Perhaps the most well know principle of photographic composition is the ‘Rule of Thirds‘.
It’s one of the first things that budding digital photographers learn about in classes on photography and rightly so as it is the basis for well balanced and interesting shots.
I will say right up front however that rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn’t mean your images are necessarily unbalanced or uninteresting. However a wise person once told me that if you intend to break a rule you should always learn it first to make sure your breaking of it is all the more effective!
What is the Rule of Thirds?
The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. As follows.
As you’re taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.
With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.
Not only this - but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.
The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot - using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.
In addition to the above picture of the bee where the bee’s eye becomes the point of focus here are some of examples:
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This week I got an email from a reader who wrote the following question about ‘low light sports photography’.
“I am about to move from Point and Shoot to DSLR. I will receive my Nikon D50 in two days. I want to practice by taking sports photos at my co-workers softball games. They play at night under the lights. Is there anything I should know about that type of lighting. Flash or no flash? White balance? Thanks”
Here’s how I replied:
Hi there (name withheld) - you must be excited! I still remember the days before my Canon 20D arrived!
Ok - my approach to lowlight sports photography:
It’s hard to get right. The combination of distance from your subject (makes flash less effective), the low light and the speed that sports brings to your subject make it very difficult.
Experiment - As a result the key is to experiment lots during the session. I’d say try using flash, try shots without it, try playing with different settings (see below). The great thing about digital cameras is that you can take almost unlimited shots and don’t have to worry about cost. Take loads of shots at different settings and you’ll find yourself learning as you go and honing in on what works best in the situation you’re in.
Try your Flash - I’m not sure if you have an external flash or you’ll just be relying upon the camera’s built in one but the inbuilt one will probably not be too effective unless you’re up close. Give it a go though, you might be surprised. An external flash will be more powerful but I find in most stadiums there is enough light to shoot without flash and that with many sports it’s actually either not allowed or not appropriate to use them as they can distract the competitors.
Shutter Speed - Ideally with sports you need a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion of your subjects. Unfortunately this means less light gets in so depending upon how light the field is you might need to slow it down (and then you’ll get blur). To have some control of shutter speed select your cameras shutter speed priority mode and choose the quickest speed that it will allow you to choose.
ISO - this is probably the feature you’ll want to play with the most. I don’t know if you’ve ever used film cameras and noticed much about ISO but it’s about how sensitive the film is. The higher the number the lower the light you could shoot in. The downside was that the higher the number the grainier your shots turned out. The same applies with digital. You can increase your ISO and this will enable you to shoot at faster shutter speeds. The cost is that you’ll get grainier shots (’noise) the higher you go. Again - the key if you’re playing with a new camera is to experiment. Learn how to change ISO before you go out and shoot off different shots at different ISO.
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I’m constantly amazed by how the most simple photography techniques produce the most effective results.
One such lesson that I always start new photographers off with is among the simplest you’ll ever find:
Fill your Frame
Time and time again I’m approached by people to look at their photos and time and time again I’m amazed that people continue to take shots where you almost have to squint to make out their subjects because they are so distant.
While empty spaces can be used effectively in photos to create stunning results (we’ll cover this in a future tip) you’re much more likely to get a ‘wow’ from those looking at your photos if your shots are filled with interest.
People
This technique is particularly important when taking pictures of people whose facial features tend to disappear when you move more than a few meters away from them.
While it can be appropriate to take shots that put a person in context with the environment that they are in, if they get lost in the picture you might as well just take a shot of the scene and leave them out of it.
Here’s an example of this applied with a couple of shots that I took at the Australian Open, a couple of years apart.
In the first year I only had a little point and shoot camera with me which meant despite being in the front row the following was as close as I could get with it’s 3x Optical Zoom lens.
This year I had my DSLR with me and was shooting with a 200mm lens.
I also spent less time shooting in the larger courts and more time on outside courts where I could get in much closer to the action physically.
The difference in the quality of shots was remarkable.
This was mainly due to the use of the DSLR and better quality lenses, but it was also a vast improvement due to the fact that I was able to fill my frame with the players.
Shots came alive with rippling muscles, grimaces on faces and even sweat spraying off players as they hit balls.
Here’s a couple of shots to compare with the one to the left.
