Photo Composition
When we take a photo we are intentionally trying to capture
a specific subject, it is very unlikely you are going to press the shutter
release with your camera pointed in a direction that you haven’t already looked
at, this is of course your personal view point (how you see the subject) we
look at a subject from our own perspective and usually just take the photo from
that perspective, however, this is now when a little thought and creativity can
result in a more interesting shot.
From now on I would ask you to consider this, before
pressing the button on your camera think about where you are going to take the
shot, and how moving around can vastly effect the message your image conveys,
try taking the shot from above (stand on the top of a burm or bank) take the
shot from way down low near the ground, from the side, from behind or even from
a distance away.
Here are a few different examples I shot taken from
different points of view.
A low angle shot.
A side angle shot.
A behind angle shot.
Rule
of thirds
Imagine
that your intended shot is devided into 9 segments by 2 lines running equaly
along the horizontal and vertical you will see a grid that looks like the one
in the following image.
Now, the rule of thirds is
really quite simple, the rule suggests that you place the most important
elements of your shot along these lines or at the point where they meet. It is
worth checking you camera’s menu as some offer the option to superimpose a rule
of thirds grid to your view finder or LCD screen.
Now we are armed with our new understanding of the rule of
thirds we can start to experiment, it can make the main subject of your image
more interesting, if we place it off to one side (using the rule of thirds)
make sure you try and include other less important subject matter to add
balance to your shot, in the photo above of
Ally Campbell I have included the lone tree and interesting
texture of the quarry wall to balance this shot of Ally, if I had taken a few
steps to the right this image would have given a completely different result,
below I attempted to draw the eyes along the jumps by placing the rider to the
far left, and leaving just enough of the terrain in the image to balance the final
result.
There are a few more elements to composition that we will
look at in part 3, but for now, I hope you have fun experimenting with
composition and the rule of thirds, again I look forward to seeing some of your
images and hearing all about your mountain biking adventures, You can email your
images to peter@peterstevensphotography.com
and also upload them to MBWales Flickr group.
Remember; try moving around when shooting your next shot,
down low, up above, to the side and from behind.
Happy shooting and safe riding!
Pete
Follow Pete on Facebook and on Twitter at @PSP_Twitter
Next time we will be looking at camera panning and a few
more elements to composition.