More....photography composition rules

In this post, I will share more about the general photography composition rules. FIVE more rules will be described such as background, viewpoint, depth, framing and cropping.

Choosing a right BACKGROUND is important for portrait photography. Look for simple background such as brick wall, green grasses, bright or dark background etc. If you do not have the luxury to choose the background, then increase the distance between your subject and the background, use lens with longer focal length (at least 50mm) and open up the aperture to the maximum (smallest f-value), this will create blur background. Thus, your subject will stand out.

Dark background, 50 mm, f1.8

Think from where you will shoot before photographing your subject. Try viewpoints that are less common, be different. If the VIEWPOINT is common such as at eye level, then your photo will look common too. Try from high above, down at ground, from the side, from far away, from very close and so on.

Viewpoint down at ground, foreground - dry leaves, middle ground - the building
and background - cloud

Create DEPTH by including object at foreground, middle ground and background. These elements will make the eyes evaluating the distance between the foreground to the background, which will give the sense of depth. This is important for landscape photography. Without these three elements, your photo will look flat.

The surrounding is full with natural FRAMES, such as holes, archways and trees. Put your subject within this frames, this will isolate your subject from other elements near to the main subject. With these natural frames, our eyes will naturally focus to the main subject of interest.

Ruins of St Andrew Cathedral, framing method

CROPPING is usually required if the subject is relatively small compared to the size of photo or your photo is very busy with secondary subjects. By cropping tight around the main subject, the background interruption will be minimised, BUT you will also loss some of the pixels. Good luck!

Comments

Converting Bedside Table to a Portable Wash-Stand (IKEA Hack)

What to do if a ready made furniture is not able to fit in the space that is available? Your choice will be either build a customised furniture or hacking a furniture for a different purpose. Hacking a furniture will cut almost 70% of the work required to build a customised furniture from zero. Here, I share a step-by-step process on one of my DIY weekend projects converting bedside table to portable wash-stand. What will be required for this project? Tools (e.g. saw, metal ruler, hand drill), sand paper and brushes for wood work, base furniture to be hacked, water-resistant paint and metal knob. STEP 1. Get some ideas on the design and materials by visiting several furniture galleries/shops. For example here, the idea was from an IKEA wash basin base cabinet, Lillangen. The material mainly particleboard, which might not be that suitable for Malaysian humidity and bathroom practice. For that reason, I choose solid wood material the project. The dimension of the IKEA cab

Too dark...too bright....

Too dark or too bright.....this is due to poor exposure of the sensor to light. Is it a problem if my photo is too dark or too bright? May be yes and may be no, depends on what you want in your image. If the photo is too dark (underexposed), you will loss the detail of the shadow. If the photo is too bright (overexposed), you will loss the texture of the cloud and sky. Exposure is a combination of two fundamental settings: the aperture opening and the shutter speed. Aperture opening is the function in your lens and the shutter speed is the function in your camera. Optimal exposure can be achieved with many combinations of aperture opening size and the shutter speed, BUT each combination will have differences in depth of focus, motion blur and etc. How this exposure can be controlled? The answer is by having a good understanding of the combination of aperture and shutter speed. Shallow depth of focus, focus point was on the middle broccoli, focal length of 50 mm, large aperture ope

Cranberry and Raisin Scones....simply yummilicious

The scone baking project was to fulfill the weekend afternoon, and not because of the "doughnut story".....hihihi. Here I share the basic scone recipe. As I have mentioned earlier "Now everyone can bake", as such the recipe is easy to follow. Ingredients: 2 cups plain flour 1/3 cup sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup butter 1 egg (medium) beaten with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup whole milk 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1:1 ratio of egg:milk wash Method: Pre-heat the oven to 180-200C. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (photo 2) and then follow by the egg and vanilla. Add in the milk slowly to form a firm soft dough that can be roll out. Stir until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add in the dried cranberries and raisins. Roll out the dough on floured surface to 2 cm thickness. Using a 5 cm round scone cu

Travel, Interior Decoration, Photography and Food

Search This Blog