The Quickest Way To Improving Your Photography!!! COMPOSITION!

Ok, so this post is one that will apply to everyone who uses a camera. That includes DSLR, point and shoot, camera phone, whatever. By following a few basic "rules" of composition, you can drastically improve the way your photos look.

1. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" - Leonardo Da Vinci

2. The Rule of Thirds

3. Level Horizons

4. Natural Framing

5. Lead-In Lines

6. Is that pole growing out of your head?

7. Diagonals, Curves, and Triangles

8. Fill the Frame

9. Look into, not out of the photo.

10. Odd Numbers

11. Break the Rules

1. Simplicity

• keep it simple, stupid (KISS)
• avoid distracting backgrounds
• we've learned that a large aperture opening (small F number) can help blur a background, therefore eliminating distractions!
• get rid of unnecessary elements in your photos (anything that distracts you from the main subject)

If you look at the very beginning of the post, you'll see my example for simplicity. There's no unnecessary distractions. It's very serene and simple. It's not cluttered with objects or subjects that prevent your eye from finding the main subject.

2. The Rule of Thirds

• perhaps the most important rule in photography
• divide your photo into 1/3 sections
• attempt to place your key subject(s) on a third line, or better yet on an intersection of the third lines
• the rule of thirds gives a photo alot more compositional strength and makes it more dynamic
• with portraits, the eyes should be on a third line
• with landscapes, the horizon should be on the third line
• with sunsets, the sun should be on a third line

As you can see, both the bird is on a third line intersection and the water edge is on a horizontal third line.

With the bird centered, the photo loses a lot of interest.

The bird on the third line makes for a greater dynamic photograph.

3. Level Horizons

• this simple compositional rule is one of the most often overlooked
• a slight slant of the horizon or major line of interest can take away so much from a photo
• if you're going for an off level, or diagonal look, go extreme.
• a slight slant shows you missed it in post processing, or can show laziness
• a big diagonal makes a statement and shows that you intended to do it
• it's not always easy to get a perfectly horizontal horizon in camera, however it is a very easy fix in post processing if you have photoshop, photoshop elements, lightroom, or any other basic post processing program

The below photo has a slightly slanted horizon

Even only a slight slant makes a difference

In the following photo, the slant was fixed and the horizon was leveled

4. Natural Framing

• when you have a natural frame, use it to your disposal
• natural framing brings your eye into the main subject
• examples of natural frames may be a window or door frame, the edge of trees, strong lines surrounding the subject
• basically anything that will surround your subject and draw your eye to it

The following photo gives an example of using many natural objects to frame the subject

The edge of the trees, the rock slope, and the fence frames the old broken down shack (main subject)

5. Lead-In Lines

• look for strong or dark lines that lead your eyes into, not out of the photo.
• look for vanishing points
• examples could be: a curvy stream that leads the eye off into the distance, a straight road that disappears into the center of the photo at a vanishing point, a sea shore that curves away into the distance
• if a strong line in your photo immediately shoots out of the edge of the photo, your eye follows it and distracts from your key subject

The below photo is an extreme example of using lead-in lines that meet at the vanishing point

This photo has a curving lead line that leads your eye from the foreground around the edge of the photo to the background area

6. Is that pole growing out of your head?

• it is always strange to see an object in the background that appears to be growing out of someone or something like a mutant appendage.
• an example may be a person with a telephone pole behind him or her that's lined up in such away that it looks like it's shooting right out of his or her head.

In this example the birds lined up in such a way that it looks like this guy (or girl...I'm not sure) has 4 wings.

7. Diagonals, Curves, and Triangles

• it has been said that diagonal lines make for stronger photos, compositionally.
• curves add a dynamic element to photo composition as well
• i can't recall the source of where I first learned this, but triangles are also very strong compositional tools

This photo has a nice mix of curves and diagonals

The following portrait contains a large number of triangles

8. Fill the Frame

• pretty simple...why have unnecessary empty space in a photo if it doesn't add anything to the photo.

Alot of wasted space with boring sky

The frame is filled with little wasted space. Greater detail can be seen in the aircraft.

