Composition- Rule of thirds, Color and Leading Lines

Rule of thirds. Let’s represent our voices, our meaning our perception.

The earlier post we learned how to break an image in to vertical and horizontal thirds. Keeping that in our minds eye as we create a photograph, will be what sets us apart artistically.

In this image below we see the bride and groom in the background with the flowers in our focus on using the rule. Our eyes are attracted to the color and its focus and lead us up to the wonderful kissing couple. To me this photo represents... new beginnings. The color red is dominated as the rest of the photo sits softly in the background. Red symbolizes birth, love, new beginnings and passion. Its association stems   with “in the red” financially and stops signs, due to the fact that it is the first color our eyes focus on in most situations and gets our attention quickly. I wanted to focus on love in more ways that just a smiling couple. I used my knowledge of color and rule of thirds.

In the next photos, we see the decorated ceremony. All photos are beautiful in their own right. The first image I wanted to represent the alter and the guests that would soon be coming to witness this couple dedicate their lives to one another. Pleasing and to the point. The other photograph I wanted to do several things. Showcase the time and effort put into her décor. Be it her idea of her coordinators, I wanted to pick up details and also hold another meaning. We see the flowers on the chair, bottom right third of the photograph leading your eye up to the table at the alter. To me this photograph did represent.  When clients inquire about your services, they get a sense of your attention to detail and your ability to tell a story.  We take the time to work on things like small details, we want them remembered we want our efforts to be showcased. A bride will appreciate that you care as much as she does about her décor. Its not always about a clear image or emotion when you are booking a client. It all matters. Learn your voice, keep practicing and I am always around for questions, so comment, ask, lets have fun and get to know each other. Never stop learning! Thank you all for reading.

Compositon Part I

Lets me speak briefly about why we like photographs. Ever heard of the phrase we eat with our eyes first? This is because we see so vividly and in three dimensions we are graced with the ability to see all colors. Feeling things, smelling, tasting, all the senses invoke emotion!

What is  easy for our eyes to follow pleases us. Taught very early on, was how to lead the eye in and out of a photograph. If the eye floats into an image and out seamlessly we then pick up quickly what the image means to us or what the photographer’s message clearly is.

For instance, ever seen an image that is in black and white with a subject showing lots of emotion? Did you enjoy the photograph? The emotion is there, it’s a clean image, a clear image and we do not have the color taking away or leading our eyes all over the place. Our eyes are then focused mainly on the subject’s emotion, grasping our attention to stay there! I love the overwhelming emotions I tend to capture when I have a bride and groom in front of me, alone and away from the excitement of the day. A few brief moments allowing them to take in the fact that they are now husband and wife as I talk to them, I remind them that it is truly a wonderful time. As they look at one another, they go into a private moment that only they share and the reason for their love, that’s when I quiet down and take my shots. Above all, I love this  the most about photographing weddings.

We want to communicate with the world through images. We, I assume if you have been keeping up with my blog, do enjoy photography and want our voices heard, simply in photographs.

Here is some good reading on the symbolism and meaning of colors. Knowing what they mean we can use color better in our images. We can understand color settings, lighting and things like white balance.

http://www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning-symbolism-and-psychology/

Rule of Thirds

If you have ever read anything on “how to make good images” most likely you have come across the term The Rule of Thirds.

This means to imagine the image broken down into vertical and horizontal thirds, so you then have 9 sections and critical points of interest.

This rule however doesn’t dictate that your photos will or will not be good. It’s simply a rule to help you understand how the message we want to imply to the viewer will be understood and to train your mind to always think when you compose an image.

The sections that cross are a recommendation of where to place your subject in order for the eye to be easily balanced. Studies have shown that most view a photograph at these specific locations and not necessarily in the center.

It is a humbling experience to be able to show you some of my earlier work, the struggles I went through during the learning process. I feel though, if you are able to see that not all photographers are awesome or even good the second they receive a camera that it might encourage you to keep learning and practicing.

