• Try as much as possible to determine your own exposure. Don't let the camera do it for you. This requires you to set your camera on MANUAL or override any other camera's automatic settings. On an iPhone, it requires you to FIX certain settings in order to make the camera do what you want it to. You can often do this by tapping the screen and holding it for a second or two.
If the camera was on automatic for this shot, it would have tried to lighten up the entire scene.
• Think about what kind of photographs you wish to make. Do you want the foreground in focus or out of focus? Do you want the sky lighter or darker? Do you want to highlight any particular part of the scene? These are the types of questions you need to ask yourself while you are making pictures if you want them to be really satisfying.
• Look for interesting photographic elements like reflections, sunrises and sunsets, silhouettes - anything that creates an unusual lighting.
Try thinking about these things and your knowledge of photography as well as your images will improve dramatically!
William Lulow is a commercial portrait and corporate photographer, and a photo teacher, based in the Greater New York Area.