Chapter 2
IN THIS CHAPTER
Exploring the basics of composition
Drawing the eye to your subject
Understanding depth of field
Deciding whether to blur motion
Looking for the light
Seeking out new and unusual subjects
When I started mingling with professional photographers, I noticed that they often used the term “making a photograph” instead of “taking a photograph.” At first, I assumed this was just a bit of artistic posturing — after all, isn't producing a photograph simply a matter of pressing a shutter button?
But as I learned more about photography, I realized that pressing the shutter button is actually the last in a series of steps a good photographer takes to create an image. Before that moment, you need to consider several creative issues, such as composition, depth of field (how much of the surrounding area should be as sharply focused as your subject), whether you want to blur or freeze action, and lighting. For the most part, you can control these aspects of your photograph even when shooting with basic cameras, although advanced models give you a few additional tools for varying depth of field, motion blur, and lighting.
This chapter helps you understand these creative choices so that you can start creating stronger images. Also check out Chapter 7 for additional tips specific to shooting better portraits, landscapes, close-ups, and action photos.
Not everyone agrees on the best ways to compose an image — art being in the eye of the beholder and all that. But the tips laid out in this section are generally accepted as tried-and-true ways to give your photos more visual appeal. For every “rule,” however, you can find great-looking images that prove the exception, so don't be afraid to experiment with other artistic ideas.
When framing a scene, try positioning your subject and other elements according to one of these three guidelines:
What about portraits, where the goal is to fill the frame with your subject — such as in a senior portrait? The same concept applies: Assuming that you're shooting the person's face (or full body, with face visible), the eyes are the most important component of the image, so place them at one of the intersecting lines suggested by the framing guidelines you choose to follow.
You can find other proven compositional guides if you do an online search for the term image composition. Don't worry about whether you land on a page devoted to paintings or drawings instead of photography — the principles are the same no matter what your creative medium.
To add life to your images, compose the scene so that the viewer’s eye is led naturally from one edge of the frame to the other or even entirely around the frame. You can create these leading lines with shapes, patterns of color, or variations of light and shadow.
Figure 2-5, which I captured after climbing at least a million steps to the top of a lighthouse, shows an obvious example of this concept. The strong curve of the railing on the left leads the eye into the frame, and the spiral formed by the stairs carries the movement to the bottom of the lighthouse. Light plays a role, too: Notice that the areas of sunlight and shadow create additional paths for the eye to follow.
In Figure 2-6, the diagonal lines created by the oars and the blue and white areas of the boats lead the eye from left to right. In the left image in Figure 2-7, the winding canal takes the eye from the boat in the foreground to the back of the frame. In the right image, color and form create the movement. The eye is drawn from the bright pink tail feathers of the right flamingo, around the curves of the second bird, down to the reflections in the water, and then up again to those first tail feathers.
Do you know that claustrophobic feeling you get when you walk in a store that is jam-packed to the rafters with goods — so cluttered that you can't even move down the aisles? That's the same reaction most people have when looking at a photo like the one in Figure 2-8: There's simply too much going on. The eye doesn't know where to look, except away.
As a photographer, you must decide what you want your main subject to be and then try to frame the shot so that distracting elements aren't visible. For example, in Figure 2-9, reframing the shot to include just a portion of the ride creates a much better image. All the energy of the fair is captured in the whirling chairs, and the composition is such that the eye moves around the curve of the frame to take it all in.
When shooting a portrait — or any subject, for that matter — don't frame your images so tightly that your subject looks cramped. Instead, allow what photographers refer to as head room, which means leaving a small margin of empty background at the top of the frame. When shooting a subject in profile, also leave extra padding in the direction that the subject's eyes are focused, as shown in Figure 2-11. This helps the eye follow the focus of the subjects across the frame and then causes the viewer to imagine what is just out of sight.
For action shots, you may need to increase the amount of background margin on the side of the frame where the subject is headed. As an example, see Figure 2-12. I left plenty of empty space on the right, according to the direction the biker is riding. Otherwise, it appears that there's nowhere for the subject to go.
When you set focus on your subject, you establish the distance at which the image appears sharpest. Depth of field refers to how far that sharp focus zone extends in front of and behind that point.
Figure 2-13 shows examples of both treatments. In the left image, the sharp focus region extends only a few inches in front of and behind my subject, the butterfly. Notice that the leaf in front of the butterfly appears just slightly blurry, and the background objects become progressively blurrier as the distance from the butterfly — the focus point — increases. The right image features a landscape that has a very large depth of field. I set focus on the hut on the left side of the walkway, but everything in front of and behind that structure remains sharp for quite a distance.
Skilled photographers vary depth of field for two main reasons:
Assign visual weight to the various elements of a scene. Viewers typically look first at the parts of a photo that are in sharpest focus. So a short depth of field draws the eye to a specific portion of the frame, and a long depth of field prompts the eye to consider all objects in the scene together.
Consider the photos in Figure 2-14, for example. In both cases, I set focus on the gecko. In the left image, the depth of field is large enough that the pink flower behind the gecko subject is sharp, giving it and the gecko equal visual weight. In the right image, a shallow depth of field blurs the flower, which in turn emphasizes the gecko. Neither treatment is right or wrong; this use of depth of field is completely up to your artistic discretion.
Enough theory; I think you get the idea. The question now is, how do you control this important aspect of your photos? Depending on your camera, you can use some or all of the following techniques:
Vary the lens focal length. If your camera has a zoom lens, you can increase depth of field by zooming out to the shortest focal length. Go the other direction to reduce depth of field. For example, if you're shooting with an 18–55mm lens, you get more depth of field at 18mm than at 55mm.
