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Photography Tips, 8/2004 Introduction As you may have read in my FAQ, I am an Engineer, not a professional photographer. I've never taken a class on composition, but after picking up a small digital camera in late 2000, I received few tips from my friend and gifted photographer Mike Maloney. Over time I have been asked to explain how I get my shots, so those tips and others I have picked up are the basis of this article. I understand that the normal field of a persons vision is approximated by a 50mm lens. In that case I can understand why shooting at a very wide angle or with a long telephoto gives interesting shots. It's seeing the world through another pair of eyes. 
 Sunrise and sunset add contrast and color to any photo. Decide which of the photos below you think are best. They were taken approximately in the same location, but one was taken in the middle of the day, and the other soon after sunrise. 
 I am 6'4" tall. I spend a great deal of time at that height, so photos from that perspective tend to look boring to me. I try to get down at, or below, eye level of the people I am shooting, and near ground level if I am taking pictures of plants or animals.  This could also be titled "what story are you trying to tell?". They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Are your photos worth that many? If not, then you need to change your approach.  OK, now for a wider view from the same original picture. Now you see that he is ahead of another group of riders. OK, so that may not be the best story in the world, you can at least come up with a few more words to explain the situation or story.  Sadly I don't have a wider view from that picture. It would be nice to show a cheering crowd or something else that tells you more about what happened that day. Maybe one of these days I will find a better shot for an example. In any case, try to tell a story with your photos. The easiest way I have found to do that is to have at least two distinct subjects in the shot. Usually, one is in the foreground and another in the background. This is probably the first rule any photographer learns. It merely states that you want your main subject off center of the photo. Taking a look at the photo below, the subject is off center, but this is mainly because I wanted to show the riders in the background that he was waiting for. If the shot had him in the center, you would have trees on the left that added nothing to the photo. If the shot was tighter on him and he was in the center, you would not have been able to see the other riders and would have been left wondering what he was looking at.  Of course, like any other rule, it is meant to be broken. The photo below doesn't have any thirds that are obvious to me, but I still like it.  The picture below was taken from quite a distance. Even though I was using my longest lens, there is still a lot of unnecessary dead space in the photo both on the right and left of the main subjects. It makes it difficult to figure out what I am trying to say with the photo.  This photo, on the other hand, shows the same two riders much closer to the camera. They fill up much more of the frame, and since you can still see the other riders in the background, you can probably figure out that they are off the front.  When I shoot, I try to vary the lenses I use, the subject distance, my position, the duration of exposure, the depth of field, and any other variable I can use taking pictures of that particular subject. Take a look at my windmill photos. Some are close up, some far away. Some show a single windmill, others show a group. Some of the blades are stationary, some are moving. The techniques listed above are what I use when taking pictures. They have improved the quality of my shots, but are not the only guidelines I use. |