For many people in this new digital age where everything gets posted onto Instagram or Snapchat or whatever the latest app is, taking photos is quite common, and taking them quite regularity at that. People often take upwards of ten photos in a single day to upload to their “followers”, and to be honest, it’s a good way to get people into photography, at least on a basic level. However, if you’ve never truly tried your hand at more serious photography, I highly advise skipping many of the types of photos that exist on Social Media and just focus on one specific type: candid photos.

In fact, candid photos are pretty rare in the Social Media world, where everything is usually selfies or pictures in which the person (or people) are smiling directly at the camera. So when it comes down to taking candid photos, it make take some time adjusting and learning how to do it. Luckily for you we are here to help you get started. Once you know the tricks of the trade when it comes to taking candid photos, you can go out and start snapping photos left and right, and really get your photography journey going!

To start off, you should be ready to use a lot of film. With planned photos, only a few photos are needed because everyone knows when the shot is coming and therefore leads to a “perfect” shot within one or two tries. A candid photo on the other hand can often be messed up by the subject matter moving at the last second, leading to many photos that just don’t work out. In fact, it may take 4 or 5 tries to get a really nice candid photo for subject matter that are particularly in motion.

So don’t be discouraged if you don’t get the perfect photo right away. In fact you should expect that to be the case, and therefore be patient when taking candid shots. You never know when you get just the right shot so don’t be discouraged early on. In addition, this also means that you should rely on digital photography when taking candid photos simply because they can easily be deleted and replaced with new photos without having to potentially waste film if you were to go the non-digital route. This works out well for beginners because in most cases, they are simply taking photos with their phones to start with, which are all digital. Once they do move on to more advanced forms of photography, it becomes the perfect time to potentially upgrade to a more professional camera as well.

Now to discuss the subject matter: what should you be taking candid photos of? To be honest, there is a wide range of options to choose from, but the first criteria for a good candid photo subject is that the subject must be a living being. It can be a human, or even a pet, but the reason this needs to be the case is simply because only living beings can provide the raw emotion necessary for an effective candid photo. The second criteria for a good candid photo is to select a subject that is engaged in some sort of activity of some sort. Note that this doesn’t necessarily mean a physical activity or one that requires significant motion. If you want to take a photo of your sister reading a book quietly on the couch, that is a great selection.

The idea behind both of these criteria is to capture the subject while in their natural state. Not just the activity that they are engaging in, but the emotions associated with such an activity. This sort of candid shot in general provides a much more precise picture of the happening than a posed photo. And perhaps most importantly, candid photos allow for much more variety in terms of the types of pictures you can take. After taking enough candid photos, you start to learn about different elements of photos naturally, simply because you are taking such a wide range of different subjects, in different lighting and perspectives. Add in the fact that they are so easy to take and they become the clear #1 choice to start off your photography journey! So get out your camera (phone) and start snapping candid photos today and let the inner photographer in you start to take over!