Light

• Learning the best techniques of using light for outdoor photos will help you to take better and professional looking photos. Avoid bright sunlight, as it washes out color from the subject of the photo. The best light to use is overcast skies, as it gives appealing color tones in the skin. Do not take photos with the subject in front of the sun or behind; instead, place the subject with the sun to its side to increase the image quality. Another technique to use is to take a photo with flash on a low setting, which adds highlights and gets rid of harsh shadows.
  
  

Composition

• How to create an effective composition is an important technique to learn when taking photos. Experimenting with different arrangements of subject matter gives varied results and has a large impact on the type of photo you want to take. Your composition should be simplistic rather than complex, and should include a single primary idea, or center of interest, as not to confuse the viewer. A technique that professional photographers use for composition is the rule of thirds, which breaks down the photo into horizontal and vertical thirds to create balance and draw the viewer's attention to the subject.
  
  

Perspective

• Perspective gives the viewer a sense of depth, space and distance within a photo. There are many different techniques of using perspective in your photos which give varying end results. You can choose to take a photograph with linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, overlap perspective or with a vanishing point, in which the composition leads to a point. Consider the viewpoint and camera angle when creating perspective as this, too, can give differing results.
  
  

Capturing Motion

• There are various techniques for capturing motion in your photos. You can produce a frozen motion photograph with no blurring by using a fast shutter speed. If you wish to show the movement of your subject, use a slow shutter speed. This technique blends colors together and creates a more blurry look. In order to capture a moving subject in focus with a blurred background, you will need to use a slow shutter speed and follow the subject at the same speed as it moves.