9. Look into, not out of the photo.

• if your subject is on the left side of the photo, they generally should be looking to the right side of the photo and visa versa.
• if the subject is on the left and is looking to the left edge, your eyes tend to follow where there eyes are going. Your eyes then shoot right off the edge of the photo.

Looking out of the photo (try to stay away from this)

Looking into the photo (typically preferable)

10. Odd Numbers

• even number (2 or 4) are weaker compositionally
• odd numbers (1, 3, 5 etc) add to strong compostion
• for example, 3 candles in a photo would make a stronger composition than 2 or 4.
• this is partially why triangles make strong compositions

11. BREAK THE RULES

• rules are made to be broken
• there's a huge difference in breaking the rules intentionally and not understanding good compostion
• an example of when to break the rules is reflections in water. Instead of putting the main line on a third, symmetry will work better thus allowing for the line to be smack dab down the center
• extreme diagonals can be a good way to break the rules
• shooting down on children or up on adults you exaggerates their height (makes kids look smaller and inferior, and shooting up on adults makes them look far to large). However, this can sometimes be a fun one to break depending on the intended mood of the photo.

Here's an example of the main line down the center and a landscape being turned diagonally.

You are all now on your way to better photos due to your now never ending knowledge of photo composition (well maybe not never ending)

I hope you've enjoyed composition "From the Ground Up!"

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Automatic Vs. Manual

So you've just gone out and bought yourself a shiny new DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera to replace that point and shoot you've been using for the longest time. Sweet better photos are on the way.

Or are they?

That will greatly depend on a few things...mainly if you intend to use your DSLR as a fancy point and shoot.

Some aspects of your photos will likely improve just with the purchase of your DSLR. Some of these things include:

-Better Image Sensors (better resolution [Megapixels], color accuracy, tonal range, etc)

-Better Dynamic Range (better ratio of light to dark to capture more detail in the highlights and shadows in the same photo)

-No Shutter Lag (helps to not miss that once in a life time shot due to a delay from your camera)

-More Frames Per Second (more photos shot in a short period of time - up to 10 fps in some camera models)

But aside from these few things, if you shoot on automatic mode with your DSLR, you're losing out on the best features built into your new toy.

Automatic modes choose all your in camera settings for you in an attempt to get a properly exposed photo every shot. Wow! That's great! Exactly what I want! Or is it?

By doing this, the photographer (you) loses control of the artistic effects that you'd be capable of achieving by shooting in manual mode.

With that said, lets define the different things that the camera is deciding for you.

Aperture - The opening in your cameras lens through which light passes through that in turn reaches the image sensor. The size of the hole is adjustable to let more or less light reach the sensor. In addition to changing the amount of light coming in, it also has an added artistic effect. The bigger the hole, or the wider the aperture, the more blur will be added in front of and behind your focal point. The smaller the hole, or the smaller the aperture, the more that will be in focus in front of and behind your focal point. This matter of focus in front of and behind your subject is referred to as Depth of Field (DOF).

Shutter Speed - For starters, the shutter is the mechanism in your camera that blocks light from hitting the sensor when a photo is not being taken. When you click the shutter button, you send a signal to open the shutter for a preset amount of time to allow light to pass through the aperture to reach the sensor. When this preset amount of time elapses, the shutter closes, blocking further light from reaching the sensor. The amount of time the shutter is open is referred to as shutter speed. The shorter amount of time the shutter is open, the less light is allowed to reach the sensor. The longer it's open, the more light reaches the sensor. Faster shutter speeds (1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/4000, etc) allow you to capture something moving and prevent motion blur from occurring. Slower shutter speeds (1/25, 1/8, 1/2, 1 sec, 30 sec, etc) allow motion blur to occur. The fractions above are fractions of a second.

ISO - or International Organization for Standardization, refers to the sensors sensitivity to a given amount of light. This relates to film speed in non-digital cameras. The higher the number the faster the film. 100 being low speed, and 800 or more considered high speed film. By increasing the sensitivity of the image sensor, you are making it more sensitive to a given amount of light. So for example lets say you need to take a photograph in a dark room. You may start by trying to make the aperture it's largest possible size to let the most light reach the sensor. You may then try to make the shutter speed longer to get the light you need. Well if you have the shutter speed to slow (or open longer) you may capture the image at a proper exposure but your image will likely be blurred if you were hand holding the camera (as opposed to mounting it on a tripod). So what can you do about that? Increase the sensitivity of the sensor. By bumping up the ISO to a higher number, one can shoot at a shutter speed that wont cause any motion blur. Without adjusting the ISO, the image will look dark and underexposed. By increasing the ISO, the light that is available in the room will seem more apparent in your photos because of the increased sensitivity to light.

