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Colors can be used to draw attention to a certain point or subject. A brightly colored subject on a pale background will have the attention of viewers. If there are colorful objects in the background, they can divert the eye of viewers out of the subject to minor elements of the picture.

Search for the color contrasts when you are taking pictures. Contrasts that are including bright primary colors like red blue and green, can help you create dynamic pictures. In dynamic pictures with vibrant contrasts viewers eye jumps from one color to another, actually this is why it’s dynamic. Gentler color combinations of pastel colors can create hearth-warming, romantic images. while bright colors create a more organic and natural feel.

Other elements of photography can change how colors look in the picture. Such as temperature of the light and exposure. Underexposing the picture (one stop) increases the intensity of the colors, while over exposing (1/2 Stop) decreases the intensity of the colors. To learn about the effects of light temperature and light in different times of the day on colors; read my other post about colors

Examples;

In “Breeze” You can see that i prefered a background with yellow-orange and blue which make a good contrast. They are pastel colors thus they give a warm feel to picture.

In this picture, I left the statue (roots of the tree that crushed by a block in 9/11) in its original color and made confusing background black and white. That way th subject become more clear and isolated. (I did that by using an editing software.)

This example, one of my favorite and old pictures, contains feelings of freshness, calmness because of its colors. As i mentioned earlier, blue and green the colors of nature, symbolizes these concepts. Also you can clearly see the difference in this picture and the first one. In first one pastel colors creates a warm feeling while bright colors show the picture more organic and natural.

]]> http://ermany.net/2008/07/basic-composition-tips-colors/feed/ 0 http://ermany.net/2008/07/basic-composition-tips-size/ http://ermany.net/2008/07/basic-composition-tips-size/#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:05:36 +0000 admin http://www.ermany.net/?p=252 When we take the pictures of an architectural or natural structure, it can be hard for viewers to understand the size of the structure, unless there are clues inside the frame such as a person, car, an animal etc. These objects help us measure the dimensions of the subject more easily.

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Seeing a scene in photograph is different than seeing the same scene in person. When you see the scene in person actually you easily understand the sizes of the objects in the scene, because you are looking from eye-level from a person ( it is you in this case ). This allows you to compare the things with your size and understand how big or small they are. But in photographs actually a huge building or structure can be photographerd from sky and look like as it is small (if there are no people, cars etc. around it) or a tiny model of a ship can look enormous. Bur if you include some clues for your viewers, you can tell them how big or small is this subject. It is better to show it with examples;

In the picture above, you see the top floors of an old skyscraper in New York City. there’s no clue in this picture to tell the viewers how big or tall is the building. SO this is a mistake in terms of establishing the size. (Actually i didn’t want to show the size in this picture, instread i wanted to show it smaller than it is. I made this mistake on purpose, so it is not a mistake, kind of…)

But in this picture mountain-biker help us to understand the size of the rock that he is standing on.

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Simplicity is really important in photography. It can be described as avoiding any unnecessary objects from the frame. Especially messy backgrounds, and unnecessary objects on the foreground make confusing images. Your pictures should reveal a single subject or idea and you should be able to define your picture with a sentence. If people ask you “where this picture is taken?” it is ok but if they ask you “what is it about?” and “what is the subject?” than it means you’re not doing well enough.

Ask yourself “what is your subject” before taking the picture. Than think about if the objects in the foreground or background are really necessary for the picture that you want to take. If they are not, avoid them by changing position or angle or both. Simplifying or isolating your subject in other words, will improve the quality of your pictures you’ll see it after a couple of tries. You may often have to change your position and angle to do that. Taking picture from a higher ground can help you avoid unnecessary and confusing backgrounds. Also getting on your knees or lying to the ground helps you get rid of unwanted objects and let you use only sky as a background. Also you can use depth of field as a tool for getting rid of busy backgrounds. ( To learn more about Depth of Field read my related article.) Lower f values like f/3.5 etc. that make the aperture of the camera wider, decrease the range of depth of field and making everywhere flu or blur except the point or subject that focused on. So you can use depth of field to avoid busy backgrounds too. One last tip about simplifying, is taking silhouette pictures of your subject. (To learn more about silhouettes, read my related article.)

