8/21/2012

Essential Photography Elements

By James Harden


For elements, you'll find that just as a chef does not use all ingredients at once, neither will the photographer cram all elements into one scene. Of course, the important elements are lighting, composition, and exposure. Yet, pose and facial expressions from your subject are equally important, especially some of the finer details like clothing, accessories, props, and different types of accent lighting.

Enter Key Elements

The depth of field dramatically affects the composition of an image. Depth of field allows you to isolate a subject from its background and foreground. Or, by putting your subject in context, you can enhance the surroundings with a larger depth of field.

In addition to depth of field, shapes are also important and are the result of closed lines. However, shapes can be visible without lines by establishing an arrangement of objects within the camera's viewfinder. Since most primary shapes include circles, squares, triangles and hexagons, these are the most commonly seen shapes in nature. With space determined by shapes and forms, positive space is necessary, while negative space would be all space other than the shapes. For images to have a sense of balance, positive and negative space can be used to balance each other.

The next consideration after depth of field and composition is color. While there are thousands of patterns around us daily, emphasizing these color patterns is what leads to stunning shots. With a large pile of data and research on how color affects human emotions, it is critical that the photographer employ the ability to evoke emotion through color in order to created the desired effect.

Other Essential Elements Enter

The effective use of lines in your image will enable you to surpass others in the field of photography. Even though an award-winning has many components, you will discover that most include their subject within a diagonal line found in your camera viewfinder. If you have the opportunity, examine closely the classic still paintings. As you do, you will clearly see how this element is integrated with superior results.

While exploring lines, consider the effectiveness of the rule of thirds. To put this principle in place, draw two horizontal and vertical lines so that they are evenly spaced from each other. This will dissect your image into nine sections that adheres to the rule of thirds. Then, your main subject will be found within the central section, but more than likely, on one of the four intersections formed by these lines. It is at these intersections that you will be able to optimize this rule.

With the key elements of composition, depth of field, and lines, you can easily improve your photography with little other effort. Since elements are the foundation of photography, they can also be the springboard upon which your creativity can leap. Thus, by putting these elements to use, your photography can gain the freedom and creativity it deserves.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment