Are you tired of taking boring pictures? Or maybe you have just gotten into photography and want to up your game. Either way, there is hope!
With photography becoming more popular than ever with social media, you will want shots that will set you apart from the rest. With a list of interesting perspective shots, you will be ready to take your photos to the next level.
Keep reading for our list of ten ways to take unexpected photos.
1. Reflections
Reflection pictures are an easy way to gain interest and perspective in a photo. A reflection shot can be a variety of things from water reflections such as puddles or rivers. Or you can use a mix of light and mirrors to get interesting reflections.
With reflection photos, getting close to the surface or the ground will emphasize the reflection and create a beautiful sense of symmetry.
2. Shadows
Shadow pictures can create a mysterious and intriguing mood for the audience. Harsh lighting is great for producing a strong shadow effect. Harsh lighting heightens the contrast making the photo more intriguing.
Shadow pictures can look great in black and white or with high contrasting colors. For even more interesting shadow pictures, look for complex patterns that highlight the shadows and light.
3. Foreground
The foreground can be easily overlooked when it comes to photography, although it can make for rare and unexpected photos. People are often more concerned about their background but if you have an interesting foreground you will gain even more attention.
For example, if you taking pictures in a field, put some flowers close to you in front of the lens, out of focus, and then make sure the focus is on whatever you are looking to shoot.
4. Golden Hour
Golden hour is the best time of day for taking pictures. Golden hour is the hour before the sun is going to set. The lighting at this time of day is bright enough for taking pictures but, not as harsh as it would be if the sun were at its peak.
You can get soft lighting this time of day and will make for excellent pictures. Golden hour is the ‘golden rule’ for great photography shots.
5. Ariel Photography
A popular way to get great shots lately is ariel photography. Ariel photography is used with a drone to get unique photos you would not be able to take otherwise.
With drone photography, it is important to get an excellent drone such as the DJI Mavic 3 https://www.drdrone.ca/pages/dji-mavic-3. Drones such as this one have an average flight time of 46 minutes per charge and have autofocus and a wide view lens.
Ariel photography is great for stunning landscapes such as beaches, mountains, and deserts.
6. Long Exposure
Long exposure may seem intimidating if you are new to photography but, it doesn’t have to be! To get cool shots at night with lights and cars long exposure is your best friend.
To use a long exposure, set your camera on a tripod, use as low an aperture as possible, use a wide-angle lens and a slow shutter speed. Be sure not to use flash and set your camera on a timer. You will be left with awesome-looking photos!
7. Wide Angle
Using a wide-angle lens covers more surface area. Many smartphones these days have a wide-angle option, that is why you see multiple cameras on many smartphones. Wide-angle creates great photos particularly for landscapes or nature shots.
8. Complimentary and Contrast Colors
If you ever took an art class, you may be familiar with complimentary colors. These are colors on the opposite sides of the color wheel that ‘complement’ each other. Complimentary colors make for photos that are fun to look at as our eyes are naturally attracted to complementary colors.
Did you know the first color photograph was taken in 1861 by a Scottish physicist? James Clerk Maxwell is also well known for developing electromagnetic theory. Be sure to honor this achievement by heightening the contrast in the photo editing process to make your colors pop!
9. Bokeh Effect
You have probably seen some beautiful Bokeh pictures and may not even know there was a name for it. Bokeh comes from the Japanese word Boke which means ‘blur’.
Simply, the Bokeh effect is a blurred background with a sharp subject in focus. A lot of times this can look like round, blurry lights in the background.
You will need to adjust the aperture and use a fast shutter speed to achieve this effect.
10. Time Lapse
Time-lapse pictures create an effect that makes it look like the shot was moving quickly when in reality, it is taken over a long period. Time-lapse can look particularly interesting when taking photos of traffic or a changing sky such as a sunset.
For these photos, you need software on your camera that tells it to take pictures at certain times, so you don’t have to do it manually unless you have a lot of patience! You will also need a high-capacity memory card to hold all of those great shots.
You can turn time-lapse photos into a video to show the changes or edit all the individual photos into one large photo.
Which Unexpected Photos Will You Take?
Photography can be a fun hobby and, it becomes easy to mix techniques and shots once you get the hang of it. Taking unexpected photos will be sure to gain you compliments and social media likes.
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