How to capture the beauty of everyday life in the camera

We all have things to share. We all love to share the big events, like a trip overseas we’ve been planning for months, or a once in a lifetime marriage.

But our everyday life has already so many adventures in it that our short attention span fails to even give notice sometimes. Our limited memory and occupied minds because of our busy schedules are also disadvantages in this matter.

With a great and affordable camera, skills in photography and some useful tips; you can definitely capture, share and remember the beauty of everyday life.

Use only candid and unscripted moments.

An unplanned moment is a captivating image. It tells a very sincere side of a story. In order to take one, usually, it helps if your subject is not aware that you are actually around.

However, it is still a good idea to ask for permission from your subject first. This helps in cases where your subject doesn’t like his photo to be taken in the first place, or when you are in a private property owned by someone you don’t know.

After you are safe to proceed, tell the subject to act naturally. Ask them not to pose. Blend yourself in his environment quietly and secretly. Let him feel that it is just one of his normal days. Do this until he almost forgets about you. Then take a picture.

This, of course, requires a lot of patience – but it’s worth it. You’ll be amazed by the end result.

Know that subjects are sometimes humorous when left alone. Parts of your image which are contradicting in appearance may also be noticed. These parts differ in colour and size but in such a beautiful way for your picture.

A natural, candid, and unscripted image provides a lot of creativity to your work. It might as well be a fun activity for you.

Become a storyteller.

To become a good storyteller by using pictures and not words, there are certain steps you should know.

Have a plan. Decide which of your everyday life moments strike you the most, or think about the things you don’t want to forget in the future. Jot them down in a paper. You can use this as your source of inspiration or motivation to create the best photos.

Going over the list, think on how to accomplish it best. Ask yourself about where to take these photos? What will be the best time to take these? What probable challenges you might get? How can you solve them? Make notes. Being prepared beforehand will provide a better chance of success for your photos.

A good visual storyteller knows how to capture the emotions of the subjects or what the people in the picture feel. Taking several images of the same activity will give you a whole story where you’ll witness the gradual changes of emotions behind your picture. Capturing everything helps you to tell the whole story and not just a part of it.

Look for the light.

Learn how to properly use light. Observe how it falls on your subject. Decide on which shooting position will give you the greatest advantage in using light. Then get yourself in position or in the right angle.

Timing your shoot (especially when you are outdoors) is always a good idea. We are all humans and it is in our nature to be drawn to light. So aside from the technical information stored in your brain, you can actually master the feel of choosing the best light.

Yes, you can always photograph indoors if the situation demands. It’s just that, as much as possible, you should attempt to get the best light available.

There are so many ways where you can play around with light or when you can utilize light in a very interesting manner. Having your image a silhouette or a backlight is some of the many examples.

Be creative with your approach on using light.

Turn the ordinary into extraordinary.

Remember that whatever stands out in an environment is what our eyes normally see. However, for a camera with a deep depth of field, an entire scenario can be possibly captured.

Capturing an entire scene helps you in discovering which of the things have the greater importance that our naked eyes fail to consider. You must have attention to details because they are something we normally can’t see in a seemingly repetitive view we have every day.

Focus on a smaller portion. It doesn’t mean that you’ll have to dissect all of the elements of your picture into tiny details. Basically, you’ll just need to know the things there which weren’t supposed to get unnoticed by an untrained eye of a normal person.

The more you’ll practice on it, the more you will get better at turning ordinary things into extraordinary.

Change out your angles.

Taking images in the same viewpoint always is rather dull and boring. The most common way is taking a picture at eye level with the subject. To solve that, change your shooting angle to make your pictures look more lively and meaningful.

So try to always move around your subject and discover the different angles you can choose from. By changing your positions, you’ll be surprised that there are actually a lot of better ways to capture a moment than your usual and original way of taking pictures.

You can take positions in different ways, and like mentioned, it’s important to try all the positions before deciding on the best one. And because by merely moving your feet and body, you can have a lot of positions already, you can gain different perspectives for your image.

You can take a parallel position to your subject or try a sideways view. Make the back view as well. You may also change your height to change your position. You can stand over your subject or you can position yourself lower.

It is true that you won’t necessarily use all of the pictures but these different positions are great for enhancing your artistic touch in photography. You will have the skill in choosing the right position which will provide the greatest impact and will communicate your story the best way.

If you put your mind into it, it might quite be a daunting task sometimes, especially if there is not enough space for you to change your positions, but in the end, it will definitely give a different depth and dimension to your work.

Use natural frames.

It’s like a life-hack tip to consider framing as a composition tool, so you better remember it. It can make your storytelling more artistic, in-depth, and more beautiful. Natural frames specifically do the job best.

Natural frames when efficiently used will make your viewers immediately gain interest in your photography. These frames have that quality to make someone feel the important parts of an image.

Like in some images about everyday real moments, you can create a natural frame around your subject. Just take some elements that are already present in your image. It is usually the background or the environment of your subject. Then use these elements to frame them around your subject, thereby highlighting your subject in a very artistic manner.

Capturing the beauty of an everyday life through a camera is a very rewarding task. All you have to do is follow the different ways of properly doing it and you are good to go.