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Monday 16 February 2009

All about Composition and your Camera.

All about Composition and your Camera

SELECTION

Introduction

Photographic composition is selection. As a matter of fact, all composition is selection. But with the camera we are confined to selecting things we can see - everybody can see. Imagination will not help us to the same extent as it does the man with the brush or the chisel.
We select our subject. We select the distance. We select the point of view. The rest will then be more or less automatically defined : the perspective, the lighting, the colour or tone values.
Admittedly we are able to do more : we can exaggerate the effect of perspective by changing our lens, we can add our own version of lighting by employing flash, we can apply correction to the tone rendering by using filters. We can go further : play around with the focus, the exposure, and even introduce all sorts of little tricks. We shall hear more about them shortly. Still the picture will basically be designed by subject, distance and viewpoint.
I have got three hints to go with these three fundamental elements of camera work : Be direct. Get close. Try to simply.

1 comment:

  1. We have basic photographic rules such as rule of thirds, perhaps these three, "Be direct. Get close. Try to simply" should be new rules. When we start our photographic endeavor, we beginners and novices tend to try and get the whole scene fro a distance. This rarely works.

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