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Tip 6: Frame it

Lesson 6 from: Photography Tips for Everybody

Khara Plicanic

Tip 6: Frame it

Lesson 6 from: Photography Tips for Everybody

Khara Plicanic

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Lesson Info

6. Tip 6: Frame it

Lesson Info

Tip 6: Frame it

Tip number six is to frame it, and we'll talk about actual framing in a minute. But of course, what I am talking about here is composition, right? So if we think of our picture in terms of thirds, I mean, this is just like the classic rule of thirds. I'm sure everyone's heard of that you think of your frame divided into thirds vertically and horizontally. And then the idea is that you put thie subject or area of interest in one of the places where those lines intersect, so in the upper left, third or upper right, third or lower, left or right, ondas going toe make your photo more interesting, that's the theory, of course, these are rules that can be broken like anything, but you do have to learn the rules before you can really successfully break them. So here are some examples. So here is a landscape photo where the horizon is up here at this top third, and then this villages over here to the right, so towards really that intersection over there. But, you know, a lot of times, our defa...

ult is to just center everything which you can have great images that showcase cemetery that's, not a problem, but you want to be doing it by choice, and because something about that image is interesting when you are framing it that way, but in this case it would just be boring if the horizon was just in the middle of the frame, it would look like a snapshot. These are the type of things but that bring you from a snapshot too a portrait or a photograph, right? We move from a snapshot to photograph, so composition is a big part of that here's another example another lance scenic urban scene and here the horizons at the bottom third of the frame. So that adds a lot of drama with the height of the buildings here is the same little boy that had the spaghetti sauce this cheek uh here you go, molly bob so he's over here on the right hand side of the screen and it works, of course, for portrait images, vertical images as well, so it just it really doesn't give your images a lot more interest on, by the way, I should say that this overlay this grid overlay some cameras will actually display that grid for you when you look through your view finder or on your lcd screen. So if you haven't used it before and if this doesn't come naturally to you and you really want to try to improve your images, there should be I'm guessing on most cameras away to turn on this overlay so that you can it's not going to print in your fat it's just very when you're viewing them while you're taking the picture so that you can practice doing this and then, you know, with time, you will get to the point where you don't need to have it on any more. Um, but it can be really super helpful, and even your phone, you can set up your phone to even do that, too. So here are a few examples without the overlay of the grid, so you can see and it doesn't have to be, you know, exact, but just generally speaking, so this image is kind of left heavy this way. So if you if you have a guest, don't forget to grab the microphone, but any guesses why I chose to position these gentlemen on there right side of my screen? Why not? Why didn't I maybe just put him over on the left? Not that one's right or wrong, but I think that this is a stronger I think this choice was stronger, and I just I'm curious, you grabbed the microphone, I'm just curious to know if anyone else is that the lines leading lines, the leading lines, and what do you mean by that, the lines lead towards thing, sorry, the lines lead towards the subject matter, the leading lines in this case would be like the street right there leading towards the subject we could say if I had put the senate on the left, the lines are still leading, but the specific reason that I chose to put them on their right was because they're looking left right they are looking to their left, and so I chose to put them on the right so that they had room toe look into the rest of the scene, so yeah, the leading lines are leading to them and then there they're glance is leading back to the rest of the frames, so it's kind of like a little world pool like your I have come in and you're like, oh, we and you go around, they just go around and around the frame so they're looking over here and we can we can see the sea seen that is framing them in the scene that they are being part of. If I had framed this so they were over here and looking this way, I think it would just feel weird, and I think I think everyone would I feel that maybe, you know, if you're new to this, you might not be able to articulate why that picture just feels weird, but I think you'd feel it that they would be over here just looking like against the wall of the edge of the frame and it would be kind of uncomfortable so in this sense because they're on the right hand side and giving them room tio to look and to be in the frame here is another example from an engagement session, so they're on the right hand side. Um and again, I have her on the right there there on the right side because she looking less and let's just be honest like she was she was the star he's the accessory in this case, she actually like a beauty pageant kind of gal and she's um, she's just striking, like absolutely gorgeous. So she is the center piece here and he's her loving accessory. Just kidding, but kind of but she really is owning this, and I feel like, you know, we can look to her and she's looking back off this way, I think it could work, it could work, I think, possibly if she was maybe down here and this was the opposite. But in this sense, I just felt like this was a really strong composition and scott funky, but of a slant and stuff, so I think that's good, the other thing that I want to talk about framing brings me to another what the duck camp of cartoon from aaron johnson so again with the ducks little duck says dad, are there any pictures of me as the baby and the dad like of course there are son let's just take a look at the old scrap pile, right? So when we were growing up we probably had scrapped but and I know that I've enjoyed growing up digging through actual photo albums that my grandparent's house I used to do that we would go every sunday and I would look through all their albums and these were albums of like extended family that lived overseas that I haven't even met at that point and I was like, fascinated with these photos on dh then the years later when we lost my grandfather, we were all gathered over at the house and we were digging through photos and I expected to find those albums that I'd always looked through I don't know where those went they were somewhere, but I was shocked to find that there were boxes and boxes of actual prince just loosen box that I've never even seen before and I don't know how I made it all those years without seeing them, but I've never seen them and one of them was this photo of my mother with my grandfather at the beach and I thought it was just literally all the boxes were dumped on the table there were just piles and piles of these old black and white prince and their faded and yellowed and extra charming because of it, and I pulled this one out, and I just I was like, I have to have this because I just loved that picture and I took it straight home and framed it and it's in the house now and on the wall, and I think it was really powerful for a couple of reasons one is that I got the experience of hanging out with all my extended relatives while we're celebrating my grandfather and looking at these pictures, of course, we were sad that we lost him, but it was really joyful experience to be there and be with family and be reliving things through these photos and laughing like, oh, my gosh, look at this picture look at that picture, and that was a great, positive memory that I'll have forever now, and I think, you know, I want that for my for my kid, I want him to be able to have actual pictures, you know? I mean, if something happened to me tomorrow, it'd be like, well, what's on her facebook way fun, of course, but we don't know what's going to happen with it, so it's really just important to actually frame and print our images so not only framing in terms of composition, but framing in terms of actually put it in a frame and get it up on the wall. Um, that's, what I did here. So I just think, that's important, that we make a point in our digital world to do that.

Ratings and Reviews

Elad
 

Short, very basic, very general and non-technical. Can't say anything presented helped or impressed me, but new comers might find it interesting.

1claud9
 

She simply makes sense. I like learning tips from Khara.

MARGARET NICOSIA
 

I think her ideas were simple to follow and to consider before going out to shoot. No ah-ha moments for me....nice that the ideas are short and to the point. thanks

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