How to take better photographs

I take most of my photos using a Canon 600D which is a low budget DSLR, but I also have a huge love for the camera on my iPhone 5C! Most of these tips are based on DSLR's, but a few will be useful for your phone too. You can actually download an app on the iPhone called Manual, which will allow you to use some of these settings. (The first 4 may be a little technical.)

1. Learn to use manual - This is the most important tip of ALL time! Using automatic settings means that the camera guesses the settings for you, which is why sometimes you will get a blue tinge on your photographs. It selects your shutter speed, aperture, ISO, white balance and more - That's a lot of work for a camera to be doing. If you don't understand what these things are, head over to HERE. My photographs improved drastically after I learnt to shoot using manual and although it's confusing, it's so worth it.
2. Set your ISO - Having a high ISO will create a grainy image, so you want it set as low as you can have it to create a sharp, crisp image.
3. Aperture - This is how you change how light your image will be, also if you want to create a blurry background on your images, you need to boost your aperture.
   (f 1.8 = blurry / f 20 = sharp)
4. Shutter Speeds - You want to keep this as long as possible in order to create a sharp, focused image. Your ISO, Aperture and shutter speeds all work together - This is what makes the exposure. I normally have my ISO on a middle settings around 800, with my aperture at f2 and my shutter speed at around 1/250.
5. Avoid a busy background - You can do this by either using a plain wall or creating a blurred background so that it washes the background out. You want your main focus on the subject of the image, so the plainer background - the better.
6. Camera Shake - Sometimes your images will come out blurry and you won't understand why? It's probably because when you push the shutter to take the picture, you are moving your camera/phone and it's creating a blur on your image. To prevent this you can even put your shutter speed up, or make use of a tripod or remote shutter control. Always hold your camera with both of your hands.
7. Avoid flash - Using flash will create dark shadows, which never look good. To avoid using flash you can put your adjust your ISO, aperture and shutter settings but if you really need to use flash then make use of a diffuser - If you can't get hold of one of these, try putting a bit of tissue/paper over your flash before taking the photo.
8. Editing - I use photoshop CC to edit my photos, which is a bit complicated so I won't go into it. Some decent softwares that you can use for free on the web are picmonkey, picasa. When I shoot using my iPhone, I use two apps which are called afterlight and facetune. Things like exposure and white balance can be adjusted when editing images, as well as adding sharpness, blurring, retouching and so much more.

If you would like to know more about taking better photographs, or are interested in me doing a 'How to edit photos' blog post then send a comment/email.