1. Pay attention to composition

Early Renaissance painters discovered that the human eye scans the outsides of a picture before the center. Therefore, photographers implement the rule of thirds as the intersections are the first place the viewer looks.

Leading Lines:
When viewing the foreground, or the area in front of the subject, in a photo, a photographer may make use of lines leading up to the subject.

“If I’m going to capture a nature scene in the mountains, I would capture the foreground (the trail), the midground (the lake), and the background (the mountains). I wouldn’t leave out the foreground.”

2. Use colors to set the mood of your photo.

“There’s cool colors and warm colors. If I’m going to capture something happy like prom, I’m going to use warm colors, like the sunrise and sunset. If you want to capture something sad, or something without emotions, like people taking a test, use cool colors.”

3. Capture subjects in their natural environments

“If you’re going to capture a coal miner, you don’t want to capture them on the street. You want to capture them in their natural environment, mining coal. You can create a picture with real impact that way.”