Tips

Posted by on Nov 23, 2011 in | 0 comments

Rule of Thirds

Imagine four lines (like a tic tac toe board), dividing your image (or viewfinder) into thirds.  In many cases, placing your subject along one of these lines gives your image more strength, energy & interest (as opposed to centering your subject).  Centered subjects are a fast read; your viewers won’t spend as much time with your images, as they are more predictable.

The same is true for the power points (the intersections) of these four lines.

Rule of Thirds

Depth of Field

Depth of field is the portion of a scene that appears sharp.  A large depth of field keeps everything (or almost everything) sharp, while a small depth of field helps to blur the background.

You can change your depth of field by changing your aperture.  A small aperture (like F18 – F22) will allow most or all of the background to be in focus.  A large aperture (like F2.8 – F4) will allow much of the background to be out of focus.  This small depth of field helps to eliminate distracting backgrounds and adds emphasis to your subject. 

Large DOF with F22

Small DOF with F2.8

Low vs. High Resolution

Photographing in low resolution .jpg files may allow you more images on your memory card but you sacrifice large amounts of quality. If you only intend to view your images on screen (or online) you may not notice an issue. But try to print a large image or significantly crop your image and you may end up with a very pixilated photo. By photographing in larger files (or even better, in RAW) you can have higher quality images and a wider range of ways to enjoy them.

Low resolution vs. High resolution

 

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