Ask A Los Angeles Expert: How To Take Better Pictures With Your Phone
An expert photographer known for celebrity shots of supermodels, Peter Duke is always in front of the A-list of Hollywood glam. Now, he's telling his secrets of taking great shots with your cellphone to capture the best of every moment.
Peter Duke Photography
www.peterdukephotography.com
As a professional photographer for over 20 years, Peter Duke has seen an amazing change come to the art of photography. Peter is known for delivering world-class images to discriminating clients, specializing in fashion, beauty, lifestyle and portraits for editorial and advertising. Peter discusses how the cellphone has changed photography and how to best use the advanced tool most folks have in their hand.
Turn Around And Look For Good Light
"Good light is usually all around us, but to see it, you may need to turn around, and I mean that quite literally. In my career, there have been countless situations where I was struggling to find good light, where I simply turned around to look in another direction. This really helps with people. Walking around someone in a circle may seem like a silly exercise, but by keeping your eye on their face, you'll be surprised by all the different ways someone can look in the same spot. You can even test this with a phone in selfie mode. Stand looking at yourself in the phone and slowly spin in a circle. If you're adventurous, take a photo at all the compass points and compare them. You'll be amazed at the differences and quickly find your favorites."
Shoot Portraits In Open Doorways
"You can almost always find good flattering light for people inside an open doorway that is not being directly hit by the sun (indirect light). The magic of the open doorway is that the light is, mostly, coming from a single direction. By moving a person back and forth a few feet or inches, you can achieve great results. By moving the person back and forth, you can quickly adjust the light balance and fill. Your pictures will look like they were shot in a professional studio."
Shoot Lots Of Photos And Delete At Least 90% Of Them
"The most fantastic part of digital photography is the learning curve, it's instant. Shoot as many pictures as you can get away with, and then edit with extreme prejudice. Get rid of stuff that is not great; don't even show photos to people that are not great. When you delete something understand why you're deleting it. It's easy to hang onto photos of people that you love, because you love the people in the photo, even if the photo is bad, but that does not make it a good photo. Learn something from every photo that you delete and figure out how to do it better the next time."
Finding A "Style" Is Easy - Just Find Something That Works And Keep Doing It
"It sounds simplistic, but the most successful photographers in the world just find solutions that work for them, and then they keep doing those same things over and over again. There is no shame in it. There is a type of photographer that thinks that photos are made with lots of "gear" and they need lots of gear to make all kinds of photos. Camera stores love, love, love those people. Well, the camera phone eliminates that part, so find the things that work and keep doing just those things. Understand that all photographs are 'self portraits.' Everything about a photograph is quite literally a reflection you. You decide where to point the camera. You decide when to take the photo, and you decide what to keep and what to throw away. All of those decisions are integral to who you are as a person."
Use Snapseed By Google
"I don't work for Google, and I'm not getting paid to say this, but I love Snapseed." Snapseed is a photo editing app that was developed by a great software company called Nik Software that was later bought by Google. Snapseed has a bunch of unique filters that allow you to enhance and pull out details and colors in a photo, but the one that makes it truly awesome is called 'drama' that allows you to quickly adjust something that Nik calls the 'structure' of a photo. The app was originally $4.99, but when Google bought Nik, they made it free, so you have no reason not to go grab it right now!
Related: Best Art Galleries In Santa Monica
