Mar 14, 2013 / Beginner

Quick Tip: Getting the Good Shot

Here at Daily Post, Phoneography month is nearly half finished and we’ve been inspired to see the amazing photos you’ve shared since the start of March, from a photographic perspective on being bipolar, a 360-degree panorama of Leeds, England, to a protest rally in the streets of South Korea. We’ve even been able to follow a runner on their morning run and enjoy the last textures of winter.

Today, we’re going to talk about how to experiment in your never-ending bid to get the good shot. In last week’s Photo Challenge: My Neighborhood, Cheri Lucas urged you to “get low.” This is a great tip to keep in mind — it’s helped me to capture fun shots like Sleepy Moroccan Cat, which I snapped only a couple of inches off the ground:

sleepycat (1)

I often like to combine “getting low” with a great iOS app called Nofinder. Nofinder doesn’t allow you to frame or compose a shot — there’s a large button in the UI that you press to capture a photo. Without the pressure of framing and composition you can hold your phone in any position you like to get the shot — all you need to do is be sure you hit the big black button. Nofinder saves photos to your Photo Library automatically, in black and white and color. Nofinder costs 99 cents, though I feel it’s a great addition to any phoneographer’s iOS kit. In all my travels, I never miss a chance to walk the streets clicking that button over and over — I’m always amazed at what I get. Here’s a shot I call Waiting, taken in Granada, Spain:

waiting

There’s a certain freedom in being released from the rigors of framing and composition, and sometimes, the results are surprising. I used Nofinder to capture the wind on a trip to Cuba:

crazyhair

Your mission, should you choose to accept it

Now remember — you need not use a phone to participate in this challenge or any other challenge we share here at the Daily Post. You can use any camera you prefer.

    • Shoot from the hip: Grab your phone or your camera and experiment with NOT framing shots. Walk around your neighborhood, head downtown, and keep pressing that shutter button while holding the camera at hip level. Find anything surprising in those shots that you may have missed from shooting at eye level?
    • Shoot from the heel: How low can you go? Now that you’ve taken a few shots from the hip, get even lower. Sit on a park bench, or maybe the lowest stair on your stoop. Hold the camera as low as you can and snap away. You’ll be amazed at how your perspective shifts after you’ve taken a few shots from your shoelaces.
    • Share your favorite perspective: Let’s open it up — as a photographer, what’s your favorite perspective to shoot from? Why do you feel that way? In the comments, share a bit about the angle you prefer to shoot from. Bonus points if you can link to a few photos you’ve taken that show off your favorite perspective.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Show Comments

39 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

      1. some of my favourite photographs are shot from the hip or right off the ground. they’re much less stuffy and composed looking, which i love.

        Like

  8. Thanks for mentioning my 360 Degree Panorama of East Leeds in the article, especially amongst the other esteemed blogs.

    I’ve also gladly accepted the Hip & Heel Challenge

    Just looking at my photography articles to see what perspective I seem to work from, I’ve found 3 distinct styles…

    ‘Capture a Day’ which is almost a shoot from the Hip way of photography, always trying to document a moment or day in a creative way http://milnersblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/the-clock-tower-trilogy/

    ‘Up Close & Personal’ I’m always trying to capture the detail as best as possible http://milnersblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/weekly-photo-challenge-delicate/

    …and ‘Long’ Exposure’ one of my favourite styles, as sometimes when you do photography in the dark you never really know what you’ve truly captured until later http://milnersblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/weekly-photo-challenge-reflections/

    Thanks again
    Carl

    Like

  11. I must admit, one of my favorite parts of taking a picture is the framing, but I am quite willing to experiment with photography. I did some shooting, sans viewfinder, this morning. Low is definitely better than high, though if I was at a concert or a large event, high might work quite well. Here are two versions of a shot I took with my iPhone 4s this morning while walking the dog (I hope it’s okay if I use links to flickr). The first one is the image as I shot it, low to the ground and not looking through the UI:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayakergreg/8558115478/in/photostream/lightbox/

    The second is the same shot, with a bit of spin put on it with Camera+:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/kayakergreg/8557006059/in/photostream/lightbox/

    I like how it came out.

    Like

    1. Gunta, from the article:

      Now remember — you need not use a phone to participate in this challenge or any other challenge we share here at the Daily Post. You can use any camera you prefer.

      Like

      1. thank you, I’ve added more pictures, featuring the getting-low-style of the Italian photographer kilometro 00 / Enrico Colussi from Treviso – I think that was the focus of your quick-tip-lesson, right?

        Like