Digital Photo Academy (
www.digitalphotoacademy.com)
Composition in the Field Class
Using leading lines
- in this case the lines are parts of the plants which lead you into, across, or out of the photo (notice the green cattail fronds, the aloe blades and the black & white tree branch)
Using the rule of thirds
- while it is tempting to center every subject, often your best composition is achieved by having the subject off center to accentuate it (notice the postion of dragonfly, the sunflowers & the center of the aloe plant)
- imagine a grid of 9 squares, like a tic-tac-toe board, in your viewfinder (or turn on the gridlines on your camera to make this simple until you automatically start to see gridlines in your head with practice); the 4 points where the lines intersect are power points where you should try to place your subject
Using color
- concentrating on one color can make your subject stand out against its background (notice the sunflowers against the blue sky, the red dragonfly on the green cattail frond against a muted tan background & the black & white tree branch & leaves)
Using depth of field to emphasize your subject
- the shallower the depth of field, the more blurred the background becomes
- sometimes the background objects are obvious (the sunflowers), sometimes they are not (the dragonfly) depending on how much blur you choose
- for landscapes, the usual preference is to have a wider depth of field which means that all objects from the foreground thru the background are in focus and not blurred
© fatCATfoto by christine nimitz