I was just explaining to a friend how to take a silhouette photo, and since we’ve been discussing visual content, I thought it might be fun to share a few photography tips with my Social Hokies.

Full disclosure I am hesitant to call myself a photographer, but I do have a DSLR (Nikon d7100 to be exact) that I like to play around with. Photography is mainly a fun hobby for me and provides my main source of souvenirs from my travels.

You can Google all about the exposure triangle, metering and shutter speeds, but here are a few pointers for great looking photos at any skill level.

1. Get that blurry background.  In any given Pinterest photo, you will  find blurred street lights and raindrops or portraits that really ‘pop.’

You can achieve this effect by adjusting your aperture. The f stop settings on your camera open the aperture of the camera wider – the wider the aperture, the smaller the number (F stops? Aperture? Learn more here.)   The wider the better, meaning the smallest number f stop. Some fancy lenses go as wide as f/1.4, but most lenses we can afford only go to f/3.5. More simply put:

1. Switch your camera to Aperture mode – A on Nikon, Av on Canon
2. Dial the f stop down to the smallest number
3. Focus on your subject

If you don’t have a fancy lens, or you want to take a photo with your smart phone, you can also create this effect by  putting more distance between your subject and your background. You can practice by putting a beer can soda can in front of some string lights.

Here’s one I took around Christmas (obviously) at f/3.8:

2. Create a silhouette. Have you ever seen the cliche palm tree sunset pic?

These are created using a pretty simple technique that makes beautiful shots:

1. Switch to aperture mode again. This time make the f stop a high number so that everything in the shot will be in focus.
2. Place your subject in front of a light source, say a lovely sunset
3. Focus on the background so that the light is exposed properly instead of blown out

In my opinion, putting something in with the sunset makes it more interesting. This is my parents front porch decorated for fall:

3. Shoot awesome portraits! Of course there are far better portrait photographers than me, but if there’s one thing I do know LIGHTING IS KEY! As we know from discarded selfies that didn’t make the cut, bad lighting can make us look ROUGH.

It can take a lifetime to master (def NOT saying I have), but here are a few basic tips:

1. Have the subject face a light source
2. Shoot at sunrise and sunset to get “softer” light that doesn’t create harsh shadows.
3. Shoot on a cloudy day, the clouds will diffuse the sunlight
4. Find open shade. For example, under a tree or the shadow of a building
5. If your indoors, face a window or open door
6. Focus on the eyes
7. Use a wide aperture (see number 1.) to make your subject stand out.

Here’s a shot of my bro in his element at work (he’ll kill me if he finds this):

Are you confused yet? Bored? I’ll stop there for now. I know photography can get technical, but hopefully these tips will prove useful!