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Photography 101
If you're frustrated by the quality of your pictures, you're not alone. While creating an amazing photo involves a lot of factors, composition is one of the easiest to experiment with (no fancy equipment required). Try out the three principles outlined below, and you'll start to feel a lot more confident with your camera.
- The Rule of Thirds
- Fill the Frame with your Subject
- Change Your Vantage Point
This small rule can make a big difference (both when you follow it and when you ignore it entirely). Imagine that picture you're about to take is divided into thirds both vertically and horizontally. The resulting grid would look something like this:
This is a useful guide when composing photographs, because many people are tempted to place the subject in the exact center. Placing it along the vertical or horizontal lines instead creates interest and energy.
For example, notice that the bride is aligned with the left vertical line in the grid, and the chandelier is aligned with the right vertical line. If the bride and the chandelier were both in the center, we wouldn't notice either of them. But our eyes move comfortably from left to right, so they're both highlighted.
Here, the bride is once again aligned with the left vertical line, but her eyes are near the intersection of the top horizontal line and the left vertical line. These intersections are sometimes called "power points." If you really want draw focus to something in particular in a photo, you can place it near one of these intersecting points.
If you forgot the rule of thirds while composing, often cropping can help. I took this snapshot of my son last summer while picking raspberries (by the end he had had enough of me, my camera, and the fruit). I wanted the shot to contrast his little form against the endless rows of bushes. But when I saw it on my computer, I felt like he was lost in a sea of green, so I cropped it. In the second version, he's aligned on the left side and is no longer overwhelmed by the raspberry patch. The adorable cranky expression on his face becomes the focus.
And remembering that rules were made to be broken, you can take perfectly lovely snapshots by ignoring the grid entirely. There is no alignment on any of the lines here, just a dead-center close-up of my son's cute face.
"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough," says photographer Robert Capa. It's amazing what a difference a of couple steps can make. For instance, this is a nice picture of my nephew. His face is the focus and there are no distracting elements in the background.
However, I like the second shot more. The face fills the frame, and the eyes are along the top horizontal grid line, which makes the close-up a bit more interesting.
Here's another example. I took this snapshot of my brother and nephews last summer. They were lounging together in a hammock and I wanted to document that moment for him:
In the second picture, the heads fill the frame and are very close together; it gives the shot a strong sense of love and family .
Sometimes, however, the location is as important as the person. On vacation, you may want to capture a landmark as well as a person. In that case I recommend taking two pictures: one from a distance and one close up (so it fills the frame).
In this photo session, the meadow was so beautiful I wanted to make sure I included it in my shots. But I took an equal number of close up shots, to capture the faces and expressions of the children.
This is the quickest and best way to make a picture more interesting. It involves a bit more work for the photographer, but it gets great results.
I got quite a quad workout squatting down low enough to be face to face (or camera to face) with this toddler. But it's a much more compelling picture than if I had taken it standing up.
Here I was lying on my stomach in order to be eye to eye with this sweet girl. I got my clothes dirty and had to check for ticks afterward, but it was worth it.
With that vantage point in mind, I composed this portrait for an engagement session (for the same beautiful bride pictured earlier in the article). Having a subject look up is a great way to pose them. It creates light in their eyes, which adds a spark to the photograph. It is also is a very flattering angle for most people.
This picture was for a senior session, shot at an antique store. I wanted to try a backlit portrait of this young woman sitting in the old truck (which happened to be sitting in the yard). If I had shot it at eye level, there would have been too much sun flare. By shooting up towards my subject, I had enough sun flare to make it interesting, but not enough to block her out.
Experiment with these three rules of composition the next time you're holding a camera. The great thing about digital photography is that pixels are free. If you don't like the shots you've taken, just delete them and try again. Now, go take some pictures.
