005 What Makes A Good Photo?

 

Finally, another part to my Photography Series. Sorry for not posting last week, I was extremely busy and did not have time to finalise a post. Nevertheless, everything happens for a reason, as I was then invited later that week to attend a photography course with Jessops. 

 

PICTURE STYLES

In your cameras, whether it be an iPhone, an Olympus Pen or a DSLR, you will have the option to change the picture style. This means you could shoot in black and white, or sepia tone, or add a different filter/ tint over your image, before you have even taken it. At first, I did not see the positive of this, and just mumbled to myself something about doing it in Photoshop afterwards but actually, why not add a tint before you shoot? This allows you to see your subject in an entirely different way and therefore, those magic moments are never missed. I rarely shoot in this way but I definitely will do from now on.

 

RULE OF THIRDS | COMPOSITION

One of the most important rules of photography, is understanding rule of thirds.  When framing your subject, pay attention to where the horizon line is in relation to your key subject. To make it easier, think of your subject with a grid over the top – like the crop tool you get on your phones or Photoshop. The horizontal and vertical lines, the points where they meet, these are the key areas for setting up a good composition.

SUBJECT OFF CENTRE

 With this in mind, when looking at your grid, don’t feel you always have to put the main subject bang in the centre of your composition. You can still have a strong composition with your subject slightly to the left, or over to the right. Or like the image of the camera above, I framed it to be at the bottom of the image, rather than the centre. Have a play around with your crops and frames, make the most of your built in view-finders.

 LEADING LINES

Next up, notice shapes and lines within your composition. So when taking photos of architecture, the lines of the buildings will be drawing your eye in, these are leading lines. If you have a good model, when doing fashion photography, the model should create a line (a shape) with her body. In my opening image, the book edge leads you into the centre of the photograph.

 FOCUS ON THE EYE

REFLECTIONS & SYMMETRY 

One of my favourite things about photography is playing with shadow and light, making the most of reflective surfaces and building in symmetry. I take the majority of my photos on a glass surface, right in front of a window and in natural light. I just love moving around with my camera and studying the area before I actually make a decision in how I want my photographs to look. It’s good to just look in the view finder without clicking away, to find out which angles work best, which edges catch the light, or fall under shadow. Sometimes I even use mirrors to really play up a reflective surface. Check out my photos below to see what I mean.

 

COLOUR & PATTERNS

I just thought I would throw in the images that I took on the day of the Jessops Photography Course. As well as learning about what makes a good photo, we were told about Shutter Speed, Motion Blur, Aperture and more in great detail. I won a prize for taking the last photo here. I must admit, it took me a good while to figure out how to do this shot, but it was so much fun. My point? Have patience when creating your photographs. Keep on going until you are happy, don’t give up. You will get there.