How To Take Professional Photos: A Beginner’s Guide

If you want to take your photography to the next level, here are some tips to help you learn how to take good pictures. 

Once you get a hang of these basic pro techniques, it should vastly improve your results.

The best part about knowing how to take professional photos? It leads to new opportunities.

 The more professional-looking photos you’ll be able to produce, the better your online photography portfolio will look.

 And the better your online photography portfolio looks, the more photography jobs you will land.

So, let’s dig in!

Master the Fundamentals of Composition

Choose a Strong Focal Point

The focal point of a photo is the main point of interest. It could be anything from a tree, to a building, to a person (or their eyes). Finding a strong focal point is one of the fundamental steps of how to take professional photos.

 So when you’re planning out or setting up a shot, you should stop and ask yourself, “What do I want viewers to focus on?”

Once you know what your focal point is, you can work towards making it as strong as it can be. 

Many of the composition rules below will help you create an interesting focal point that draws in and holds the viewer’s attention.

Create Depth

Finding ways to convey depth is another important step in learning how to take professional photos. If you ignore this rule, your photos can end up feeling very flat and boring. 

The best way to convey depth is to include some elements in the foreground, middle ground, and background. 

So for example, instead of shooting your portraits with the person standing up against a wall, bring them closer to the camera, or find a better background with some depth.

Make Your Subject Pop by Using Bokeh

Adding a bokeh effect can help when you are trying to add depth to your photos. Bokeh is the term for that intentional out-of-focus blur effect you can see in a lot of professional photos.

 Often, photographers use this effect to keep the subject to be crisp and clear while the background is soft and blurry. The result is your subject will seem to really pop out of the background.

2. Make Sure You Have Good Lighting

Making sure your shots are properly lit is an essential part of how to make your pictures look professional, and it’s something that inexperienced photographers often overlook. 

The first step is making sure you have enough light that your subject is visible. If there’s not enough light, your camera may struggle to capture the details in the scene.

If you happen to be shooting with your camera on automatic settings (which is not how to take professional photos, but more on that later!)

 it will use a high ISO setting or extra-long exposure, and you’ll probably end up with grainy or blurry results. 

And, if you try to brighten things up in Photoshop, you may find you have to make massive adjustments, which also results in a low-quality image.

3. Learn How to Edit Photos Like a Professional

It’s not only about how to take professional photos. You should also learn how to edit photos like a professional.

Photoshop is the professional photographer’s best friend. Practically any image can benefit from some touch-ups, whether it’s cropping, brightness adjustments, color corrections, or other tweaks.

So it’s worth spending some time learning what the program is capable of. There are lots of helpful tutorials available online, including a bunch on the Adobe website.

If you don’t have access to Photoshop and aren’t looking to spend the money on it, there are many free Photoshop alternatives. One of the most popular is GIMP.

But no matter what photo editing software you use, there’s one rule that remains constant: you should use a light touch when making adjustments. Inexperienced photographers tend to go overboard during editing. Start with a preset look and make small adjustments to develop a consistent body of work. If you make too many drastic adjustments, the final result won’t look realistic and your touch-ups will be obvious.

4. Learn Your Camera’s Settings

Relying on the camera’s automatic settings is another thing that will hold you back when it comes to understanding how to take good pictures. While it may work fine at times, you won’t have nearly as much flexibility to get creative with your photography or handle unique situations.

For instance, if you are trying to take a silhouette, your camera may try to capture the wrong details
and you’ll end up dimly lit subject against a blown out background. If you’re trying to shoot at night, it may give you an extra-long exposure when you don’t want it, and you’ll end up with a blurry mess. So spend some time familiarizing yourself with your camera’s settings, because it’s a critical step in learning how to make pictures look professional.

For some help, here is our complete guide to manual settings on your DSLR camera.

5. Pick Up a Tripod

We’ve already covered some lighting equipment, but there’s one more piece of photography gear you should definitely consider adding to your arsenal if you want to know how to take professional photos.

You might think you don’t need a tripod if you have a steady hand and are comfortable with handheld shots. But a tripod allows you to try a variety of shooting techniques that you can’t do without one. Just a few examples include tethered photography, long exposures, or creating your own 3D images.

A tripod also lets you set up your shot and then take care of other aspects of the scene while keeping your camera ready to go. For example, you might want to line up a shot and then speak to a model, make lighting adjustments, or just wait for the perfect moment.

And you don’t have to spend much money to get a quality tripod. For some info on the variety that’s available, read up on these must-have portrait photography accessories.

6. Show Off Your Shots Like a Pro

Now that you know some of the secrets behind how to take professional photos, it’s time to share those beautiful shots.

If you want a way to show off your photos like a professional, you should set up your own online photography portfolio. Don’t worry: even if you’ve never built a website before, it’s easy if you use a website builder!

Look for one that offers customizable templates, so you can create an online portfolio website that shows off your style. Another thing to look for is a platform that offers a free trial; this way, you can see if it’s right for you before making any commitment.