When I just started to take pictures, I was so
busy making sure that all the people and all
important moments were in the photographs that I
didn’t spend enough time making a composition of
the picture! As a result I was never really
happy about the outcome. To improve my photos, I
needed to focus more on making a composition in
every photo, much like an artist setting up his
or her composition for a painting. Around that
same time I found a photography blog (http://photochallengeblog.blogspot.com/),
where my eyes where opened to the so many things
you can do when making your composition.
That’s why this month I would like talk about
some things to think about when making a
composition, like focus, playing with light, and
the different angles to take pictures from.
First of all we will look into one of the most
popular rules of composition, The Rule of
Thirds.
The Rule of Thirds
This rule is very simple. We start by making
imaginary lines on our image that will divide it
into thirds both horizontally and vertically.
You place the important elements of your
composition where these lines intersect.
Using the Rule of Thirds helps produce nicely
balanced, easy on the eye pictures. But once you
have got the hang of the Rule of Thirds you will
very quickly want to break it! This is fine
because 'rules' are best used as guidelines and
if you can create a better image by bending or
ignoring rules then fire away.
Focus
Now that we have talked about this rule, I would
like to talk about some other things we can
think about when we are making our composition,
for instance focus. When I am telling a story on
a scrapbook page I always love to have some
close-up pictures that will focus on the
important things. Like in the first picture
below, where my son is playing in the sandbox
and cooking sand. You can imagine that I was
very happy that he didn’t want me to try what he
had made.
In
the second construction picture, the excavator
is in full action. The great thing about making
close–up photos is that the background will get
blurred so that the focus will totally be on
your subject.