 The very first wedding I ever photographed I was so nervous that in order to practice I offered the bride and groom a free bridal session at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

As I look back on this image. I see so many errors, things I should have done.  Although a little embarrassing, I am truly happy. I know I have honed my skills and that I am able to use this imaged to teach.

We see the bride in a lovely moment. She is having fun being able to wear that gorgeous dress in public and get attention. To be honest, I was enjoying the attention too. It was the first time I felt like a professional photographer. Here she is in the, rule of thirds portion. She is placed in the right side of the photograph allowing all the other beautiful elements to lead your eye out to the left, using the veil. If she had been placed directly in the middle it would have lost a lot of power. Her body leads you in with the direction of her eyes and floats you out.

I will be gathering more images to show you the power of The Rule of Thirds. I hope this section on composition will give you more power of the voice you express into images. Thank you all for reading.

Shutter Speed 1/500
Aperture f4.5
ISO 400
White Balance: unkown
Mode on Camera: P Mod
*This was all the informaiton I could get off the EXIF data.

How to and what did I use?

As promised and a bit later than I wanted to here is the How to.
I set my camera on tripod with a remote controlled shutter chord so that I did not pick up any camera shake. I used an ISO of 400 to pick up the christmas lights better for I wasnt using a flash.
When the shutter opened I zoomed the lens out so it would pick up the trail of lights
Canon 20D
Lens: 28-135 @ 53 mm
Shutter Speed :13
Aperture: 29
White Balance: Cloudy

Here it is the Basics

Shutter-   Shutter on a camera determines the amount of time that your film/sensor is exposed to light. Think of it as a curtain. When you press the button to take a photo, it tells the shutter to open. It is a measurement of time in fractions of a second.

In order to talk any further about Shutter, we  must first take a look at what all those fractions mean.  

  A shutter speed of 1/4 means that the shutter is in the open stage for a period of one quarter of a second, whereas a shutter speed of 1/2000 means it is open for only one two thousandth of a second. The longer the shutter is open, the more light is hitting the sensor.

 Setting the shutter at 1/250 of a second instead of 1/125, the shutter stays open for half of as long. The relationship is halves and doubles. Setting your shutter’s speed at 1/60 of a second instead of 1/125 of a second the shutter stays open for twice as long and so on.

 Shutter also affects motion blur. Let’s say you are photographing a running dog. Would you freeze the action better at 1/125 of a second or 1/500 of a second? The answer is 1/500 of a second. That shutter speed is exposing your subject and its movement for a shorter amount of time. If your shutter stays open longer the more motion the sensor detects resulting in unwanted blur.

Aperture- The aperture is the measurement of light through an opening, in our case, the lens. The lens has a diaphragm inside allowing it to move, opening and closing the amount of light that is passed through it. The F stops represent the measurement. Why do we use F for the language? It comes from a math equation due to the history of changing lenses. The focal length (f) over the diameter of the diaphragm's opening is equal to the aperture.

 Yes I could give you a long history and math equation of how we got the f in the measurement but it at this point will do nothing but put a lot of words and phrases into your head and overwhelm you.

Remember this. The higher the f stop number (f22) the smaller the lens opening. If you open your lens up to f22 not a lot of light will be allowed into the lens. The lower the aperture f 2.8 the bigger the opening in the lens the more light enters.

 Remember we are learning light, the camera is just a tool to measure and control it. Photography actually means writing with light. So it’s best we understand how it comes into our camera, how to measure it and manipulate it.

If you are one of those people who love long equations and want the full history check out a few links I listed below. If you are happy with my “ remember this” for now, read on. If not play with math and get you some good history back up.

http://www.uscoles.com/fstop.htm

http://prophotoman.tripod.com/fstop.html - I like the commentary of this link, due to the fact we were all beginners and felt inadequate on a few occasions.

