Take Control, Go Manual Part 2

Composition and Shooting Techniques using your Digital SLR Camera

Peter S. Edwards

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Peter S. Edwards

Coming other titles by Peter S. Edwards

Take Control, Go Manual Part 3

Color Management, Editing and Printing your Images

at Smashwords.com

Peter Edwards’s Image Gallery can be found at:

http://www.imagebrief.com/photographers/petered8

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

COMPOSITION

PREVISUALIZATION

SHOOTING TECHNIQUES

LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

SPECIFIC LANDSCAPE TIPS

HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE IMAGING (HDRI OR HDR)

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY

PET PHOTOGRAPHY

SHOOTING LOW LIGHT

MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY

SEASCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY

USEFUL ACCESSORIES

REVIEW OF YOUR IMAGES

FEEDBACK

QUESTIONS

INTRODUCTION

Photography requires two main skills. Firstly the ability to shoot technically great pictures and after studying Part 1 of this guide and successfully completing the assignments, you will be well equipped to learn the second skill. The second skill requires creative ability and Part 2 of this guide is designed to give you an understanding of composition and some practical techniques and tips to help you understand how to use your newly acquired technical skills to produce creative pictures. I learnt much of this the hard way by trial and error but also from tips I picked up along the way from other photographers.

BACK TO TOC

COMPOSITION

Good composition is the key to producing great images however it is often difficult to look at an image and define what makes it great. Let us look at some of the elements of composition to help break it down so you can recognize these elements when employed in any image that you view. These elements are things to consider when shooting an image but you would not necessarily incorporate all of them into every image.

DEPTH OF FIELD

We discussed this topic in Part 1 but more in terms of how to create different depths of field rather than why. Depth of Field (DoF) can drastically impact the composition of an image. Using a shallow depth of field can make the subject stand out from the background (or foreground). It can also put the same subject into context, revealing its surroundings when using a wider depth of field. As we discussed in Part 1, depth of field is affected by aperture, distance from your subject and your lens focal length but is independent of shutter speed. This is illustrated below:

Shallow DoF - f/5.6, Focal length 370mm

Wider DoF - f/6.3, Focal length 105mm

LINES

Lines have the power to draw the eye to key focal points in a shot and to improve the composition.

Lines that are diagonal, vertical, horizontal or converging all impact images differently. So when visualizing the image and subsequently framing it, use these lines to lead the viewer’s eyes to point(s) of interest.

This shot has perfect symmetry as well as several lines leading to the main point of interest.

PATTERNS

There