10 Amazing Rules of Photography

There are no fixed rules in photography, but there are guidelines which can often help you to enhance the impact of your photos. Let us look at the most important , basic and easy to follow rules. You have your own? Drop us in comments.

1. RULE OF THIRDS

Imagine that your image is divided into nine equal segments by two vertical and two horizontal lines. Try positioning the most important elements in your screen along these lines, or at the position where they intersect. Doing so will add balance and interest to your photo.

2. BALANCING ELEMENTS

Placing your main subject off-center as with the rule of thirds, creates a more interesting photo, but it can leave a void in the scene which can make it feel empty. You should balance the ‘weight’ of your subject by including another object of lesser importance to fill the space.

3. LEADING LINES

When we look at a photo our eyes is naturally drawn along lines. By thinking about how you lines in your composition, you can affect the way we view the image, pulling us into the picture, towards the subject, or on a journey ‘through’ the scene.

4. VIEWPOINT

The viewpoint has a massive impact on the composition of our photo, and as a result it can greatly affect the message that the shot conveys. Rather than just shooting from the eye level, consider photographing from high above, down at ground level, from the side, from the back, from a long way  away, from very close up and so on.

5. BACKGROUND

The human eye is excellent at distinguishing at different elements in a scene, whereas a camera has a tendency to flatten the foreground and background and this can often ruin the otherwise great photo. Thankfully this problem is easy to overcome at the time of shooting. Look around for a plain and unobtrusive background and compose your shot so that it doesn’t distract or detract from the subject.

6. SYMMETRY and PATTERNS

We are surrounded by symmetry and patterns, both natural and man-made. They can make for very eye-catching compositions, particularly in situations where they are not expected. Another great way to use them is to break this symmetry or pattern in someway, introducing tension and focal point to a scene.

7. DEPTH

Depth can be created in a photo by including objects in the foreground, middle ground and background. Another useful composition technique is overlapping, where you deliberately partially obscure one object with another. The human eye naturally recognizes these layers and mentally separates them out, creating an image with more depth.

8. FRAMING

The world is full of objects which make perfect natural frames, such as trees, archways and holes. By placing these around the edge of the composition you help to isolate the main subject from the outside world. The result is a more focused image which draws your eye naturally to the main point of interest.

9. CROPPING

By cropping tight around the subject you eliminate the background ‘noise’, ensuring the subject you eliminate gets the viewer’s attention undivided.

10. EXPERIMENTATION

With the dawn of the digital age in photography we no longer have to worry about film processing cost or running out of shots. As a result, experimenting with our photos’ composition has become a real possibility ; we can fire of tons of shots and delete the unwanted ones later at absolutely no extra cost. take advantage of this fact and experiment with our composition. You never know when an idea will work until you try it.

I hope this was useful for you. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions and ask questions.

(via pixelpluck)