Week 13- the list

THE LIST

This week I thought I would include a couple of photography concepts. So what I'm going to do is give you two concepts with their definition and a couple of examples.

I will be giving you the usual list of seven and what I'm hoping, is while taking those photos this week, you will stop and try to use the concepts in your photograph. Using both would be great but if you want to focus on one more than the other that would work too. I thought I would give you all a little bit of a challenge in hopes to enhance your love for photography. Each time its my turn I will give two more concepts for us to work on. Let me know what you think.

This weeks concepts

#1 Rule of thirds

 If you have guidelines on your camera then you can use them. If not, just imagine them. The guidelines make up a kind of tic tac toe board of 9 equal parts. Two vertical lines and two horizontal lines. When taking a photo you want to keep your focus not dead center but in a third of the photograph. Example is a horizon line. (like the sunset photo below) You can keep the horizon line in the upper third of the photo, keeping two thirds of the photo land and one third sky, or vice versa. The way I remember this is to find your focus and put it a little off center. Up, down, left or right.  For some reason I'm having a hard time putting this into words, I hope you understand. Here are some examples.



You can see in the first photo,  that the focus of  the guy with his wine is in the bottom third of the photo and the horizon is in the upper third of the photo.

The second photo (Christmas bulb) is not dead center in the photo. I off centered it just a bit, it is a simple rule but a basic and effective rule to live by. The third photo is one of my son, Ben on top of the mountain. He is the king of the mountain and because I used the rule of thirds you can see the how big the hill is and it gives him a look of tremendous conquor. If I would have just focused on him, dead center,  you wouldn't have such an impact while looking at his victory of getting to the top.

The last photo well, I think you get it! I did need to straighten my horizon in the background but other than that I LOVE this photo!

#2 Leading lines

Leading lines is a fun concept and you will find it very easy and extremely effective when getting your viewers to look at YOUR focus. Photography is an art and most people say its all in your perspective.  And that may be true, Everyone might have their own perspective when viewing.  On the other hand, as a photographer my job is to get my viewers to see MY perspective. I want viewers to look where I want them to look. Leading lines help me do just that. Leading lines pull us into the photo and lead us to the focus. We naturally follow lines with our eyes. Its up to us to place them where you want your viewer to look and to follow. Here are some examples I have.

In this photo of the church, I am using leading lines on the building its self. You see the triangle below the window pointing up to the cross and the pointing cones as well. This entire photo is pointing my eyes and my focus to go up. Not only the lines but the angle at which I shot this. Ultimately your eyes should stop at the very top of the building. The rule of thirds work nicely here as well. My building is in the center of the photo but the focus is in the rule of thirds. (the steeple)

The leading lines in this photo could bring a little mystery to the photo. Maybe your wondering what is on the other side of this hill. Your eyes go directly from the foreground to the top of the other side.

Well, if you have any questions please ask them. I am very excited to see what we all come up with. Here is the list for week 13

1. Morning time

2. Shopping

3. School supplies

4. Outside

5. End of summer

6. hair do

7. Attitude