The picture below is an example for simplifying your pictures and isolating the subject from any unnecessary objects in the scene. The picture is taken by my dear friend Emrah Fahri Gursoy;

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Getting close to your subject often helps photographers to come up with better results in terms of photography. Getting close and filling the frame with the subject can turn the simplest things in to a good picture. You can either get close to the subject physically or zoom in. It is your choice, Although they have different effects of the picture. But it is a more complicated subject. Since i wrote “BASIC” in the title I’m not going to write about the differences in this post, maybe in another post.

Anyway, You can view the example for “getting close” below. It is not a masterpiece in terms of photography. But it doesn’t look bad either. There’s no additional lights filters reflectors etc. , just the light coming from my window. I even didn’t change the position of the guitar that is an everyday object of my room. I just took the picture by only zooming in, nothing else. What I’m trying to say is Even the most simple object can make a good picture. By zooming in or getting close you can avoid the unwanted background and objects around your subject. In this picture, i avoided the messy room of mine which won’t make a nice background image by zooming in.

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As you see, i like filling the frame with sky. Not always but sometimes trying something different is good.

See also Part 1

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In landscape photography horizon should be horizontal. There are some items that shows if your camera is completely straight and parallel to the ground; such as the spirit levels on a tripod or spirit levels that you can mount on your camera. If you had none, you can use the dots that you see when you are looking through the visor of the camera. Place all the dots in the horizontal line on the horizon then take the shot. Of course these dots are in the middle of the frame, and adjusting the horizon according to these dots will make the horizon centered in your picture. But mostly placing the horizon in the center of the picture doesn’t give nice results. So after adjusting the horizon line parallel to the sides of the picture, shift your camera up or down in order to change the position of the horizon.

In my earlier post i wrote about composition, so if you don’t remember take a look to the rule of thirds. To have more impressive landscape pictures do not place the horizon right in the middle, place it slightly above or below. If you want to show the beautiful sky then let the sky fills 2/3 of the frame and land or ground fills the rest which is 1/3. And reverse, if you want show something on the ground and eliminate the boring gray sky, let the land fills the 2/3 of the picture and sky fills 1/3. And the horizon line is the line that separates 2/3 from 1/3 so place it to divide the frame leaving 1/3 of picture below or above the horizon line. And make sure it is parallel to the edges of the picture.

There’s one more thing that you can do. You can divide the picture 1/2 to 1/2 by placing horizon diagonal from one corner to another in the frame. As shown in the example;

But before creating your style, you should have knowledge about some commonly agreed composition rules. Of course they are not law and you can and will knowingly break these rules sometimes But first learn the rules, work on them and than break them if you want;

Rule of Thirds

This rule is used by artists for centuries and it is one of the most important composition techniques. Picture that there are two horizontal lines that divide the frame three horizontal parts and two vertical lines that divide the frame three vertical parts. Rule of Thirds says the intersection points of these vertical and horizontal lines are the most attention-drawing points, so they are the best spots for placing your important objects or important parts of your picture. Instead of putting your object in the middle of your frame , place it one of these crossing points.

Leave Some Space

If you are photographing a moving thing, leave some space towards the direction of movement. If you are shooting people or models leave the space towards the direction of look unless they are looking directly to camera.

Simple is Good

Focus on your subjects and avoid anything that can possibly distract viewers attention. You can zoom in and clear the background by avoiding any unnecessary parts of the scene or you can try different angles to clear the scene.

Balance

Try to catch oppositions or similarities in scenes; as an example when you see a new good looking car parked on the same line with an old unwashed, rusty car, place them two sides of your frame and take the picture. Create a balance by placing the objects with same or different appearances (size, color etc.)on either side of your frame’s center.

Framing

In order to draw more attention to your subject you can frame it by using, trees, bushes, architectural structures or a window, you can use an arch or a part of aqueduct to frame an ancient city or you can frame a chalet with tree brunches with flowers on them.

Leading Lines

Leading lines, such as rivers, roads, stairs or fences are very useful for directing the look to the main object in the picture they also help drawing the look deeper into the picture.