With an interchangeable lens camera, you can also just swap out lenses according to whether you're after a short or long depth of field. But again, keep in mind that changing the focal length also changes the angle of view; a shorter focal length delivers a wider view than a longer focal length. (The Chapter 1 section related to lenses talks more about focal length.)
Adjust the aperture (f-stop) or use an automatic Scene mode designed to produce the depth of field you want. If your camera enables you to specify the aperture setting, dial in a low f-stop number for shallow depth of field; raise the f-stop number to increase depth of field. Before you go this route, though, explore Chapter 5, which explains how adjusting aperture also affects image exposure.
If you don't have the option to set the f-stop or you don't want to get involved with exposure settings, you may be able to manipulate depth of field by using certain common Scene modes:
Be aware, though, that Portrait mode also warms colors (emphasizes reds and yellows) and softens contrast in order to produce a more flattering portrait. And Landscape mode boosts cools tones (blues and greens) and typically increases contrast, producing the traditional bold, crisp look popular among landscape photographers. In addition, whether the camera can use the f-stop setting that creates the intended depth of field depends on the available light: The correct exposure is given more weight than depth of field in the camera's f-stop decision, so in very bright or very dim lighting, you may not enjoy short depth of field in Portrait mode or long depth of field in Landscape mode. See Chapter 3 for more about using these Scene modes.
Any time you're photographing a moving subject, whether it's an athlete on the field, a toddler taking those first steps, or a flower blowing in the wind, you have two choices:
Here's what you need to know to take control over this aspect of your photos:
The shutter speed you need to blur or freeze action depends on the speed of your subject. For my icicle image, I set the shutter speed to 1/500 second; for the iguana, 1/250 second; and for the carnival ride, 1/5 second. But don't mistake the speeds I used in my examples as one-speed-fits-all recipes; you need to experiment to find out which shutter speed works best for the amount of blur (or lack thereof) you have in mind for your subject.
To give you a general guideline, though, you can usually freeze a moderately paced subject, such as a person walking, at about 1/320 second. For faster subjects, such as birds flapping their wings or dogs bounding across a yard, go higher — about 1/640 second should get you close to where you need to be. To blur motion, I start at about 1/20 second. But again, it's important to take test shots at different shutter speeds, check the results, and then go with a higher number (faster shutter speed) or lower number (slower speed) if you're not happy with the results.
When using a slow shutter speed, use a tripod to avoid camera shake. Any movement of the camera during the exposure blurs the entire image, not just the elements that are in motion.
Creating a photograph requires light — the word photograph, in fact, stems from the Greek words photo (light) and graph (writing.) Chapter 5 explains how to adjust your camera settings to get a proper exposure in any light — although, frankly, today's autoexposure systems handle that job fairly well with little input from you. Just as important, though, is becoming aware of the following characteristics of light and how they affect your images:
Color of light: Every light source infuses a scene with its own color cast. For example, just before sunset and just after sunrise, the sun paints the scenery with a beautiful yellow orange tint, which is why photographers refer to these times of day as the golden hours. And the period just after sunset and just before sunrise is called the blue hours because the light takes on a cool, bluish tint at that time.
Don't fret if you can't wait for golden-hour light; if you like the golden color cast, you can create it artificially via your digital camera's White Balance control, which I discuss in Chapter 6. Ditto for blue-hour light. On the flip side, if you prefer to neutralize the color of the light source, you can use the White Balance control to make that shift.
Figures 2-19 and 2-20 offer two examples to get you to start thinking more about how these attributes of light affect your images. In the first image, the sun is striking the buildings from directly overhead, telling the viewer what time of day the shot was taken. Bright daylight is nearly white, lending no additional color to the scene, and making the skies appear a brilliant blue in contrast.
In Figure 2-20, the soft, warm light bathes everything in that lovely golden-hour light, telling you that the shot was taken just before sunset. Yet the direction of the light is such that the bridge reflects in the water — an important element in this scene.
Again, Chapter 5 explores the topic of light, including how to achieve a brighter or darker exposure than the camera's autoexposure system thinks is ideal. You also can find tips for using flash and other artificial light sources in that chapter.
One more piece of advice I can give to help you make the shift from picture-taker to photographer is to look for the subject or subject angle that sets your photo apart from the ones that everyone else snaps. Here are a few ideas to help you achieve this goal:
Search beyond the usual suspects. Most people focus their cameras on the obvious: When in Rome, for example, everyone takes a picture of Trevi Fountain, and if you go to the beach, photographing the sunset or sunrise is pretty much a requirement. I'm not saying that you should ignore those subjects, but if you want your photographs to stand out, search for scenes that most people wouldn't think of as photographic opportunities. If you keep your eyes open, subjects often present themselves when and where least expected. That was the case with the photo featured in Figure 2-24.
The story: I went to a butterfly garden with the intention of filling up my camera's memory card with images of those winged beauties. But it was summer in south Florida, and the heat and humidity got to me faster than I anticipated. I knew that I had enough butterfly pictures to have made the trip worthwhile, so I headed toward the parking lot. Luckily for me, the path to the exit leads past a large, decorative pool. As I stood for a moment debating how much trouble I would get into if I jumped into the water to cool off, I noticed the feather and the flower petals floating on the surface. Whatever part of my creative brain that wasn't shut down by the heat kicked into gear, excited by the mixture of colors and textures in the pool.
The result was the image that I considered the most successful shot of the day. Why? Because it was different. I'm fairly certain that almost everyone who took a picture at those gardens came home with at least one or two good butterfly images, but I suspect that I may be the only person who captured this colorful collage.
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