Digital Photography by Dianne Kittle

Lesson 1: Simple Rules for creating a great composition

Directions:

1. Do an internet search concerning the following basic rules of photography. Use “Citation maker” for your source. Copy and paste your reference to this sheet. Find an image on the internet that best illustrates the rule. Check out Phil Borges, Santa Fe Photography workshop, and Rockport Maine Photography workshop sites for sample images.

2. For your first digital shoot, use a familiar place- lunchroom at school or home. Use the following rules (research them first!) to frame an interesting subject. Choose a familiar subject that you are passionate about- people, sports, food…. Pick a quite place, brainstorm, and type up your ideas in your photo journal.

3. Shoot as least 100 frames, but edit to your best 10. Make sure you capture at least 10 frames for each rule listed below. I just want you to get in the habit of following the rules. Edit your images with a friend and post the top 5 to my blog:


The Rules:

1. Viewfinder: I use my view finder to crop all unnecessary visual information from the image. Make a habit of looking at all 4 corners of the viewfinder and create your final mentally edited image. Crop with your camera not your camera and retain the highest pixel memory for printing.

2. Light: Pay attention to the light. Photograph your subject by a window. If you are photographing outside, shoot in the morning or late afternoon. I try to stay out of the harsh light and avoid heavy overcast days. The light makes all the difference in an image!

3. Point of View: Move around and photograph your subject from all angles. Make a habit of thinking about all the possibilities of how to frame your subject. My photography started to evolve only after I went a step beyond what many people do- which is pointing and shooting without creating the best composition in their head. Think before you shoot!

4. Approaching the subject: Here is what really separates the point and shoot photographers from the artistic photographers- BE BRAVE and walk up to your subject. Most people love to have their photos taken. I have only had to delete a photo once in recent years. Make a habit of thanking your subject and emailing the final image to them.

5. Rule of Thirds: Mentally divide the frame into a grid of 9 rectangles and place main points of interest on the points of intersection. You already have mastered the center- right??? So- skip the center and be unusual.

6. The background: Make sure your background is as beautiful as your subject. You should be able to create an image from the background that be viewed and appreciated on its own.

7. The Decisive Moment: Have you ever have moments of your life when you wish you had a camera in hand to capture that image? One time I was on a beach with my camera and the Tsunami happened to roll into our cove in Krabi, Thailand.

8. Shooting the unusual- I like to search reflections and shadows for interesting image. Using Visual Elements (We will go over this in the next lesson.)

Copy and paste one of your images that best illustrates each rule into a word or publisher document. Be sure to use Photoshop to make the image small (30 kb each for pasting to a word document). Email your worksheet to me for review. Let me know if you need help with Photoshop- we can do a SKYPE video call.


Use these rules for every lesson in my course and you will be surprised how your Visual Intelligence grows.

This lesson and all photos in it are copyrighted by Dianne L. Kittle.