A Few Changes Can Lead to Great Photos: Tip 1

Life Lesson from Photography School

Contributing Photographer: Carla Ackermann

So glad you can join me as we explore some basic

photography concepts in this series “Life Lessons from Photography School.”

This wonʼt be a time where we learn a whole lot of technical

stuff; there are hundreds of websites to do that! We are simply going to explore a few

little changes that can be made to improve your photos. More importantly, we will see

how these same concepts can help you improve your life. That is the focus! Letʼs see

what we can learn from photography school….. (stop by and check out the other insightful tips)

Lesson 1- A Few Changes Can Lead to Great Photos

Lesson 2- DIY Reflector and Boucing Light

Lesson 3- Waiting for that Great Shot

Lesson 4- Shooting from Different angles 

Lesson 5-Working the Blur Technique and Leaning on it

Lesson 6- Clear the Clutter

Lesson 7- Check Your Settings

Lesson 8- Night Shots

Change Your Focus

One of the current photographic trends involves photos taken with a wide open aperture

(the lower the number of your aperture setting, the “wider” it is). An open aperture

produces blur or bokeh in the background (and often the foreground) which makes the

part of the image that is in focus pop.

The effect can be striking. Set your aperture low/wide (refer to your camera manual for setting aperture),

focus on the most important object, and shoot your picture.

An open aperture can also visually eliminate objects from the frame by throwing things

so out of focus that they donʼt capture our attention. In the following photos, the objects,

flowers, are the same, but the photos are very different. By changing the

object that you focus on, you have completely changed the picture.

What we focus on in life is much the same. How often do we focus on the weeds or the

dry, dead things instead of the beautiful flowers? Do we look at all the things that are

going wrong in our lives or do we see the blessings that God is giving us?

Every life picture has both negative and positive. By simply adjusting what we focus on,

the picture of our lives changes dramatically. Focus on the Beautiful instead of the Ugly.

See the Good that God has given us. It is what we set our minds on, what we choose

to focus on that really matters and colors our days, our lives. It is a choice we make in

life – just like in photography. By changing what we focus on, the picture of our lives

changes too.

Change your focus – sometimes that is all we need to make our lives a beautiful picture.