How to Take Better Photos of Your Everyday Life — Transcript

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1. 0:00I've taken a lot of photos that I really
2. 0:02love at times where I was getting paid
3. 0:04or where I was planning to take photos.
4. 0:05But when I think of some of my favorite
5. 0:07images of all time, [music] they're more
6. 0:09personal. They're more everyday. And
7. 0:11that's the space that I want to talk
8. 0:13about today. I'd like to give you my
9. 0:15five
10. 0:16to eight tips. Five just sounds better
11. 0:19for the thumbnail. On [music] how to
12. 0:20take photos of your everyday life that
13. 0:23don't suck. It's not a very high bar.
14. 0:25This isn't a very high bar channel.
15. 0:27You're [music] welcome. Tip number one
16. 0:29is faces to the light. What I mean by
17. 0:32that? I mean that quite often when
18. 0:34you're trying to take a great photo of
19. 0:36people, it involves [music] getting a
20. 0:37great photo of their face. And if
21. 0:40they're facing away from the light
22. 0:41source, like if I face over here, I've
23. 0:43still got a little light as my kicker,
24. 0:45but it's much darker. Whereas if I face
25. 0:47over here,
26. 0:48my face is actually really well lit and
27. 0:50I kind of pop from the frame and it
28. 0:51looks a little bit better.
29. 0:54If I watch this in editing and it
30. 0:55doesn't stack up, rip. I'll put some
31. 0:57beautiful photos over the top so that
32. 0:58you get what I mean. Taking a few
33. 1:00seconds to try and get the face of the
34. 1:02people in your photo into that nice big
35. 1:05bright [music] light source is going to
36. 1:07make a really big difference in how
37. 1:08those photos look and how the people in
38. 1:10your photos pop. And tip number two is
39. 1:12connected to tip number one because you
40. 1:15need to use your feet in order to
41. 1:17reframe what's happening in front of
42. 1:19you. And sometimes what's happening in
43. 1:21front of you would look better if you
44. 1:23went and stood over there and looked
45. 1:25back at it this way or over there and
46. 1:27got the light behind you or onto the
47. 1:29faces of the people. So, use your feet
48. 1:32and don't just take the photos from
49. 1:34wherever you're sitting or standing when
50. 1:36you see this little moment or scene
51. 1:38unfold. Tip number three follows on from
52. 1:41that. And I really encourage you to
53. 1:43shoot wide. Wider than you might think
54. 1:46or wider than you're used to shooting.
55. 1:48There's something about shooting wide
56. 1:51and really letting the scene come into
57. 1:54the photo that I think matters a lot
58. 1:57when you're trying to take photos of
59. 1:59your everyday life. You want to see what
60. 2:01that everyday life looks like, and you
61. 2:03want to see what's happening with the
62. 2:05people in it.
63. 2:08Tip number four is a bit of a personal
64. 2:09preference,
65. 2:10and that is shoot low.
66. 2:13I think the real gist of this tip is
67. 2:14[music] to change your perspective. In
68. 2:17my how to take better photos of your
69. 2:18kids video, I said not to just take a
70. 2:22photo
71. 2:23looking down at the kid and getting that
72. 2:25sort of perspective. Sometimes taking a
73. 2:28photo looking down is part of the story,
74. 2:31but a lot of the time you're just
75. 2:32showing the world from the perspective
76. 2:33that most people who are going to look
77. 2:35at your photos already experience the
78. 2:37world. A lot of us when we see kids, for
79. 2:40example,
80. 2:42see them
81. 2:43down on the ground in front of us. So,
82. 2:45when we see a photo looking down at a
83. 2:47kid in front of us,
84. 2:48we don't really see anything new. So, I
85. 2:50like to shoot low.
86. 2:51I think part of shooting low is that you
87. 2:53get to experience things
88. 2:56as if you are a kid again.
89. 2:58I don't have any proof of that, but
90. 3:00there's something
91. 3:03kind of cool
92. 3:04about shooting low,
93. 3:06and it just changes the perspective of a
94. 3:08scene entirely. [music]
95. 3:09I love it. I'm addicted to it. I don't
96. 3:11want to use the C-word,
97. 3:14but shooting low is a little bit
98. 3:16cinematic.
99. 3:17Tip number five,
100. 3:19use a real camera.
101. 3:21I know everyone has a phone.
102. 3:24I know they're the most convenient. I
103. 3:26know the best camera that you have is
104. 3:28the one that you have on you.
105. 3:30I'm definitely biased because I love
106. 3:32using cameras, and I use them for a job
107. 3:34as much as I use them for my personal
108. 3:35life. But, I think there really is
109. 3:37something to having a tool built for the
110. 3:39job and using it for that job. A phone
111. 3:42is a multi-tool. It's amazing. It does a
112. 3:45little bit of everything, and it does a
113. 3:46pretty good job. But, just get one of
114. 3:48these.
