86 Photography Hacks To Take Your Photos To The Next Level

One of the simplest smartphone photography tricks is this one. To create a reflective surface with your smartphone, place your phone's screen at the bottom of the DSLR. This popular technique can make a distinguished appearance and feel in your photographs.

Another quick photo frame hack. You can take stunning images with natural light from the setting sun and a few old, no-longer-usable picture frames.

The Japanese word "bokeh" describes the blur in an image's out-of-focus area. Cut out intriguing shapes like tiny circles or stars from black poster board. Use the poster board to cover the lens and try out various focal lengths.

The majority of marbles are made of glass. However, photographing marbles differs from photographing other kinds of glass. This results from the marbles’ smooth, spherical surface, which tends to reflect a lot of light from its surroundings. With appropriate lighting and settings, your photos incorporating marbles will look absolutely phenomenal.

You can create creepy yet amazing-looking pictures with just a few items. Just trust the process.

This approach will help you produce more focused lighting in your photographs and consume an entire tube of Pringles in one sitting, so you're sure to like it. Also, you may want to reduce the size of the container's bottom opening so that a flash head can fit snugly through it.

You can take some incredible photos using fairy lights. And the best bit is that they are really affordable! One of the best uses for fairy lights is as a foreground bokeh close to the camera. Such placement will give the light the appearance of fuzzy spots and thus sweeten your photograph. You can also use fairy lights to illuminate objects like a lightbulb or a Mason jar.

A topic or object will appear larger the closer it is to the camera, especially when compared to a subject or object farther away. The same goes for making something appear smaller by keeping it further from the camera.

If you have a spare pair of reading glasses lying around, try creating a magnifying effect by holding the glasses in front of the lens. It can get you a similar result to lens ball photography without the financial outlay.

You might have seen this one on YouTube. Plenty of video tutorials show how you can equip your glass coffee table to create outstanding photos. You can place anything you wish on the tabletop, perhaps some tealights, leaves, or sand, and ask your model to lay under the table. While it may seem simple, shooting through the glass this way can bring an entirely new layer of depth to your image.

1. Set up your camera on a tripod and take images every 10-20 seconds or as required until you have captured every part of the scene unobstructed. The more shots you have of the scene unobstructed, the better.

2. Open Photoshop and select File > Scripts > Statistics.

3. Set it to "Median."

4. Open all the files you want to use.

5. If it was not shot on a stable tripod and the images do not line up perfectly, select "Auto-Align." Note that this only works for solid structures. If a tree/object has moved because of wind, this won't help.

Suppose you don't have the chance to shoot in a studio or cannot locate the ideal location. In that case, your TV makes a wonderful prop to create an impressive background. Simply select the desired photo, put it on the TV, and hit the shutter. The TV is one of many fantastic photography accessories that might provide an excellent background for portrait shots. If you're photographing products, go with something smaller, like your computer monitor.

In design, the positioning of visual components so they align in a composition is known as alignment. Both in design and photography, alignment is utilized to arrange elements, group them, provide balance, establish relationships between photo components, and produce a distinct result.

To create a sparkling ring of fire, you will need a few things: wire, sparklers, and tape. This quick photography hack will surely provide you with some fascinating results. But hey, be careful with the sparklers and come up with something other than your hands to hold the ring!

Want to take underwater pictures but don't want to spend money on expensive or, worse yet, cheap housing that leaks? Simply put your smartphone in a cup made of clear plastic or glass and submerge it. For larger cameras, a vase or fish tank can be used. Get pictures of your subject in the bathtub or pool by simply lowering the lens below the water's surface. But be careful not to drop the cup or fish tank, or whatever you are using, into the water!

This clever photography tip dates back to the 1990s. And like most other throwbacks from the 1990s, it's one to hold onto. Hold a CD in front of the camera to reflect light back into the camera's lens. For making lens flares that appear to move randomly, this is perfect.

You can take a photo directly across from the natural light source to capture shadows. Or, you can place a strainer over your camera's flash. A what? A strainer, but any cooking tool with unique holes and shapes will do. Improve your portrait photography portfolio by experimenting with light to provide a special effect. You might also use window blinds, palm leaves, or anything crochet to create an interesting shadow.

Shadows help define form and shape, but they may also evoke a sense of mystery and intrigue by changing the appearance of otherwise identifiable objects. In contrast to conventional photography, shadow play photography emphasizes narrative, emotion, and the creative use of shadow. Just keep trying new things and different lighting, be daring with your concepts, keep it lighthearted, and dazzle the spectators with your originality!

You can create a soft-focus lens effect using items you probably have lying around your house. Try using a cloth or a bandage and wrapping it around your lens for a soft, blurred-frame effect.

In product or food photography, the background is one of the most crucial stylistic elements. These days, it's popular to utilize a negative space strategy to eliminate any distracting components. A cloth or paper can ideally make up for a simple plain backdrop. However, instead of only placing the background behind the subject, it is advised to organize it so that it can easily change from a vertical to a horizontal surface. This is one of the photography backdrop tricks that gives the appearance of an "infinity curve," evoking an obscure space surrounding the subject. In photography, an infinity cove or infinity cyclorama is an entirely white area with no edges used to create the illusion that an object's background is infinite.

Equipping the technique demonstrated above, you can take "wildlife" pictures in the comforts of your own bedroom. Literally.

Want to transform your standard camera lens into a macro lens? All you really need is a cardboard paper towel roll (you could use a TP roll, but the effects would be slightly different). You want at least 10 centimeters or so of the tube. Cut the tube and then use black paper to line the inside of the tube so that the "lens" port is dark.

A clever use of a spring can give the impression that you have some sort of superpower! Spring man? There are many ways to go about this. Just put your creative hat on!