Picture this: 

Have you been seeing all these fancy and cinematic looking videos on social media lately? You’d like to start creating your own, or you’re thinking about getting into photography? It’s actually easier than you think, and you don’t need fancy gear or a natural artistic gift to get started. In this blog entry, you’ll find tips on how to get into photography and find your own style.

Take it easy, and remember: no need for fancy gear just yet. Just grab a device that takes pictures and have fun. :)

1. What’s your style?

Great question, especially if you’re in the early beginner’s stage. What kind of photography do you find the most appealing?

You can start by opening your social media and see what the algorithm does to your feed. What kind of content do you like to see? What do you think is the most eye-catching, or eye pleasing? You can also look at your phone's camera roll and identify the patterns: do you mostly take pictures of your pets? You might be interested in animal portrait or animal photography in general. Are there mostly pictures of your friends and family? Why not try portraits, or event photography? Your camera roll is full of landscapes? What about nature or wildlife photography? As you may start to understand, the options are endless and you’re free to explore different styles until you find one (or more!) that you really like and want to explore more in depth. 

Your hobbies are also a good indicator of what your photography style could be. Love racing cars and watching sports in general? Maybe that’s it! Baking is your number one hobby? Have you thought about food photography? All the photography styles mentioned here are equally fascinating and in high demand in the industry. It’s all for you to explore! 

2. What are you shooting with?

Phones nowadays have incredible cameras and editing tools that can make your pictures and videos look more than professional. The Internet and social media are full of iPhone photography tricks to elevate your pictures and explore your device's hidden functions. If you have a smartphone, congratulations: you can start with photography! Fun iPhone trick: if you can, go to a stream, a river, a waterfall, or any body of moving water. You can even try the following tip in your kitchen by simply turning on the tap. Take a picture with the live mode on. Then go to your camera roll, and on the “live” icon, select “long exposure”. Your picture should now look like the water is “blurry”, creating a beautiful movement. Thank me later. ;)

If you have a camera or are able to buy one, that’s great too! You can start playing with all the settings and find tutorials on YouTube on how to use it, what each button does, how to best configure it, etc. Don’t be afraid to press buttons and take pictures to experiment with your camera’s settings. Want to try something fun? Play around with the shutter speed on your camera: you can easily create stunning pictures with trails of light and shapes (car lights, moving water, abstract portraits, etc.).

3. Learn about composition 

Learn about different types of shots, the rule of thirds, and all the other photography rules that make pictures “aesthetically pleasing”. Then, once you’ve learnt all about them and you mastered the techniques, you can actually "unlearn" them and really have fun with composition. Remember, photography is, or can be, artistic, and the most important is to have fun manipulating and breaking the rules, if that’s what you’re into. Once you know about composition, you’ll be able to make pictures rather than simply taking them.  

4. Overcome shyness and get people involved

Want to practice portrait photography? Ask you sister to pose for you. See a really cute couple holding hands? Offer to take a picture and send it to them afterwards. These interactions can be wholesome and who knows, you might make a friend!

Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from people, no matter what their level is. Of course, a photographer with 20 years of experience will have great tips to share with you, but your dad, your aunt, your cousins, can also be helpful when it comes to evaluating your current pictures and give you creative suggestions.

Create a photography account on social media! You’ll be able to track your own progress by comparing your pictures to older ones, and you’ll have access to other photographers’ work, no matter their level. It’s also an amazing source of inspiration for composition, editing, and locations for great pictures.

5. How else can you find inspiration?

Don’t know which kind of photography you’re interested in just yet? Or maybe you do, but you’re not sure how to get started with the composition? Watch your favourite movies, but also new ones and pause on stills that inspire you, for example when you like the arrangement of a scene, the way the light hits the actors, the colours of their clothes… Movies can be a great source of artistic inspiration for photographers, and this also applies if you’re interested in videography, for the same reasons.

Ultimately, beauty is highly subjective, and one picture that everyone finds incredibly beautiful or powerful might not be pleasing to your eyes at all. There are some facts backed up by science that explain why a certain symmetry in a picture will more easily catch your eye, or why you’ll find a certain colour combination prettier than another. The most important thing at the beginning of your photography journey is that you have fun, experiment, and practice. 

I hope that was informative! If you’d like more tips on how to begin your photography journey, you can let me know!