Photo Composition - An Introduction

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Photo Composition

(An Introduction)

     Yesterday was a great day to take photographs. I woke up to a very foggy morning, and decided to go out and take pictures! I'll show you what I took, and introduce to a few terms of composition. 

 The  35mm format with film was 24mm x 36mm or 2 x 3. It's changed slightly with most DSLRs, as they have a smaller frame than the full-frame more expensive cameras. However, the basic principles of composition haven't really changed.

The above 2 diagrams present to you what is called "the rule of thirds".

If you divide your viewfinder into imaginary 1/3's, you'll get the vertical lines intersecting with the horizontal lines. 

The 4 points at which the vertical  and horizontal lines meet are called "crash points". Placing your main parts of the photo (elements or subjects)at these intersecting points, makes your photos more interesting. The reason is that the lines intersect and draw your eyes to these points.

The other part of the "the rule of thirds" tells you to place any horizontal or vertical main parts of a photo (e.g. the horizon or the water level)at the lower or upper 1/3 line position.

I'll show you what I mean by these terms. Have a look at the photos below.

Notice how I try:

1. To keep the  horizon line in the lower 1/3 of the photo. 

Of course I could have positioned the line in the upper 1/3 also.

 2. Notice how I try to place important parts of the photo on the "crash points".

Below are more photos taken near the above location, and on the same day.

These photos still are trying to apply the same 2 compositional elements as above:

a. The rule of thirds

2. Crash Points.

However, all of these photos can be better improved through what is called "cropping".

Cropping is  a method whereby you re-frame the photo to take out parts of the photo that may be distracting. Originally, this would be done to a photographic print. However, it can just as easily be done on a computer screen as well.

The objects below are called "cropping L's", since 3 their design 

or shape is in the form of the English letter "L". You can make small ones or big ones depending on how you like to preview your images on a computer screen.

You can see how they can move in 2 directions:up and down and left to right

I've made then narrow, but you can make them bigger. This will hide areas of the photos that you don't like, or by the use of the cropping L's you can tighten the area of view of your image.

Try to make a pair of these cropping L's.

I'll continue tomorrow to show you how they work, but I'm sure you can figure that out.

Caution: Be very careful to not scratch your computer monitor or Imac which has a plastic covering over the front that protects the glass behind!

You can even place them slightly away from the computer screen, and they'll work as well.

From there, you can then recrop your photo (crop and paste)to present to yourself a new reframed photo.

That's it for today, so thanks for dropping by.

Have a great morning, afternoon, or evening as usual.