Week 1

Thankyou

to all of you who have enrolled on this course.

I hope that you are able to build on your existing skills and  take this great hobby 

that you've chosen to a new level.

Rule of Thirds

Tonight you were introduced to one  of the “rules” of photographic composition; The Rule of Thirds. As I mentioned in the session, it is a cliche to say it, but there are no rules in photography. Look upon these rules as guidelines.
In art it is rarely possible to please all the people all the time, so a photograph that one member of your audience  finds outstanding, another person may not find so appealing.  My advice is to go out and try to take photographs that you like,  maybe some people will think they are brilliant and want to buy prints of them.  

You can break the rule of thirds any time you like, but if you use it as a guideline, hopefully it will be a good building block to create great photos.  


To apply the rule of thirds imagine drawing four lines on the frame of the photograph: One vertical line one third from the left hand edge of the photo and another vertical line one third from the right hand edge.  Now imagine drawing a horizontal line one third from the top edge, and another horizontal line one third from the bottom edge.  The whole frame now will consist of nine boxes, each with the same aspect ratio as the full frame.  


There are four points where these lines intersect, these points can be used to place significant parts of your subject.  Other elements of the composition can be placed on the lines.


The frame will look like this.

(The first written reference to Rule of Thirds was 1797 by John Thomas Smith - Remarks on Rural Scenery)


We looked at these examples:
Painting of The Fighting Temeraire by Turner


Painting of Hadleigh Castle by Constable


1954 Hitchcock Film Rear Window 


Screen shot of BBC Documentary
 









  
Liverpool Echo Calendar 2012

Already we are starting to see occasions  when the rule of thirds needs to be ignored.  A good example is when symmetry is to be achieved in a composition such as in the shot of the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Liverpool Echo 2012 Calendar.  

Use Preview 

It may seem obvious to say this, but when you've taken a shot, use the preview.  Millions of dollars have been spent to create cameras with large clear screens on the back; so use it!


Look at the picture on the screen and ask yourself:

• Was the  composition good?
• Is the exposure correct?
• Zoom in - was your subject in focus?
• Is the shot blurred?
• Did someone blink or grimace? 

If something wasn't right, try and correct it in another shot.
I'll be coming back to the other things that I mentioned in that list in later weeks so don't worry if you're not sure how to correct a problem.


TIP:   Don't delete shots while you're out photographing.  It wastes time that you should be using to practice taking photos. There's always the danger of deleting the wrong one.  You can see the photos better on a computer screen at home and decide which ones you want to keep.

Good Stance 

Try to reduce the chance of camera shake.  If standing - legs slightly apart to create a triangle.
Bring your upper arms into your body.    

DSLRs are heavy, especially when they have a zoom or telephoto lens attached, so you need to support the weight with the left hand, and grip the right side with the right hand. Allow the forefinger to be able to squeeze the release button.  You usually put this camera to your eye so there is another stable surface  i.e. your face, for the camera to rest against.

Compact cameras need supporting on the left side, it's not so much the weight that is the problem here,  but the smallness, watch that fingers don't creep around the front of the camera to obscure the lens or flash.  Ensure the forefinger can squeeze the release button.
Compacts don't normally allow you to put the camera to the eye so be careful that it does not wobble back or forward when you take the picture.  While preparing for the course I used a few compacts and I'm astounded how slow a shutter speed they will resort to so you need to be aware that camera shake is a real potential problem.
Bridge  The hold is similar to DSLR without the burden of weight that the other camera brings.  I would recommend using the viewfinder whenever possible.


And finally take your shot, don't stab the shutter release, but squeeze it gently.
One method I use sometimes is to take a deep breath and breathe out, release the shutter while breathing out.


Don't forget you can rest the camera on any surface to keep it steady, and if that's not possible you can stand against a fixed  object such as a wall  or tree to gain extra stability.

Auto Focus

The shutter release has two positions, soft press is where you feel the button start to move down, this is when the camera trys to focus, take it a little further and the shutter will release.

What I advocated in the session was to set your camera to centre focus, point at your subject and use soft press the camera should focus quickly (exposure will probably be set also), then while you keep the button soft pressed, move the camera so that your subject is really where you want it. Now squeeze further to release the shutter  (try to remember breathing). 

While preparing for the session I read another photographer recalling the first and only lesson he had from his dad back in the seventies.  Those were the days when a roll of film and its subsequent processing cost quite a lot of money.  "Don't take too many shots" his dad had told him.   This no longer applies, because we can delete all the shots that don't work out.  Practice makes perfect!  so get out there and shoot everything and anything.

The Task

Try and apply the Rule of Thirds to your shots this week.

Set your Auto-Focus point to centre and practice the excercise above.

Watch out for Rule of Thirds on TV. 

We'll look at the shots you took next week, so don't forget to bring cameras, memory cards, usb adaptors, camera leads.

Any questions,  even if it's "I don't know how to get my camera on centre auto-focus"  please feel free to email me. 

Thanks again.

Mark