Improving the picture |
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 Hints and tips by Philip Grosset If you'd like to submit photos for criticism, click here. |
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| The photo on the left would benefit from some foreground framing, as on the right. It was only a question of moving back, so as to include the tree branches. These add depth to the scene. Watch any amateur photographers in action and you can often pick out the more experienced: they are the ones who have moved from the most obvious camera position to search for foreground framing! The other main fault with the photo on the left is that the roof comes exactly halfway up the picture. Usually try to avoid having the horizon exactly in the middle as it cuts the picture in two. It would have been even worse if there had been no chimney pot to break the line. |
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| It's usually better not to position your subject right in the middle of the picture as I've done in the photo on the right. It's often more interesting if the main subject can be positioned to one side, as in the photo below, leaving room for him to move (or look) into the picture. | ||||||||||||||||||
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| As mentioned on the previous page, the best place for the main point of interest is often at or near the intersection of thirds, as shown by the lines I have added on the right. This is also known as the rule of thirds. If you have an automatic camera, though, remember to focus on your main subject before you swing away from it. Notice how the boy's red shirt helps him to stand out from the background. The composition of the picture can be changed by using a zoom lens (or separate lenses of different focal lengths, such as a wide angle or telephoto). This way, the apparent distance between background and foreground can be modified: |
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| The photo on the left was taken at the telephoto end of the zoom. The one on the right used the wide angle end of the zoom. Notice the change in the foreground-background distance: the telephoto setting (on the left) makes the background appear much closer in. (The same foreshortening effect can be seen if you look at the path in front of the house in the picture on the top right of the page, for which I also used the telephoto end of the zoom. Here the telephoto also usefully reduced the apparent distance between the foreground leaves and the house in the background.) Portraits should preferably be taken using a telephoto setting (if possible, around 80-90mm) to avoid distortion. If you use a wide angle setting, your subject can end up with a very large nose and a generally distorted face, as shown on the left below: |
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| Using a wide angle lens (as on the left above) is not a good idea for portraits! Compare this with the same subject taken with a telephoto setting on the right. |
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NEXT PAGE PICKING THE BEST VIEWPOINT |
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