When we hunt for photography tips, we tend to look for something revolutionary. But often you don’t need a revolution — just a few small, simple changes in how you approach the craft of photography. Perhaps the easiest tip to remember — although not always the easiest to practice — is to consider your photograph as a photograph, and not just a subject.

This is not a pipe

You’ve probably heard people discuss what they take photographs of. They’ll say things like, “This is a picture of my new baby.” Notice that their vocabulary is giving them away: they’re interested in the photograph for its subject, not for the photograph as a whole.

Many people are familiar with Margritte’s famous painting of a pipe. Underneath the picture it says, “This is not a pipe.” And it isn’t. It’s a painting. But our instincts scream at us to look at it in terms of its subject — the pipe — and not what it is. That’s why no amount of photography tips can help us until we learn to view photographs as whole compositions, not isolated subjects.

Considering how it blends together

When you start to consider photographs in terms of a whole, instead of as a picture of something, then all of a sudden far more factors come into play. It’s no longer only important how the light strikes your subject, but how it filters into the background. You’re no longer concerned solely with the expression on your subject’s face, but with how the trees bend behind them.

The simplest sounding photography tips often turn out to be difficult in practice, but there’s no real trick to viewing a photograph as a composition instead of a subject. All it really takes is attention to detail and the ability to train your eye.

The Marvels of Modern Technology

Fortunately, if you’re using a digital camera — and at this time, most people are — you have a built in cheat to help you consider your photograph as a whole. It’s called an LCD screen, and it lets you step back and look at the image just like you would an actual photograph. You can move it around, mess with colors, lighting, and exposure, an all the while get the full effect of the eventual shot.

The key to remember? That you’re not just looking at your subject but at your shot. Instead of asking yourself if the subject looks good, ask yourself if you like the photograph as a whole. Once you take that step, you won’t need photography tips to help you create the perfect shot.

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