I’m sure that most of you have heard about the rules of composition in photography. You know, rules such as keep your horizons level and follow the rule of thirds. Well, a question I sometimes hear is, “What will happen if my subject isn’t at a third point?” The short answer is nothing! To be truly creative, you should know how and when to break the rules. In this short article, I want to give you a few ideas for…
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Don’t Confuse Effort with Results
It’s one of the most familiar stories that I hear: “You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to take this photo. I captured it on the hardest hike of my life, but it was absolutely worth the effort.” And then the photo – though rarely a complete failure – just isn’t up to the standard of the photographer’s other work. Sometimes, it seems, photographers confuse a photo that was difficult to capture with one that truly succeeds.
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Making Sense out of Chaos
The natural world can be a chaotic place. If you’re a landscape photographer, you’ve probably found yourself taking pictures of scenes that seem too disorganized and overwhelming to work right no matter what you do: forests, canyons, coastlines, and so on. You’re chasing the elusive gem of simplicity within a landscape that is anything but simple. How do you make sense of things and capture good photos anyway?
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Visualization and Film Photography
As a follow-up to my previous essays on visualization, in this article I will share select photographs made on film with a detailed description of the thought process, the choice of tools, and technical considerations that were involved. I have chosen two starkly different photographs (both landscapes) to discuss. I hope that these photos with the accompanying narrative will prove interesting and helpful to beginning film photographers and perhaps guide more experienced photographers in advanced techniques and approaches. Of note,…
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15 Composition Tips to Improve Your Photography
The following article contains a list of important composition tips to help you take the strongest possible photos. It goes without saying that composition is a very personal creative decision, so there are no truly universal do’s and don’ts. Nevertheless, there are certain techniques you can use to improve your photos, from forming a vision to refining your initial composition in the field. The goal is to make your image’s final message as clear and effective as possible.
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How to Use Leading Lines in Photography
Lines are some of the most fundamental elements of photography, and some of the simplest, too. But don’t let that fool you. Lines come in many varieties – sometimes leading lines that guide the composition, other times barriers segmenting a photo. They also impact an image’s sense of emotion and structure. In this article, I will cover the best ways to use leading lines and other lines in photography, including how to put them into practice in your own compositions.
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Understanding Contrast in Photography
What is contrast? How can you get high-contrast images? It’s a sought-after concept in photography, but also one of the most confusing, as there are a wide number of ways to bring it about. To start, let us get to answer the first question. Instead of putting up grey-scale maps, let me explain it with pictures. I will start with monochrome images, as they are easier to explain than their coloured counterparts.
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How Color Impacts Photographs
At a technical level, color can be complicated; just see our recent article on sRGB vs Adobe RGB vs ProPhoto RGB. But at an artistic level, it is one of the most important parts of an image, impacting emotions and interest unlike almost any other element of photography. This article introduces the concepts of color and color relationships, including how to use them to take the best possible photographs.
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The 10 Elements of Composition in Photography
Sometimes, it helps to take a step back from broader discussions on creativity to look at the truly fundamental elements of composition. Although there are countless elements of composition in art as a whole, this article covers the ten most important that are specific to photography – critical parts of nearly every photo you take. They’re divided into two main categories: objects, and their relationships. These are nothing less than the building blocks of creativity.
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The Three Elements of a Good Photo
Every successful photo has three things in common, and they’re not particularly surprising. The proper aperture, exposure, and focusing distance? The right camera, lens, and tripod? Successful use of hyperfocal distance, ISO invariance, and ETTR? No! The three variables that matter the most in photography are simple: light, subject, and composition.
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