My favorite part is composition, and not just because I'm also a musician (ba-doom chink!). Composition is how photographers use angles, light, and perspective to make a picture compelling. It's what people talk about when they say someone has "the eye" for pictures.
Well folks, I'm happy to report that you're not necessarily born with "the eye" - anyone can have it with a little practice. Oh no, Jen... practice = not fun. Well, this kind of practice is fun. Promise.
For today's "lesson" I think a lot of trial and ERROR is in order, because that's how you grow "the eye." For conversation's sake, I've chosen the group of books and donkey on my side table for my subject.
Here are a bunch of different compositions of the shot...
(If you want to see a bigger version of any of these pictures, just click on them. For space's sake I had to make them small, but there are subtle differences between some of them that are easier to see when the picture is big.)
I think my favorite one is this one:
I like the light flaring up and that the donkey doesn't look to obvious (if that makes sense). It gives me the feeling that the picture was just a beautiful, casual afterthought. I also like the depth of the picture from the rest of my living room blurred in the background.
My least favorite one is this one:
I think my favorite one is this one:
I like the light flaring up and that the donkey doesn't look to obvious (if that makes sense). It gives me the feeling that the picture was just a beautiful, casual afterthought. I also like the depth of the picture from the rest of my living room blurred in the background.
My least favorite one is this one:
I don't like the lamp wires on the left and there's nothing "special" looking about seeing the donkey straight on like that. Just a little too obvious feeling if you know what I mean.
So you see, a lot of trying things out. Take risks, get on your tip toes and your knees, mess with how the light is working with you, move the subject to different spots in the picture, EXPERIMENT!
So you see, a lot of trying things out. Take risks, get on your tip toes and your knees, mess with how the light is working with you, move the subject to different spots in the picture, EXPERIMENT!
your favourite photo of your bunch is my favourite, too. i also really like the 3rd photo although it's a little blurry in the bigger version. it's artsy.
ReplyDelete(and your side table is SO AWESOME! it makes me drool.)
composition is my favourite part of picture taking, too. i practice this a lot, most recently on a trip to the pumpkin patch with my fam - the perfect angle + the perfect time of evening resulted in the perfect light.
are you fb? can i friend you?
@katie, composition is so fun!! I would love to see those pumpkin patch pictures (put them on your blog! - I read it all the time!)
ReplyDeleteYou can totally friend me on facebook, although I'm not on there as often as I could be and it's not very design-ey there. Just look for Jennifer Bewerse :)