How To Take Interesting Photos – A Refresher
As I’ve mentioned, there are many benefits of purchasing a camera through a local store. One of the benefits provided through the store that I purchased my camera from was that they also provided free classes for new camera purchases.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking that these sound too boring and basic. I am here to correct this perception. I also felt this way, but to my great surprise, these classes taught me some new things about digital photography, and also reminded about other things like “how to shoot a better photo”.
I’ve mentioned before that my interests in photography are less technical and more artistically based. As a result, I feel that you can take a great photo with any type of camera, whether it be a disposable camera or a top of the line Leica.
I don’t mean to create a mini-sermon here, but if you’re going to take great photos, you need to learn how to work with the tools at hand and the challenges in place, in order to capture the best photograph at that point in time.
Okay, so enough of that.., what I was reminded of in class was how NOT to shoot a photograph with the subject ALWAYS in the middle of the photograph. Basic as this sound, it’s really is a natural tendency to shoot a photo this way. We all think that things should be perfectly centered in order to create that great photo.
This is where the “Rule of Thirds” comes into play. I had learned about this a while back in a college class, but haven’t really thought much more about it since then, although I think I unconsciously use it when I take a picture.
Rule of Thirds Grid
What it basically is, is a technique to use when you are “framing your subject”. What it does is to provide you with a guideline that will produce more interesting photos.
So, instead of continually positioning your subject in the middle of your viewfinder, you position it on a imaginary grid broken up into thirds. This technique really serves more as a reminder to us that we should learn to position our main subjects off-center, within the viewfinder.
Rule of Thirds Before
Let’s look at an example of a typical photo taken by someone with a camera. What we have here is a picture of our subject which has been perfectly centered within the frame of the photo, from top to bottom and left to right.
It’s a very static photo without much going on and is a good picture of our subject, but it doesn’t really provide any additional information that could make this photo just a bit more interesting.
Rule of Thirds After
Here’s the exact same setting, except that we have now back away from the subject and have aligned our main subject off-center, pretty much one third from the right and one third from the top.
You can see that what has happened now is that we have a little bit more detail about this moment in time. Although the subject is a bit smaller within the frame, we can now see her hands and more about the surroundings that she is seated.
- Rule of Thirds Final
Here’s the final photo without grid lines. You can see much more detail now. What I like about the wider view is that you can also see a little statue of a bashful angle in front of the fireplace and some additional design and character. It’s just a more interesting photo because we have employed the “Rule of Thirds”.
We’ll go into more things that I learned from the class I took at my local photo store. If your store does not provide these, you might want to check into classes provided through your local community center.
Source: Digital Camera Notebook
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