Rules of Photography Part One

Rules of Photography. Now before you can break the rules you must know and be able to utilize them. First rule take your camera off auto focus. Second rule your knees bend. What I mean when I say that is you are not a statue. You cannot just stand in one place you need to move and be prepared to change perspectives. As an example, if you take a picture of a child when you are standing up with your camera looking down at the child you will create a picture where the child’s head looks bigger than it should be. This is called big head syndrome. When taking a child’s picture, you put yourself on their level. This will not only help put the kids more at ease when you are no longer hovering over them, but it will also eliminate the chance of a distorted perspective. Rule three is of course the rule of three. Imagine every picture you want to take as if it was overlaid with a three by three grid pattern. Now that you have that imaginary grid with nine equal sections put your most important element, object, person, what it is you are photographing either on one of the lines or where a line intersects. Take the photo below as an example. Now it doesn't have to be perfect but it should be close. This rule is also used as a filming rule.

Rule four please do not cut off limbs so keep an eye on the edges of your shots. Know where the edge of your frame is when composing a shot. Rule five anytime you can utilize a natural frame to isolate and draw attention to the key piece of your shot. Rule six the human eye naturally follows leading lines so utilize them to draw attention to your main element such as road or rivers or the lines of a landscape. Rule seven the eye loves patterns such as reflections, repeating elements, different textures, complementary colors (though jarring and discordant colors or elements can work in certain circumstances). We will continue the rules in a later post.

“Essentially what photography is is life lit up.” — Sam Abell