In photography, just as in life, simple is often best.  So let me help you simplify photography with these five easy tips. Once you incorporate them into your photography, I promise your images will dramatically improve.

Five Easy Tips to Simplify Photography

When I first began as a photographer, I remember thinking how difficult it was to remember all of the different pieces of information I had heard on how to create great images.  Set your camera here, use this lens, never do this, always do that; blah, blah, blah…

Yes, I completely understand that there is knowledge and skill required to take great pictures, but as photographer’s we tend to over complicate things.  In this article, let me help you re-focus on what is most important in photography.  Keeping all of the clutter in your mind that can cause you to over think great images and ruin otherwise awesome images!

Follow these five simple tips, and your images will get better.  I promise.

Let’s get started:

1) Simplify your Photography by Simplifying your Gear

If you have ever tried to learn from some of the past masters of photography, you’ll begin to notice a simplicity to their photography. Not only a simplicity in the images but a simplicity to their approach. For example, Henri Cartier-Bresson mostly used a small Leica camera and a 50mm lens.

By simplifying his equipment, he was less focused on his gear, and less noticeable to those he was photographing.  He was then able to focus his mind on searching for, and capturing beautiful images, not fumbling around with equipment.

©Henri Cartier-Bresson

Ansel Adams said, “…any photographer worth his (or her) salt could make some beautiful things with pinhole cameras.”

The image below, “Moonrise Over Hernandez,” was taken very quickly after Ansel Adams had pulled the car to the side of the road.  He knew his equipment, and he intuitively knew the settings needed for this image.  This is what simplification is all about.  You are ready to shoot at a moment’s notice.

©Ansel Adams

Understanding that gear is not the end-all, be-all of photography will help you to simplify and de-clutter what you have to think about before you even take a picture.

For me, I use a 85mm 1.8 lens 90% of the time. Why? Because I know what I will see with the lens even before I put it on the camera. I am in-tune with the lens, and I know how to use it to create beautiful portraits every time.

I know many photographers who love the 50mm 1.8, and use it exclusively as well.

My advice to you is, stop worrying so much about gear and find a lens that allows you to see through the camera what you see in your mind’s eye.  I would suggest a lens with a small f-stop to allow for shallow depth of field, 2.8 or below.  This will give you a greater ability to be creative in your images.

2) Simplify your Photography by Simplifying your Camera Settings

This is a big one.  So many photographers today feel that if they aren’t shooting in manual mode, they aren’t really a photographer.  Nonsense.  Again, the proof is in the images, not in the camera mode selected.

If you spent less time thinking about the settings of your camera and more about composition or light, don’t you think your images would improve? I know they would!

To simplify camera settings, I would suggest using aperture priority mode for portrait photographers, and shutter priority mode for sports or action photographers.  By shooting in these modes, you are letting the camera choose some of the settings while you select the settings that are most important.  To learn about these camera modes, check out this article on them.

When I shoot an engagement session, my goal is to create images where the couple looks and feels in love.

By understanding this, I know that the background is of less importance and therefore shooting with a shallow depth of field for most of my images will be what I want.

You control the depth of field with aperture, so shooting in aperture priority mode is a good way to simplify your settings.

Again, some people consider shooting in manual mode to be the holy grail of photography, but I’m not interested in those things. I am only interested in delivering excellent images to my clients.

By shooting in aperture priority mode, I simplify by removing the need to think about shutter speed and ISO. I can focus solely on the f-stop I plan to use for each shot. This simplification allows me to focus on what is most important, namely: light, subject, and composition.

In this image from an engagement session, I was in aperture priority mode, with the f-stop set at f2.0. Once I have the aperture decided on and set, I no longer need to worry about camera settings. I can now focus on what matters.

Positioning them with their backs to the sun always creates soft light by backlighting their faces. Ahhhh, soft light.

Then, I simply need to wait for emotion to capture and consider the composition while capturing it. It’s just that easy.

If you incorporate this into your preparation routine, thinking about your image goals before you head out on a shoot, it will greatly simplify what you worry about when taking pictures.

When shooting a bike race, you may have two image goals. One, to freeze motion and two, to show motion blur to give the feel of movement. Achieve both goals by adjusting the shutter speed, thus shooting in shutter priority mode will greatly simplify the settings you need to worry about for this session.

During the race, consider only the shutter speed while shooting and focus your attention instead, on light and composition.

As you simplify your camera settings, you begin to simplify your photography.  Reducing the distraction of too many camera settings, truly allows you to focus on taking great photographs.

3) Simplify your Photography by Removing Distractions from your Images

Removing distractions from your images is an easy way to simplify your images.  In the image below, the clean, minimal scene helps to focus the attention of the viewer exactly where I want it to go.  In the image below of the succulents, the clean white background and soft-directional light has delivered a visually pleasing image and focused the viewer’s attention on the subject.

The very essence of this type of photography is removing anything from the image that distracts.  As a portrait photographer, this is something I often do to draw the eye to the subject.