Tuesday, February 21, 2012

10 Tips to Improve Your Photo's Composition

Since I have not had a chance to get outside and do any photography this week I decided I would make a post about 10 specific things to improve your photographs composistion. So below I have listed ways to improve composistion in photographs to make them stand out to people viewing them.  I hope these tips help people with there photographs.

1) Look for new points of view
  •  Eye-catching photographs are made when people see something that they don't see every day. 
  •  Use wide angle lenses and telephoto lenses to alter perspctive and apparent points of view.
  •  Lie on the ground, change height of the camera. 
  •  Look at things in new ways, that you would not normally think about doing. 
2) Simplify
  •  The most effective photographs only have a few elements.
  •  Don't clutter the image because people won't even know what your subject is. 
3) Don't center your subject
  •  The "Rule of Thirds"  important parts of a photograph should fall along imaginary lines tha divide the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically.
  •  Horizons, natural lines, important points, and main subjects all will benifit from being put in the sections.
  •  Crop photographs to encorerate rule of thirds and to draw out your main subject from the background.
4) Try to show depth
  •  Photographs are 2-dimensional representations of 3-dimensional objects.
  •  Selective Focus: out of focus forground or background items with your main subject sharp.  (wide aperture)
  •  Converging lines:  try and show lines that converge and join in the distance.  (sunlight on water, tree trunks)
  •  Boldly include foreground and distant objects. (small aperature)
5) Look for repeating patterns
  •  Drawing attention to patters makes people see things they might not have noticed before .
  •  Show a pattern and an interruption of it, then you can draw attention to the interruption in the pattern.
6) Try to include curves, diagonals, and triangles
  •  These contrast against the overall shape of the photograph which is normally rectangular and level to the world.  This can get people to look twice at your photograph.
7) Show symmetry
  •  Most people do not see nature as random, but letting them see that symmetry exists in nature can make your photograph more interesting. Good examples of symmetry can be seen in reflections and leaf patterns.
8) Frame your subject
  •  Put your subject in its surroundings.
  •  Choose other objects that lead the eye to the main subject.
9) Try to show motion
  •  If you can show motion in a motionless form, then people are fasinated by it.
  •  This is best shown by showing something the view knows is moving in sharp focus, with time seemingly suspended. 
  •  Use motion blur either of the main subject or of the background.
10) Use contrast effectively
  •  Show your light-toned subject on a dark background.
  •  Show your dark subject on a light background.
  •  Look at the well-lit and silhouetted sides of things, shadows and lighter spots are very important. 
  •  Find contrast in color while keeping overall light/dark contrast low.
  •  Show subject blending with their surrounding in terms of tone and use selective focus to make them stand out.
  

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Last Weekend's Day Hike



Sorry I have not posted in a while.  I was really busy with school this week.  On my hike last weekend I spent a couple hours out and really did not see much.  I did get a few shots at black cap chickadees but none of them were very good.  I was disappointed that I did not see very much.  I hope that this weekend I will get a chance to try again and hopefully I will get a good shot.  On my way back from my hike I decided to take some macro shots of pine trees and pine cones and stuff.  I got one shot that I thought looked cool so I am posting it.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Macro Water Droplets


Since I have not had much of a chance to get out and do any wildlife photography I decided I would try and do macro photography of water droplets.  I decided to put water droplets on a cd to try and get cool colors in the water droplets.  To an extent it worked but I was a little disappointed, but overall I was happy with the shots.  I was happy that I was able to capture a lot of different colors in the cd, which carried into the water droplets.  But I was disappointed that I was having problems with lighting, and when I used my flash it was hindering the photos by removing the color from the cd, but the color was still showing on the water droplets themselves.  If I ever tried this again I would either try during daylight or I would use a flash with a flash diffuser instead of just the normal camera flash. 

Tomorrow I plan on taking a hike on the fitness trail on campus, which goes right into the woods.  So hopefully it won't be snowing to bad, and maybe I will actually get a chance to get some actual wildlife photographs.


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Lunar Photography



A couple of days ago I decided to take photographs of the moon using my new tripod.  I finally have proper equipment to support my bower 650-1300mm lens.  So I took a few shots of the full moon using a  1300mm focal length and then I put on my 2x teleconverter and took a few shots at 2600mm.  I noticed for the first time on my moon photographs that if you look close enough along the edges of the moon you can actually see craters, even on the 1300mm shot that has been cropped.  The 2600mm shot was not cropped.  This is the first time that my moon photographs have actually been clear.  In the past I had to shoot handheld because my tripod could not support it.  Having a heavy-duty tripod in this case really helped.    

Monday, February 6, 2012

Photo Slideshow

Just got a chance to upload a new video on YouTube that I put together.  Its called Bald Eagle Photo Slideshow.  It is a compilation of some of my eagle photographs from the past two years.  Every year I notice as I look through my bald eagle photographs they seem to get better.  So I hope this trend continues and my photographs should continue to get better.  Click the link to watch the video.  Please comment, rate, and subscribe.  Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GkCD9fPX7Y

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Uneventful Week

This week so far has been uneventful, and I am really disappointed.  I have not had any chances to get outdoors and away from my dorm room.  So yet again I can't photograph wildlife.  So I had been taking my new macro photography technique to good use, but I have not gotten any photographs worth showing.  I did try and photograph water droplets but as far as I can tell nothing was great.  Also I have been trying to get a good eye shot with the reverse lens technique but so far I can not master the depth of field problem.  Until next time.