ISO- Film speed is the measure of a photographic film's sensitivity to light.  ISO is The Organizational Standard of measurement. Talking about digital cameras the ISO represents the camera’s sensor sensitivity. An ISO of 100 is less sensitive to light. The lower the ISO say on a bright day the cleaner the image and less grain. You are telling your camera you have enough available light, so the sensor is less sensitive to the light you expose it to once your shutter opens. A higher ISO of 800 will tell your camera that you do not have enough available light and the sensor will be trying to pick up all available light once you open the shutter.

 I have not said or written anything that you can not find in a general search online. I just wanted to make it very clear why we need to learn these. Once we have an understanding we can create the images that we want.  

 I am never asked anymore why I love photography and chose it as my profession. I love photographing things in a way that one would not normally see it. It takes someone knowing how to compose and manipulate light to show someone how to see the world according to you!. This is one of my main reasons I tell everyone to keep the camera in auto mode and work on composition. Find how you like to photograph and represent yourself as a photographer. That is the edge!  The rest of the learning comes in time. It would be harsh to try and teach anyone Shutter Speed/Aperture and ISO right out of the gates if they don’t find what they love about photography first. My next segment will be about composition before I move onto the modes in the camera, ya know that little dial on the top ? yeah that one! This will give you time to keep practicing with the basics and studying all your images. Yes study your images, don’t just throw out a bad photo with out knowing why it came out bad!! So start playing with settings  and take your journal!!

Quick Links

A few links to find me on other sights and a few links of my daily reading. Hope you like them. I will be posting on the topic of photography basics. A few ongoing lesson on the modes of your camera as well. Also as promised a "how to" lesson- topic- light painting. Enjoy
http://twitter.com/LaymanPhoto
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laymanphotography/
http://www.dpreview.com/ - buying guides and forums
http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/ - blog by Ziser * great reading, thank you John B for turning me onto his site- If you love photoshop and techniques as well as photography, hes a good one to follow.
http://www.betterphoto.com/home.asp - good learning site and forum.

Have a great day!

What Should I buy?

I have been asked this questions many times through out the years. I refuse to give a answer of "nikon, canon". There are several factors of picking a camera. It comes down to preference and what you will be doing with your camera.  We all have a budget and a good idea of what we want the camera to do. I have have worked with  film nikon cameras and that has been years ago. I do work with Canon Digitals and I can only give you a recommendation on the products that I use.  I would recommend taking the camera you currently have and working on getting more educated about photography in itself.  While learning what all that stuff means ~ie, fstops, aperature, ISO, etc etc.. work on your composition. Its what I tell people the most. Learn how to tell the story in your photographs. Learn how to pose men and women, families and children. Learn how to lead the eye in and out of a photograph. One of the first tutorials I ever read was Jzeltsman. His feet up approach is what my posing foundation is based on. Here is a bit of information I fould that may help you along the way.
http://super.nova.org/DPR/Technique/ZZ.html
 There are many online forums to join that you can get good help. Join a few and practice, practice. Soon you will be finding out what kind of camera you will want the most and it will train your mind to think when you use your camera.

Saint Chalres Avenue- New Orleans, LA

I get asked about this photograph a lot. I set up my tripod
on the street car tracks of Saint Chalres Ave. I set my camera in TV mode and hooked up my remote shutter chord.
 * Tv mode lets the camera select aperature (the lens opening) The higher the number ~ie f22~ the smaller the opening. The smaller the opening, the less amount of light that is allowed to expose your film/sensor.
My shutter was open for 15 seconds. I did this to check out certain set ups to see what I liked the best. Sometimes I still have to see it even though my mind has a good idea. It lets me play with setting after the fact, sometimes it redirects me altogether. I was photographing this shot for myself so I do tend to play. Never stop experiementing!!
Camera: 20 D
Lens: Canon EF 28-135mm
ISO: 400

New Examples On Flickr

Hello everyone!
Thank you for taking the time to look at my new blog.  Later on in the week I will be picking a few photos giving a play by play of what was done to achieve the look.  Along with the information will be my own thought and side notes. We are hear to learn from each other and enjoy photography.

Thank you ,
Stacey L