115. 3:49Just get one of these little cameras and
116. 3:51give it a go. You've probably got
117. 3:53someone in your family that has one of
118. 3:55these kind of cameras just in a drawer
119. 3:58sitting there.
120. 4:00Be creative, ask [music] around, see if
121. 4:02anyone's got a camera you can borrow if
122. 4:03you don't have a camera already.
123. 4:06And try it out.
124. 4:08Obviously, it's totally fine if you
125. 4:09don't want to buy a camera.
126. 4:11I'm just putting it on my tips list
127. 4:13because I highly recommend getting one.
128. 4:15Another option
129. 4:17is to get a film camera if you don't
130. 4:18like the thought of getting a digital
131. 4:19camera.
132. 4:21Film cameras are really cool, they're
133. 4:22super [music] in, blah blah blah blah
134. 4:23blah blah, but you get prints. And even
135. 4:26when they're not the best photos,
136. 4:29there's something to film and there's
137. 4:32something to having that film printed
138. 4:34out that's kind of special. You get to
139. 4:36look over it and they're yours to show
140. 4:38and [music] share even if the power goes
141. 4:41out. Tip number six,
142. 4:43learn how to edit. Just a little bit.
143. 4:46You don't have to go crazy. You don't
144. 4:47have to download Lightroom. You don't
145. 4:48have to [music] start watching tutorials
146. 4:50on Photoshop. This could be as simple as
147. 4:52just learning what the little sliders in
148. 4:54your phone app do, changing the [music]
149. 4:56saturation, changing the white balance,
150. 4:59even understanding what those terms
151. 5:01mean, and just getting a little bit
152. 5:02familiar with tweaking an image so that
153. 5:05it goes from looking good to great. And
154. 5:08I think editing really plays a big part
155. 5:10and it's a little bit underestimated in
156. 5:12my opinion in taking a photo that looks
157. 5:15pretty cool
158. 5:16to something that looks kind of special.
159. 5:20Tip number seven is also an editing tip,
160. 5:23but it's to use black and white. Black
161. 5:24and white photos can look super amazing,
162. 5:27especially if you've got indoor lighting
163. 5:29where you've got some yellow light and
164. 5:31some natural light, that kind of thing.
165. 5:33Whenever you've got something kind of
166. 5:34weird going on with the different light
167. 5:35sources, black and white just removes
168. 5:38all of those colors on people's skin
169. 5:40tones
170. 5:41while also looking timeless
171. 5:44and beautiful.
172. 5:45That's related to that tip I just
173. 5:47mentioned before about learning how to
174. 5:48edit. Get a nice simple black and white
175. 5:50preset and drop it on some photos every
176. 5:52now and again. You might be surprised.
177. 5:54Tip number eight,
178. 5:56remember that you're telling story. We
179. 5:58put so much time and effort and expense
180. 6:01into making sure the big moments of our
181. 6:03life are captured.
182. 6:06But it's the ordinary ones
183. 6:08that fill it up.
184. 6:09So when we capture those days and those
185. 6:11moments,
186. 6:12we're showing the story, not just the
187. 6:14highlights. I think there's something
188. 6:16really beautiful in that. And when you
189. 6:18look back, or at least when I look back,
190. 6:21it's the story of change. It's the story
191. 6:24of
192. 6:25it's the story of what my friends and I
193. 6:28used to do 10 years ago. It's the story
194. 6:30of what my wife and I did before we had
195. 6:33kids,
196. 6:34or we do now on our date nights. But
197. 6:36it's also just the story of those times
198. 6:38we went to the beach,
199. 6:40that time we were jumping around in the
200. 6:41backyard, that time we had some friends
201. 6:43over for pizza,
202. 6:45that time we walked down the street and
203. 6:46found a puddle. Those kind of moments
204. 6:50really fill out the story,
205. 6:52and it's so easy to forget about them
206. 6:55and to downplay them, but they're your
207. 6:57whole life.
208. 6:58Increasingly, it's those little moments
209. 7:00that I want to have a camera ready for.
210. 7:03Not because they're the most epic,
211. 7:05[music]
212. 7:06but because that's where
213. 7:09life is lived.
214. 7:11Maybe I'm just romantic.
215. 7:14I could care less.
216. 7:16But I'd love to hear from you. When did
217. 7:18you take some of your favorite photos?
218. 7:19Did you plan those photos, or they more
219. 7:21spontaneous? Were they of epic moments
220. 7:24and occasions, or were they of the
221. 7:27little in-between [music]
222. 7:28moments and
223. 7:30everyday kind of scenes? Thanks so much
224. 7:33for watching the video. I really
225. 7:34appreciate you being here. Please
226. 7:35consider liking and subscribing. I'm
227. 7:37almost at 500 subscribers as I release
228. 7:40this video, which is wild. Thank you so
229. 7:43much.
230. 7:44Hope you're having a great day. Ciao.
231. 7:46>> [music]
232. 7:52[music]