Keep it Simple - 4 Tips to Help Your Photography
Photographic Composition Tips
Photography as an art has never been more exciting or enjoyable. Todays photography enthusiast has many styles, topics, and tools open to them. Plus, the blending of digital with print makes the craft of taking photos very versatile.
While it is true that taking photos is as simple as running out and grabbing a cheap five dollar camera, taking GOOD photos has never been easy. So lets explore some quick ideas that can help you take photos that you will be happy to send home.
Here are four tips to help.
 Get a little closer, don't be shy. One of the biggest mistakes most beginning photographers make is shooting from so far away. They leave too much distance between themselves and their subjects. Instead, get up close and personal. Fill up as much of the camera frame, with your subject, as you can. You can always reshape, trim, and resize a good quality shot. But you can't continue to blow up a distant subject and hope that it will come into focus. It just won't happen. The more you crop an image(zoom in after is is taken) the more detail you are trying to pull from a smaller area of the film or digital file.
Look in front and behind the subject. Identify the subject and then figure out how to isolate the subject from all the other junk in the picture. See what else is included in the picture, what can be excluded, and what must be in the image to create the perfect photo. Moving yourself or your subject 6 inches can make a big difference in the final portrait.
Shoot with Print Size in Mind. When cropping in the camera keep in mind your most common print size and verticle vs horizontal formatting. For example the second image on the page is a perfect 4x6 format. This is a very common size. The birthday image could be cropped to a 4x6 horizontal for this effect: 
The 4x6 format is the native format for many digital cameras. If you are wanting to take the same image and go to an 8x10 format you will lose some of the data on the sides of the image. My general rule of thumb when shooting is to leave a little room on the long ends of the print and let the camera come in tighter on the sides. The above image did not crop well to an 8x10 so we had to go back to the original image and re-crop so that it would fit well into an 8x10 format. Most cameras have some cropping guides in the viewfinder. Compare those guides to an 8x10, 5x7, and 4x6 image and you will be better at shooting for your target size print. 
RULE OF THIRDS
The rule of thirds tells you to divide the frame into a 3x3 grid with horizontal and vertical lines. The subject should be at the intersection of any of the grid lines. Any action should be moving into the largest remaining area of the picture, not out of it. Roads or fences move into the picture, not out of it. The subject's eyes should be looking into the picture, not out of it. Action moves into the frame not out of it. [Read More]
Horizontal vs Verticle Composition
Strong horizontal images demand a horizontal format for the picture while strong vertical lines generally require a vertical format. Just because your original image was shot horizontal doesn't mean it can't be cropped into a vertical image.
The issue of format seems to be a difficult one for many photographers. Try looking at the image in both formats. If it looks OK to you either way, the chances are you should follow the rules presented. If one way looks materially better than the other, go with that one. Generally speaking, 4 people can be photographed vertically, and 5 or more will look good horizontal.
Create Depth Good photographers understand that photography is a flat medium. Use selective focus and foreground and background images to create depth. Photographing this model with leaves in the foreground adds to the mystery and illusion of the shot. 
You should always remember to use the camera to tell the story of your shot. If you have a shot with a lot of activity can reducing the area photographed tell the same story. Determine what the main subject of the photo will be, and catch that image. Finding the one key subject, person, or activity which accurately portrays the feeling you are trying to capture will give impact to your photographs.
In addition to getting one subject, in your photos, you will want to make the background of the photo as simple as possible. Busy, distracting backgrounds pull the attention away from the central theme of your photo. The subject of your photo is absolutely the most important element, and anything that detracts from the subject can ruin your shot. Look at this example of the smoking woman. The background was selected because the photographer's goal was to draw attention to the woman and her cigarette.  Following through with our earlier discussion of cropping for impact. Note the second image and the tighter crop. Not only has more of the backgound been eliminated the attention is diverted from the woman to the cigarette and the message.
Page provided Courtesy of Art's Photography |
