What Makes a Photo Look Professional?
Professional photography means a lot of different things. But what most people don't realize is that having a fancy camera, doesn't mean you can produce professional-quality photographs. Sure, the files will be large, but if you miss these five things below, your images will be no better than iPhone shots... and that's great news for you, because you don't need to invest in expensive equipment to get great photos, you just need a little bit of knowledge.
In this Blog post, we’ll go over the five essential qualities of a professional photograph and how you can replicate them without having any fancy equipment.
* While the images shown below are from a professional Personal Branding session, there’s no reason why they couldn’t have been done with a camera phone instead (aside from file size and full control over the final product, that is).
1. CORRECT COLOR
Color, or white balance as it's called when referring to photographs, is what sets professionals apart from the amateurs. The truth is, cameras are sometimes pretty awful at determining what color to assign an image. And while starting photographers rely on AUTO settings with color, professionals will often customize the while balance either in camera or in port production so that it looks right. You can do this too, without the need for a big DSLR camera, because Lightroom (there's a free app) allows you to adjust the while balance to your liking. The simplest method is to select a neutral gray or a white within the image to calibrate it. You can also do this right in your phone after you take a picture (although having a dedicated app like Lightroom does make things easier).
It drives me crazy when I see green in photographs that isn’t actually possible in nature. Yes, they look super dreamy and cool, but for something like personal branding, I feel that realism is key. This is why I learned to see and analyze color and adjust my images to correctly reflect what we see with our eyes.
2. CORRECT FOCUS
If your image isn't in focus, it doesn't matter how pretty or wonderful it is. Missed focus (especially when it comes to portraits) is a big no-no and is a very clear mark of an amateur photo. Always make sure your images are crisp and take several shots just in case you miss focus on one of them. There’s also an issue of trying to photograph in-focus images in low light. If the camera has to compensate for a low-light situation, you might end up with motion blur (this is what happens when whoever you’re photographing moves within the frame but your shutter speed isn’t fast enough to freeze that moment).
You might also struggle with the camera being able to focus on the right thing when it struggled with not having enough light for the mechanics inside to determine where the focus should be. In the end, make sure you’re photographing in a bright space (or move somewhere where there’s more light) and if you’re using your phone, tap on the specific part that you want to be in focus - don’t let your camera decide, it’s a machine and doesn’t always guess right.
Because I photograph with a fairly shallow depth of field, I always make sure to focus on the eyes so that they’re sharp in the photo, which is a requirement for a good portrait in my book.
3. CORRECT EXPOSURE
We often take the ability to get perfectly exposed images for granted because modern cameras really do most of the work for us. The one thing to keep in mind, however, is the fact that your phone or even a DSLR does not have the ability to see and interpret the scene in the same way that you do. Cameras can only guess what they’re looking at, while you can instantly tell a person from a flower from a house.
The work that your camera does behind the scenes to determine what the proper exposure for a scene should be also doesn’t take into account any artistic quality you might want to impart on the image. And the biggest problem are scenes that are all light or all dark, because you camera will want to make everything 18% gray (so it will make light scenes too dark and dark scenes too light). My suggestion is to always adjust your exposure as you see fit. Don’t be afraid to tap and drag the brightness up or down on your camera phone - once again, your phone has no idea how the picture should look in terms of brightness, but you do!
The image above is a great example of exposure that your camera would get completely wrong if left to its own devices because it simply doesn’t recognize that even though the background is very bright, the person in the foreground should be who we want to expose for (meaning, the exposure should be brighter than what the camera thinks). If you’ve ever had people come out super dark when photographing during a sunset or sunrise, you know what I mean.
4. SOFT BACKGROUND
Professional photography is defined by the blurry background that puts emphasis on whatever is in focus in the image. The fact that the background drops off is why iPhones now have the portrait mode to try and simulate professional photography. Now, iPhone technology, in my opinion, isn't there YET (because it's fairly obvious and the edges are fuzzy), so it's still worth using a DSLR or a mirrorless camera to capture higher-end photos.. but it also doesn’t mean that you can’t capture professional-looking images with your phone. Use portrait mode, but keep in mind its limitations - like not being able to blow up the resulting image into a large print.
One way to get a soft background is to get really close to the object you’re photographing, which will naturally make the background softer. The reason this works is that any camera system we use still follows the same photography settings and technology as a big fancy camera. It still has a lens and an aperture, which means that only so much of the image can be in focus at one time. Most of the time, the entire thing is in focus, because you’re taking photographs of things that are far away. But you can also get a “shallow depth of field” (aka blurry background) if you force the lens to reduce the area where things can be in focus by moving in really close to the object you’re photographing, without the need for portrait mode!
5. GOOD LIGHT
No amount of camera equipment will ever replace knowing how to use light to create properly exposed and captivating images. Keep an eye out for color casts, hard or soft light, and how the light falls on a face in portraits. This is the part that probably takes the most to understand/learn, which is why true professional photographers can produce consistently good images in any location (they simply know what to look for and how to use light) using any equipment (because in the end the type of camera you use really doesn’t matter). My suggestion is to use your eyes and take a few quiet moments to observe the scene in front of you. I never take a photograph until I’ve walked around and looked at what the light is doing. Sometimes people are taken aback by how I’m looking at them because it can be an intense stare (my brain is literally running a bunch of calculations based on years and years worth of knowledge) and we’re simply not used to people intently looking at us nowadays. But light is everything to a photograph and it doesn’t happen by accident, which is why professional photographers pay attention to it.. and you should too. So instead of jumping into taking pictures with your phone, stop and observe what’s in front of you and intentionally look at the light to determine whether you should move to a slightly different position in order to get a better shot.
I always try to use natural light whenever possible, like a window with soft diffused lighting (like in the image above). Otherwise, I will use my handy speedlight right on top of my camera to create the light I need while still being able to move around quickly during a photoshoot.
I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a bit about how to create some professional-looking images! I would love to hear what you thought or answer any questions that might have come up, so please leave a comment down below!
