10 Photography Composition Rules

Rule of Thirds

Divide your image into 9 equal segments by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines. You should position the most important elements along these lines, or at the intersecting points to add balance and interest to your photo.

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Balancing Elements

Placing your main subject off-centremore interesting photos, but it can leave a void in the scene. You should balance the “weight” of your subject by adding another object of lesser importance to fill the empty space.

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Leading Lines

When we look at a photo our eye is naturally drawn along lines. Thinking about how you place lines in your composition can affect the way we view the image. it can pull us into the picture, towards the subject, or on a journey “through” the scene. There are many different types of line – straight, diagonal, curvy, zigzag, radial etc.

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Symmetry and Patterns

Symmetry and patterns, both natural and man-made, can make for very eye-catching compositions, especially in unexpected situations. Another great way to use them is to break the symmetry or pattern in some way, which introduces tension and a focal point to the scene.

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Viewpoint

Take time to think about where you will take your from. Our viewpoint has a big impact on the composition of our photo, and can greatly affect the message it conveys. Consider photographing from high above, down at ground level, from the side, from the back, from a long way away, from very close up, and etc.

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Background

Look around for a plain and unobtrusive background and compose your shot so that it doesn’t distract or detract from the subject.

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Depth

Photography is a two-dimensional mediumm, so we have to choose our composition carefully to convey the sense of depth that was present in real life. You can create depth in a photo by including objects in the foreground, middle ground and background. Also use overlapping, where you deliberately partially obscure one object with another.

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Framing

The world is full of objects which make perfect natural frames, such as trees, archways and holes. Placing these around the edge of the composition helps to isolate the main subject from the outside world. The image is more focused and draws your eye naturally to the main point of interest.

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Cropping

A photo will often lack impact because the main subject is small and it becomes lost among its surroundings. Cropping tightly around the subject eliminates the background clutter, ensuring the subject gets the viewer’s undivided attention.

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Experimentation

Experimenting with our photos’ composition is a smart thing to do. We can fire off tons of shots and delete the unwanted ones later. Take advantage of this and experiment with your composition.

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Favorite Project

My favorite project this term was the Cloudy with a Chance of. I had fun shooting the pictures needed for the project. It was really fun to do the Photoshop portion of the assignment. It was amazing to see the whole thing come together to be a nice assignment. It didn’t even feel like schoolwork.

10 Tips

1. Look your subject in the eye
When taking a picture of someone, hold the camera at the person’s eye level.

2. Use a plain background
A plain background shows off the subject you are photographing.

3. Use flash outdoors
Make faces clearer by using your flash to lighten the face. When taking people pictures on sunny days, or cloudy days, turn your flash on.

4. Move in close
If your subject is smaller than a car, take a step or two closer before taking the picture and zoom in on your subject. Your goal is to fill the picture area with the subject you are photographing.

5. Move it from the middle
Bring your picture to life by simply moving your subject away from the middle of your picture.
You’ll need to lock the focus if you have an auto-focus camera because most of them focus on whatever is in the center of the viewfinder.

6. Lock the focus
If your subject is not in the center of the picture, you need to lock the focus to create a sharp picture.

7. Know your flash’s range
The number one flash mistake is taking pictures beyond the flash’s range. Why is this a mistake? Because pictures taken beyond the maximum flash range will be too dark. For many cameras, the maximum flash range is less than fifteen feet—about five steps away.

8. Watch the light

Next to the subject, the most important part of every picture is the light. It affects the appearance of everything you photograph.

9. Take some vertical pictures
Turn your camera sideways to take a vertical picture. All sorts of things look better in a vertical picture.

10. Be a picture director
Become a picture director, not just a passive picture-taker. A picture director takes charge. A picture director picks the location.

Photoshop Tricks

In class, I learned how to use Photoshop to change the appearances of other people. in my opinion, it’s wrong to do this. I believe it not only deceives product buyers, but it also fills us with images of these “people.” Everyone wants to be like the people on TV, but we really cant. it makes people feel bad that they cant be like the people they look up to. That’s why I respect Dove for releasing the Real Woman Campaign. Using real people, unaltered.

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Special Place

My special place is a baseball diamond. It is my special place because baseball is a way for me to relax and break away from anything. It provides enjoyable relief for stress. I’ve also played baseball almost my entire life. it is a way to hang out with friends while playing the greatest sport we have. My family is very baseball oriented so I have a strong connection game.

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