings are giving you at this very moment: the reflections of a
glass facade, the soft drink bottle on the table, your girlfriend’s sunglasses, a glass building or even water.
5 - Focus on details
Wait a second! Don’t click yet. Take another step closer. And another. And yet another. Now stop and focus.
The wonders are revealed in close-ups. They add up to a beautiful picture. You have to see the beauty contained in the details in order to get the big picture.
6 - Capture the motion
There are only two ways to photograph motion, either you move the camera, or the object you’re shooting is in motion.
It’s as simple as that. And when you’re capturing motion in pixels, remember what you learnt about
shooting from unusual perspectives.
Don’t let a great shot pass you by. Try to create a greater blur effect for your photo. Do both by
releasing the shutter while focusing on a fast-moving object.
7 - Control the sharpness
Direct the viewer’s eye to the part of a picture that’s important for you. Separate the foreground from the background, and, while doing so, combine the in-focus and blurred components into a great picture.
Great photographs say something about life. Learn to tell the important from the unimportant. Learn to use auto focus properly to create more depth in your pictures.
8 - Stage the colours
Every colour is unique. And every masterpiece is a perfect arrangement of colours. It´s time for you to show your colours. Search for the most impressive blue or the most mystic green. Or just get started with capturing your favourite colour.
Just having a palette with all sorts of different colours doesn’t make you an artist yet. Try to
concentrate on two or three colour combinations to create a masterpiece of hues and harmony.
9 - Oppose the extremes
Opposites attract — attention!
Make use of this principle in creating pictures which attract attention.
To make sure that the opposites do the job, place them right next to each other. Team up big and small, colourful and grey, old and new, soft and hard, light and dark in their most extreme forms.
10 - Provoke a situation
What makes a photograph great, is the feelings it evokes. These feelings include everything from a laugh to a sense of awe at nature’s wonders. So before releasing the shutter, ask yourself what emotion you want your image to convey.
Remember: you’re the director of this photograph — but you’re also in charge of the setting. Consider the space around you and instruct your actors in order to create a picture-perfect situation.
From "Sony Ericsson Mobile Photograph Guide" with a bit edited
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