Five Photo Tips

First off, i am so sorry for not posting in so long! Life and school are very consuming right now {advanced biology is a time intensive class} but I was on break this week, so I got this done! I hope to be posting more frequently now. So, onto the post. I love to take photos. I also love photo shoots. So when I got a little remote to take pictures fro my dslr, and a new dress, I just had to do one.

1. Lighting

Lighting is a huge part of a photo. It can make the photo warm or cold, set the tone and mood, and change the quality of the picture. It can change the subject drastically. This is why overcast days are wonderful. You still have tons of natural light, but without all the harsh effects of direct sunlight. You can use it creatively too. I used the setting sun to cast my shadow onto a sheet. A simple silhouette of someone or something can be just as interesting as the real thing, sometimes even more so. Without the sheet in this picture, it would just be a girl in a dress posing with trees in the background. The sheet defines the lines and removes distracting elements from the photo while keeping the important things about subject, and adds some mystery to the photo that would not be there otherwise.

2. Action

Still life photos are great, but action shots can give the photo a life that cannot always be portrayed in still photos. The motion in a photo tells a totally different story then one without motion. There is no way to capture the feeling you get from the spinning in this photo without the motion. Blurring is fine in action shots, and sometimes actually completes the sense of movement in the photo.

3. Rule of Thirds

Some photos draw your attention to the subject more then others. Part of this reason is the rule of thirds. Think of a grid with two lines going parallel along the photo, and two going horizontal, dividing it into thirds. Try to place your subject in one of the sections {left, middle, and right} or sometimes even in a just one ninth of the photo. This is especially impacting when the rest photo is negative space. Negative space is the area that surrounds your subject {which is the positive space}. In the photo above, I am the positive space, and the trees behind me would be the negative space. The less distracting your negative space is, the more impacting the subject can be. Even though I'm not really in one of the thirds, the negative space still helps draw attention to myself in the photo.

4. Perspective

Perspective on a photo can give it a whole new feeling. If I took this photo staring directly down at the ukulele, the focus would have been on the design of the instrument as a whole. Since I got close to the body of the ukulele, your focus is on the grains and individual swirls of the design. The majority of the instrument is still in the picture, but it is not the main focus.

5. Focus

Photos don't always have to be perfectly in focus. You can blur out parts of the background to draw attention to a specific part of the photo, or blur things completely in some photos. The focus helps tell part of the story you portray with your photos. You can tell what everything is in the photo {the person, the instrument} even though nothing is in focus.

~Hannah