My Digital Photography Class

Colour: Adding colour to your photo will add interest especially if everything else in the picture is dull. If you were trying to incorporate colour into your photo, it should be obvious. Adjusting the contrast or brightness of your photo would help make the colour pop out more. This photo shows the vibrant colour of the leaves against the other duller colours of the photo.

Texture: Macro mode is the best option for taking a photo with texture. When you’re looking at a photo with texture in it should be easy to figure out and identify if the photo is smooth, soft, rough, hard, etc. The photo above is a picture of two small flowers.The object appears close and clear and grabs your sense of touch.

Value: Value is more difficult to take unlike colour or texture. To have a photo with good value, you need good lighting.  Sunlight is a better form of lighting then fluorescent lighting.  When you find good lighting, take advantage of it and you should have a good value photo. The photo above I took in front of The Coffee Mill. I thought it had pretty good lighting so I saw it fit for a value photo.

AV mode is when you use high or low F- stop to let a certain amount of light in. This is because the lens opens or closes letting more or less light in. When high F- stop is used, more light is let in and your picture gets a long depth of field. When the low F-stop is used, less light is let into the camera, so your photo has a shallow depth of field. The photo on the left is an apple tree I took a picture of when I went apple picking. This photo is an example of high F- stop because enough light was let in to give this photo a long depth. The photo to the right is a violin and some blue flowers. This is an example of a low F- stop because the background is blurry and hard to make out.

“Framing” a picture helps to isolate the main subject of the photo by blocking out the other parts of the scene, which automatically  draws your eye to the point of interest. “Framing” your photo includes benefits such as giving the photo context, and making the images seemed layered and giving a sense of depth. It can also intrigue the viewer. These two photo’s are good examples of “Framing”. The one on the left is an old, worn out carpet wrapping around plastic and a cardboard tube. The carpet cuts of the outside world so that you focus more on the main subject, the cardboard and plastic. The one on the right is the door of a restaurant. The door frame frames the painting that’s on the wall inside.

These two photo’s are other examples of smaller frames, rather than frames that are larger such as doors, arches, or windows. With smaller frames, you can use things such as small boxes or basket’s, or even your hands. The picture on the left is a photo I took of my friend Cristina through a tear in a tarp hanging of a fence. The picture on the left is a couple of shell’s I took in a basket. Notice that both of these photo’s still cut off the outside world, focusing on the main image.

“Rule of Thirds” means to divide the photo into 9 sections so that there is three sections going vertically and horizontally. The main subject of the photo should lie on either side of the photo and never in the center.  Doing so adds more interest and emphasis to the photo. If the picture is centered, it looks boring and takes away from the picture. This photo is an example of the “Rule of Thirds” because the bicycle is not towards the center but towards the side like it’s supposed to be giving the picture more interest.