Photo Composition ctd

Flat Stanley Project

#1: Horizontal Photos

Use when:• Subject is horizontal• Subject is wider than it is tall• To allow the subject to move horizontally• Convey space: when your subject is moving OR looking in a direction, leaving space on that side visually allows the subject to continue looking/moving more so than a vertical image would. • Horizontal images can be used to suggest a sense of largeness in landscapes. —courtesy about.com

#2: Vertical PhotosUse when:• Subject is vertical• Subject is taller than it is wide• To allow the subject to move vertically• Convey space: when your subject is moving up or down. • Vertical leading lines are present• To focus attentionVertical images can be used to focus a viewer's attention on a single subject by removing almost all sense of peripheral vision.—courtesy about.com

#3: Fill the Frame• There's an old saying in

photography that says if you want to improve your photographs 100 percent, move closer. It's true. The one sure way to keep from including too much extraneous information in a photograph is to fill the frame with your subject and nothing but your subject, edge to edge.

—courtesy fodors.com

#4: Unusual Cropping

• Usually, we try to get our subjects’ entire faces or bodies in a shot, but sometimes you can cut off parts of a subject in order to enhance a more interesting feature.

—photos courtesy haidybaskin.wordpress.com

#5: Rule of Thirds• You remember this one. Place the part of the

photo you want to highlight in the outer sections of the Tic-Tac-Toe grid, especially on one of those 4 inner “hot spots.”—

• photo courtesy photographymad.com

#6: Clean background• Look around for a plain and unobtrusive

background and compose your shot so that it doesn't distract or detract from the subject.

• courtesy photographymad.com

#7 Shape/Silhouette• Your subject doesn’t have

to be a person! IT can be a plant, animal, or object so long as it shows the shape.

• Place the subject (the shape you want to be blacked out) in front of some source of light — In doing this your subject will be under exposed (and very dark, if not black). Make sure your flash is off!

• courtesy http://www.artfans.info/30-examples-and-how-to-photograph-silhouettes/

#8: Symmetrical photo• Symmetry means the same/balanced on both sides.• Choose a subject that is either the same on either side

or a mirror image.• You can also choose to show a repeated pattern instead.• courtesy photographyblogger.net/symmetry

#9: Light and shadow• Shadows are not silhouettes! Silhouettes are photos

of your subject in front of/blocking out light. Shadows are just what they sound like. Your photos MUST show both light and shadow to count. Your subject may or may not be in them (see examples.

• —courtesy http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/03/01/showcase-of-beautiful-shadow-photography/

#10: Texture• Texture is the surface detail of an object. This detail can be composed of

surface irregularities (such as the wood grain of an old plank) or of small forms on a surface (such as a mass of roots from an ancient tree). Use your camera to find the pattern and texture of different surfaces.

• (Try the macro setting for up close shots and soft lighting/sunset for shots that are further away)Courtesy ronbigelow.com/articles/texture-photography/texture-photography.html and digital-photography-school.com

#11: Balance• Placing your main subject off-centre, as with the rule of

thirds, creates a more interesting photo, but it can leave a void in the scene which can make it feel empty. You should balance the "weight" of your subject by including another object of lesser importance to fill the space.

• courtesy photographymad.com

#12: Experimentation• Break the rules! Take a COOL PHOTO that is an

exception — in the center instead of rule of thirds, cut off, blurry, etc. It must look GOOD and INTENTIONAL.

• Photos courtesy http://www.lightstalking.com/27-photos-that-break-all-the-composition-rules-but-still-rock

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

• BRING IN YOUR FLAT STANLEY BY NEXT CLASS – ASSIGNMENT GRADE!

Remember, in addition to taking these 12 photos, you’ll also be graded on:

• White balance in your photos• Ability to use text in photoshop• Proper exposure in your photos• Correct # of photos (4) per page• Cut out and put together nicely

• Printed/labeled correctly• Stanley used in all photos

• Creativity