The first thing a good photographer needs is vision not a expensive dslr or anything. A person with a clear vision and passion will definitely take better photos than the guy having a dslr without any ability to capture minute things in the eye itself.
A good photographer will only talk about good and better photographer not the best because photography is a field in which everyone has to learn new tricks and must be ready to explore this art throughout his life.
So lets discuss some key points which are essentially milestone on the path to be a skilled photographer.
Observe things more deeply
Photography is more than understanding the mechanism/settings of your camera. The greatest skill any photographer can hope to possess is that of observation.
Observation will define your work. It will give life to the stories you capture and the beauty you create. Observation will be the difference between an average photo and a captivating photo; between a visual picture, and one that speaks to its audience in the most audible ways.
tart experimenting with the settings of your camera
Experiment leads to discover new tricks and tweaks. Playing with settings and options provided by your camera , dslr or any smart phone will definitely give you some variation in photos. In the beginning you may get some bad photos but once you develop some perspective you will learn that particular photography.
There are some settings in your camera which will enhance your photography:
ISO
ISO (International Standards Organization) in photography, it measures your camera sensor’s sensitivity to light. The ISO scale typically starts at 100 and continues to double from this point to the boundary of your camera’s capabilities: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, etc. with 1/3 stops in between.
The International Standards Organization are those responsible for setting this widely used standard.
A high ISO such as ISO 1,600 will produce a brighter picture than a lower ISO such as ISO 100. The drawback to increasing the ISO is that it makes the picture noisier. Digital noise is apparent when a photo looks grainy. Have you ever taken a picture at night with your cell phone or your pocket camera, and noticed that it looks really grainy? That is because the camera tried to compensate for the dark scene by choosing a high ISO, which causes more grain.
Shutter speed
We can relate this shutter speed of a camera to a shop’s shutter. As the when the shop’s shutter goes up , light enters in the shop and make the objects visible. Similary in a camera, a shutter opens and allows light to enter inside and then close itself.
Example, in a sunny day light, 1/800 and more is appropriate for a good pic but at night or in a room shutter speed should be around 1/50 or 1/40 for a sec.
The duration that the shutter allows light onto the image sensor is called the shutter speed, and is measured in fractions of a second. So a shutter speed of 1/2 of a second will allow more light to touch the image sensor and will produce a brighter picture than a shutter speed of 1/200 of a second. So if you’re taking a picture and it is too dark, you could use a slower shutter speed to allow the camera to gather more light.
Aperture
The best way to understand aperture is to think of it as the controls for the pupil of an eye – the wider it gets, the more light it lets in.
Together, the aperture, shutter speed and ISO produce an exposure. The diameter of the aperture changes, allowing more or less light onto the sensor depending on the situation.
More creative uses of different apertures and their consequences are tackled in Section 2 but when talking about light and exposure, wider apertures allow more light and narrower ones allow less.
The aperture is a small set of blades in the lens that controls how much light will enter the camera. The blades create a octagonal shape that can be widened (we photogs call it shooting “wide open”), or closed down to a small hole.
Click the photos in the Golden hour
Photography is about light, so choosing the best light of the day to shoot in will add a thick layer of magic to your images. Golden hour refers to the hour before sunset, and the hour after sunrise.
Head outside today with your camera at either one of those times, and just shoot, shoot, shoot. You’ll be amazed at how the light brings your photos alive!
Study the work of other famous Photographers
Don’t limit yourself to one venue of photography, but instead make it a goal to “spend time” with a variety of artists – those who photograph only in black and white, who shoot only urban life or pastoral scenes, those who are war photographers and those who shoot single, simple images.
Understand the rule of third
The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts.
As you’re taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.
With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.
Not only this – but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.
Take photos of ugly things
Stop photographing flowers, rainbows and puppies. Find yourself staring at something disgusting, uncomfortable and dirty – now try to make it look appealing in a photograph.
If you can make a bag of garbage look artistically appealing, then you can make anything look great.
Get into silly positions
Don’t be afraid to get yourself into strange positions in public. Stand, kneel, lie down or jump up if you have to. 
Shoot like you don’t have Photoshop
Some photographers rely too much on digital post-processing. But you know what? There’s only so much you can do with a really bad photo. The time spent in the digital darkroom could be better spent actually getting the shot right. Invest some time composing and manually adjusting your camera settings at the time of the shoot.