Learning Trick Photography - Some Useful Techniques to Help Refine Your Skills

Many of those who enjoy practicing photography often look for techniques and methods that can easily help them achieve some special effects. Here you can find some of the simplest, but also some of the most intriguing trick photography techniques you can use that rarely require any special tools.

You will only need a simple digital camera - almost any type will do, but a DLSR one would be your best choice. Also, if you want to work with your camera during the night, you might require a tripod, so you can keep it in place while creating long exposure photographs, for instance.

As you refine your skills with these techniques, you can gradually start moving up to more complex methods, while also trying some more advanced technology and software. For now, you will simply need a basic photo editing program, which is usually available for free.

Achieving Fun Effects with Forced Perspective Photography 
Forced perspective photography is one of the simplest techniques you can use for achieving quality trick photos. It basically involves an optical illusion that makes it seem like the person in the picture is interacting with a larger object in an unusual way. If you've seen photos of people seeming to hold another person or a large object in their hands, or leaning against a building smaller than their height, then you've already witnessed some of the most basic examples of forced perspective photography.

The effect is not too difficult to achieve. You just have to position yourself closer to the camera, so that, from the standpoint of the photograph's viewers, you will appear to be larger than an object or a person that appears in the background. Next, you'll have to hold your hands a certain way, so they seem to interact with the subject in question.

If you work creatively, you can achieve numerous effects with this technique. You can, for example, hold the moon or the sun in your hands above your head, or make it seem like you're holding a person in the palm of your hand.

Intricate Long Exposure Pictures 
Long exposure photos are a little trickier to achieve. The technique is usually used at night, and it involves setting the shutter speed of a camera to a much longer duration. This has the effect of making static objects seem clearer and brighter, while objects in movement appear to be blurred and almost formless.

The effect is beautiful, as it almost seems like speeding up time, however, if you want the clearest pictures, you will need to use a good, stable tripod.

There are a lot of ways to express your creative potential with this method. For instance, you can take night time photos of a serpentine road, where the cars seem to turn into blurry strings of light, or you can photograph the stars as they spin around on the night's sky, leaving trails of light behind them.

Also, you can create your own light patterns by painting an image in the air using a bright light source. You can seem like you're shooting magical energy beams from your hands or standing next to a ghost like in a fantasy film.

Tilt Shift Photography Techniques 
This is another fun and interesting technique used by trick photographers. It is mostly geared to alter real life images, and make them seemingly change their size, so that the objects in the picture almost appear to be miniature toys.

To make this work, you will need to achieve a selective focus with the help of some special lens that can be tilted and shifted. A few parts of the image may appear to be blurred as a result, while one specific section will be crystal clear.

The good news is that there are also programs and even mobile applications that can modify a regular picture so it seems to have been taken using the tilt shift photography technique, which means you don't necessarily have to buy special lens.

Fun and Creative Experimenting 
If you want to avoid taking photos that seem to just provide a basic outlook of an event during your vacation, you may want to spice up your trips using some of these techniques. It's always a great idea to have a little more fun and experiment with your photography skills, for instance, by mixing some of these techniques, instead of just clinging to the "regular way" of taking pictures.