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Features

15 Ways You Can Improve Your Photography This Year

Chris Gampat
No Comments
01/01/2014
1 Min read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Ilford Delta 400 scans image samples review (6 of 13)

As the New Year begins and now that you’ve probably got brand new gear after the holidays, take a look at these quick tips on improving your photography.

Become a Master of Backlighting

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony A7r review photos brooklyn bridge reddit walk (11 of 14)ISO 1001-320 sec at f - 3.5

Crop, Crop, Crop

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony 50mm f1.4 review zeiss vintage train ride stuff (4 of 6)ISO 8001-80 sec at f - 1.4

Focus on Subject Matter

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony A7r review photos brooklyn bridge reddit walk (3 of 14)ISO 1001-250 sec at f - 5.0

Manually Select Your Focusing Point

Pro Tip: Manual focus lenses are best used by looking at an area, quickly figuring out how far your subject is, setting that distance on the lens, bringing the camera to your eye, touching up the focus, and shooting. In the end, it's also quite a rewarding experience to know that you've nailed the shot.
Pro Tip: Manual focus lenses are best used by looking at an area, quickly figuring out how far your subject is, setting that distance on the lens, bringing the camera to your eye, touching up the focus, and shooting.
In the end, it’s also quite a rewarding experience to know that you’ve nailed the shot.

Slow Down

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Zeiss 21mm f2.8 review images at night and stuff (6 of 11)ISO 6400

Use Flash to Mimic the Look of Natural Light

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Profoto B1 First Impressions sample photos (5 of 10)ISO 1001-80 sec at f - 4.0

Use Straightening Tools

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Zeiss 55mm f1.4 Otus long exposures (6 of 9)ISO 1004.0 sec at f - 8.0

Spend an Entire Year With One Focal Length

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer SLR Magic 17mm T1.6 lens first impressions post (5 of 15)ISO 4001-160 sec at f - 5.6

Learn All About White Balancing Off of a Gray Spot

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujfilm 23mm f1.4 sample images (8 of 13)ISO 2501-30 sec at f - 2.8

Get Low and Shoot from the Hip

20131116Gservo-0429

Realize That Photography Isn’t All About the Bokeh

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Voigtlander 17.5mm f0.95 lens sample images (4 of 17)

Go Do Long Exposures

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Zeiss 55mm f1.4 Otus long exposures (6 of 9)ISO 1004.0 sec at f - 8.0

Create a Photo Series With a Story Board

Pro Tip: the latest emulsions of Kodak Portra were designed to be scanned. We recommend Portra 400 more than almost anything else out there.
Pro Tip: the latest emulsions of Kodak Portra were designed to be scanned. We recommend Portra 400 more than almost anything else out there.

Learn to Read Body Language to Capture Better Candids

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer VSCO film pack 3 street (1 of 1)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 2.8

Keep Your Camera Sensor Clean

Chris Gampat Cleaning your camera sensor (1 of 3)

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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