White Balance - refers to the representation of colors in your image. Different light sources cast different colors on your subject. Lets say for example you had a piece of white notebook paper on the table and it was lit by a tungsten bulb (normal lamp). If there was no white balance adjustment, the image will appear to be very warm and orangey in color due to the color cast from the lamp. Your white paper won't look so white. Lets say it was under the light of a fluorescent lamp. These lights cast a blue color on your subject. The image will look cool and blue in color. Who wants blue or orange paper...or anything in between? Well you may want a color cast if you're going for an artistic effect, but by adjusting white balance whether automatically, or manually, the camera will warm up or cool down the image to bring that paper back to a nice white color.

So in automatic mode, the camera is making all of these choices for you. In manual mode you have the power to change these things individually and render the artistic effect that you desire in your images.

But this all sounds so hard. There's to many options and I'll likely mess up the image because I took to long to make the choices, or I made the wrong choices. Well let me say... you're probably right. You're going to make mistakes with your images when you first start using Manual exposure modes. That's the great thing about digital! You get instant feedback without wasting money as you screw up images. With film cameras you had to pay for the film and it was costly to make mistakes. I'm not advocating that if you choose to shoot film cameras, you should do everything on the automatic modes it may or may not give you. I'm just saying you have the ability to learn from your mistakes in an instant so why not shoot manual.

It will give you a better appreciation of your own images when you capture them well. You'll likely become a better photographer for doing so.

Well my dads reunion is tomorrow and I just got this DSLR and I can't afford to mess up the shots...Ok so shoot on automatic early on if it's vital that you at least capture keepable images from the event. But everywhere else, you should be striving to shoot manual. Before you know it you'll be able to dial in the desired settings in not much more time than it would have taken you to shoot the photo in manual.

Up until this point I've been referring to your cameras ability to choose how the photo is exposed. Another thing to think about is Automatic vs. Manual focusing.

To be quite honest, the Auto focus systems on cameras have come a long way. I shoot on Automatic focus 90% of the time. You may choose to do otherwise but I just wanted to explain the differences and let you decide for yourself.

There's not necessarily any right or wrong image to use manual focus on.

However, there are instances when manual focus will be a great benefit to you.

In my opinion, macro photography (close-up photography) is much easier by using manual focus. The DOF (depth of field) is so narrow that a slight hairs length of movement can cause the desired part of the image to be completely out of focus. This sounds hard to do by hand but it can be harder using auto focus. Auto focus in these situations tends to focus on an undesired point on your subject.

Another instance would be shooting through glass. I often find when shooting through glass, the auto focus system tends to pick up on dirt and reflections in the glass making it nearly impossible to get a subject on the other side of the glass in focus.

Fast moving subjects, or action photography can be much easier using manual focus. Let's say you're at an air show and the planes are going left to right at the same distance away from you. By setting the focus to manual and then getting your subject in focus, you'll find that every shot is in focus and you don't have to wait for your auto focus system to hunt back and forth looking for the subject every time it passes at 500-mph.

Low-light photography can prove to be a good time to shoot on manual. Many auto focus systems have trouble finding the subject to focus on in dimly lit conditions. By switching to manual, you can get the subject in focus without the headache of an unusable auto focus system.

So there you have it. Now you know the advantages to shooting with manual modes as opposed to automatic modes.

When I got my first DSLR, I just told myself to pretend that the automatic modes were broken. I never let myself resort to the automatic modes. I came home with alot of crappy photos, but when I got one right, it felt soooo good. Now manual mode is second nature to me and I couldn't even imagine shooting with an automatic exposure mode.

I encourage you to pretend your auto exposure mode is broken as well.

From now on, my entries will be based around shooting with a Digital SLR camera in full manual exposure mode.

The next entries will be going into more detail on aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white-balance, etc.

This has been Automatic Vs. Manual . . . "From The Ground Up!"

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