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In my last post I talked about making sure your landscape photos have horizontal horizons but they are not the only type of photograph that can look offline.
Another common mistake in all kinds of photography is other crooked lines.
For example take a look at this photograph that friend took of me recently (yep that’s what I look like).
One of the things that is wrong with this shot (and I won’t totally dissect it here) is that the base if the window behind me slopes downward to the left. While I do live in an older style house I know that that windowsill is even and my friend was obviously holding the camera slightly crookedly when the shot was taken.
Some people viewing the photo will not notice this mistake but others will (either consciously or subconsciously) and it does spoil the image a little.
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One of the first ever tips I was given when I began taking photos as a teenager was to watch the horizon when framing a photograph.
The day after I was given this tip I went back through all of my photo albums (I was using film cameras back then) and discovered that a fairly large proportion of the images I’d been taking looked a little like this one.
While there is a lot to like about the above picture there’s an obvious mistake with it when you know what to look for. The roof of the building is crooked (sloping down to the left). While this might actually be the case in real life (it is an old building) the problem goes further when you look at the place where the water meets the sky.
Oceans don’t slope upwards (even though there is some hills in the background of this picture). When I took this photo I was so concerned with getting the colors right (I’ll write about polarizing filters another day) that I completely forgot to look at the horizon and make sure that it was level.
This is an elementary mistake that many photographers make. It has the ability to spoil otherwise brilliant shots.
Of course at times you might want to experiment with holding your camera at different kinds of angles and put your horizon purposely offline my rule of thumb is to either make it perfectly flat or very obviously off line. ‘Slightly’ off horizontal does nothing except make your photos viewers feel dizzy or lean their heads when they view your shots.
How to Get Your Horizons Straight
The simplest way to get your horizon horizontal simply line it up with the top or bottom of your view finder. Keep in mind that the edge of your frame in your viewfinder or LCD screen will be the edges of the actual image and will be the reference point for the eventual viewers of your shots to work out whether your shot is straight or not.
Many cameras also have markers in their view finder (often a rectangle or set of focussing spots). These can often be used to help line up your horizons mid frame.
Some cameras have a ‘rule of thirds’ mode where they overlay a grid in your LCD/viewfinder to show you where to place your points of interest. While they’re not intended to help you get your images stright - they can be helpful markers to show you where a level line is.
Lastly, if you’re struggling with getting horizons straight consider buying a small spirit level. You’ve probably seen builders use big ones (they have a little bubble in them to show you when something is straight). You can also get little ones to attach to your camera that work similarly. For example Adorama sell a “Adorama Single Bubble Level (pictured above/right) for this purpose.
PS: a lot of photo editing software these days comes with a ’straighten’ or ‘rotate’ feature so if this tip has made you go back through your old photos and you’ve shots that are crooked you might want to learn how to use these tools. I use iPhoto and ‘fixed’ the above shot in less than 5 seconds (see below).
Tools like iPhotos straightening one can have a real impact on your photography and I’d recommend learning how to use them.
After my photographing babies post yesterday a reader emailed to ask for my advice on taking photos at the actual birth of a baby.
Having never been at the birth of a baby (we’re expecting our first in a couple of months) I don’t have any first hand advice to give. I do however has once piece of advice that was given to me by a friend who recently gave birth to twins.
She said that they’d taken photos just after the birth of her with her babies but that the photo were fairly confronting as a result of the vividness of the blood that was on the babies.
As a result every time she (and others) looked at the photos the reaction was one of ‘wincing’ rather that one that conveyed the beauty of the moment.
Her husband had the brain-wave to play around with his photo editing software and to turn the images into black and white shots. The results were stunning.
The color gone the focus returned to the babies for what they are (beautiful) and the photos now convey incredible emotion.
I’ve illustrated this technique by posting a photo of a baby at a birth on this separate page here (warning, not for the squeamish) and have put a colored version (the original one) and a black and while one that I achieved by simply switching the image to black and while in my photo editing software (iPhoto from Apple iLife ‘06).
PS: This tip is obviously not for everyone. Some people choose not to have photos of a moment like the birth of a child and others will appreciate the color of the moment and think it adds to the beauty and drama of the moment. Really it’s up to parents to decide for themselves what a moment like this should be like but I hope the black and white option might give another option to people preparing for the birth of their child.
