Get started on your photography journey with these top photography tips for beginners!

If you are brand new to digital photography, it can seem a little overwhelming with everything you need to learn! Here are 8 photography tips for beginners which will get you started on the right path, and help you on your way to taking beautiful pictures in no time.

Each tip has links to further reading too, so you might also want to pin / bookmark this one for future reference :)

Learn how to change your camera settings with these photography tips for beginners. With tips especially geared toward learning your DSLR for beginners, you’ll be taking better photos in no time!

1) Learn How To Blur The Background

One of the easiest things to do is learn how to blur out the background! This will instantly give your images a more professional look and you'll love the way it makes your subject "pop" off the background! Follow the link below to get a step by step tutorial!

How To Get A Blurred Background

2) Learn some basic rules of composition

There are two basic rules of composition that beginners can benefit enormously from learning: the rule of thirds, and getting down onto the same eye level as their subject - even if that means lying on the floor! Both of these can have a massive difference in your photographs immediately, so check out these two blog posts to know what to do.

Introducing the Rule of Thirds

Composition Tip: Shoot from Eye Level

3) Turn your subject toward the light

Although as you progress you will definitely want to explore using different light sources and from all positions, to begin with, make sure your subject is facing into the light source – either straight on (so that the light source is at you – the photographers – back) or at a slight angle. Remember that you need light to make an image, so to begin with, do whatever you can to add more light to the scene – move your subject closer to the light source, or open the blinds or the windows.

How to Use Indoor Light for Portraits

4) Photograph daily

One of the best things you can do to improve your photography is practice, and for that I suggest photographing daily. Every time you lift the camera to your eye you are building in muscle memory so you begin to instinctively know where all your buttons and dials are, plus you will learn more about light and composition. Even experienced photographers will photograph daily to keep creative momentum going!

8 Tips for Completing a Project 365

5) Take advantage of cheap / free resources

There are a ton of sites out there dedicated to helping you learn photography (such as this one, which of course, is the very, very, best) so you can take advantage of them!

6) Shoot in RAW

I confess, it took me a long time to succumb to the power shooting in RAW - but I totally regret shooting for my first couple of years in JPEG! RAW gives you MUCH more leeway and freedom when editing your images, and even if you don't know exactly what you are doing now, you can always go back and edit them better when you do! Here's two guides to help you understand more about RAW and what you need to be aware of when making the switch.

JPEG vs RAW

Making the Switch to RAW

7) Work to a planned learning path

There is SO much to learn about photography, and in the beginning, it is easy to become over-whelmed. You can feel like you are being swamped with the amount of information you need to learn. I strongly suggest stepping back a bit and creating a learning path for yourself, and focus on getting to different stages. Either create your own, or follow along with an ebook or course designed to get you from A to B in the least amount of time! My program Auto to Awesome takes you by the hand and walks you, step by step, through all the buttons and dials in your camera, each lesson being layered on so you always know what to learn. You can see the full course timetable here, which will give you a great idea of what to learn when.

8) Be Patient

As I just said in #7 - there is a lot to learn and you will feel like you are drowning in what you don't know sometimes. You might also feel that you are putting so much in but you are still not getting the images you dream of. Please don't feel defeated as it is a lot of take in, and every single photographer felt the same, I promise.

One of the quickest way to learn photography is simply by taking a course. That way, you will get a step by step path to follow, which will make the whole process 1000% times easier! If this sounds like something you might like, check out Auto to Awesome - from AUTO to amazing in just six weeks.