Based on my previous post on “Switch up your daily photos”, apparently some wanted more, some said 7 tips are not enough, stop being cheap and dish out some more you greedy old bat.  So, since I cave easily to the regular combination of insults, peer pressure, and threats, here are some additional 7 easy tricks to create some dramatic photos without using a crazy number of filters or photoshopping.  Simple things to think about when creating some unexpected angles in your photos to give them a unique point of view.

• Blur the foreground instead of the background. Most of the time we forget that backgrounds can give more visual interest than the expected things we see in the foreground, i.e. if taking a picture of a room, blur the room itself and focus on the background views from the window.
• Give a sense of people without the people.  People leave a lot of clues of where they have been, so often time you can give a sense of the feeling or what people are doing without showing them at all.  For example, showing a father and son sandals or crocs at the end of a lake pier, without showing them swimming, or a dirty coffee cup in a garden setting.

• Look up when your taking pictures of archways and entrances, think about having a half empty sky or roof and half archway detail in your picture. The juxtaposition is great to bring out some fancy architectural features.

• Take photos of people backs looking out into the distance, this provides a sense of scale of skylines or large views you want to highlight. It also makes views more relatable to the viewer, you can also use this for example of kids looking out the window on snowy days to recreate some memories for you, from your point of view.
• Look at mirrors and glass reflections when taking a photo, not only do they flip your image but having them (along with your subject) both in the picture makes for a very dramatic “double” effect. This is especially the case for sun rises and sunsets on building facades.

• Although you may not think ahead of time about the clothes you were, if the person your taking a photo of has colourful or patterned clothes, consider having them against neutral backgrounds, walls, or architectural features. Of course the opposite holds true, if they are in simple clothing have them set against more detailed and colourful backgrounds, the solids in their clothing will stand out more, especially if the colours clash (which unlike fashion is a good thing here).
• See if you can align edges with other edges deeper in the picture, weather its flag poles against building edges, books against furniture, even people against windows. This makes it a very creative photo and image from an unexpected angle.

Any thoughts or (additional but constructive) criticism on these?