Taking better photos Our photographers show you how to get the most out of your digital camera Day 1
Camera modes
Composition Day 2
Day 2
Day 3
Angles
Day 4 Flash
composition rule of thirds If you split the frame up like a noughts and crosses board, the rule of thirds says that the most important elements of your photo should fall on those lines and the points where they intersect. The location of the lines is said to be the area of a photo a human eye is automatically drawn to. Try placing your horizon line one third or two thirds of the way up the photo.
patterns Patterns can be found everywhere. Start training your eye to find the patterns around you and see what you can make of them. Remember that the camera sees things differently to the eye and you can easily turn a ‘boring’ setting into an interesting photo.
empty space Empty areas can add to your photo or ruin it. Have a think about why you have left so much space in the photo – is it for a reason? Sometimes leaving a gap beside your subject can be thought-provoking and interesting. Do be careful about how much emptiness you leave in the frame above your subject’s head (headspace). If you tilt your camera down there might be a better use for the space you have available in your frame.
Day Day15
Handy tips
The only rule of photography is that there are no rules! There are, however, a few guidelines about what looks pleasing to the eye, so today we will show you what these are.
wish
texture
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Try using texture in your backgrounds; it can make an ordinary photo all the more interesting. Like patterns, there are textures everywhere just waiting to be discovered. Try grass, concrete or roughcast walls, corrugated iron fences, or old garage doors for some different effects. Often a texture will look extra good when the light hits it at a certain angle. Go hunting at all hours of the day for that extra special texture to jump out at you.
depth of field Depth of field can help draw the viewer’s attention to any part of your photo you want to emphasise. Try focusing on different parts of your photo for different effects. To focus on something, put it in the middle of your screen, push your photo-taking button halfway down (priming the camera) and then recompose your photo, while still holding that button halfway.
lines Lines are another way to draw attention to something specific. They don’t have to be lines the eye can see, like the corner of a wall or the edge of the stairs, they can be made out of anything. The eye will follow any line in your photo, so make sure it leads somewhere worth while.
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The Southland Times will again be running its popular Wish You Were Here holiday photo series this summer. Readers will be invited to send us photos from their holidays and each day a selection will be published in the paper, starting Monday January 2. Last summer many of the photos sent in electronically were too small for us to publish. To remedy this, make sure your camera’s image file size is set to “large JPEG’’. This means your memory card will hold fewer photos but they will be of higher quality. See our Summer pages, beginning Boxing Day, for details on how to enter your photos in Wish You Were Here.
glossary Depth of field:
tips Make sure that there’s nothing sprouting out of your subject’s head. Power poles and trees are prime culprits. Before you take the photo look at the background of your shot and decide how it will look when you see the photo on your computer. Is it too cluttered? Is there a rubbish bin in the corner that you could move?
Page written by Nicole Gourley, designed by Shaun Yeo The Southland Times
A measure of how deep the focus plane is and therefore how much of your photo will be in focus. At a smaller aperture (higher f-stop number) more of your photo will be in focus.