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The Three Steps To Better Photography

By Nathan Berry

Updated September 24, 2023

What is it about some pictures that make them so striking and memorable? Read on for the secrets of taking amazing photographs!

What is it about some pictures that make them so striking and memorable?  Have you ever wondered what professional photographers know that you don’t?  Unfortunately, many think it’s all about expensive camera equipment — but what if I told you that by using three simple steps or techniques, you could drastically improve your photography and begin on your way to taking shots like a pro?  Sound interesting?  Let’s take a look.

Here are the three steps and the order to apply them.  Doing these three steps every time will elevate your photography from simple snapshots to professional-quality pictures.  It really is that simple.

1 – Know the subject

Think about what it is you are taking a picture of and make sure you have a clear understanding of the main subject of the photo.  Is it a landscape with your family in the foreground so you can remember that vacation or is it the landscape and your family just happens to be standing there. Many times people take a picture and don’t pay attention to what’s going on in the picture, and therefore distractions get included in the picture.  Check out the picture below:

Now that’s a busy picture.  What can we do to improve this?

2 – Focus attention

Choose what is going to be the focus of the attention of this photograph.  Once you choose the subject we need to focus the attention of the viewer on it.  We can accomplish this in a number of ways such as using a relative size, lighting, framing, selective focus, and my favorite moving around for a better angle and especially getting up close and personal.

3 – Simplify

Now that you have chosen the main subject of the photograph and have chosen a way to draw attention to it, we have one last step.  While looking through the viewfinder, take the time to look around and try to get rid of the distractions that will detract from a great picture.  For the picture below, I chose to use two ways to focus attention and simplify.  I got close to one item and used depth of field to make the background out of focus. This ensured my main subject was clearly defined.  Granted, it’s not one of my better pictures; however, it does illustrate the point of these three steps.

So once again, the steps are:

1. Know the subject
2. Focus attention
3. Simplify.

If you can get into the habit of doing it before you press the shutter release, you will begin to see better and better pictures.  Guaranteed.  It’s that simple.