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Creating Harmony

Lesson 5 from: The Adventure Workshop

Alex Strohl

Creating Harmony

Lesson 5 from: The Adventure Workshop

Alex Strohl

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Lesson Info

5. Creating Harmony

Next Lesson: Conveying Emotions

Lesson Info

Creating Harmony

(light techno music) (camera clicking) What does it mean to make a memorable image? I think it's one that can withstand the test of time. So you look back at it in one or two years and be like, "well, this is good. This hasn't aged." It's also an image that's gonna stop people in their tracks. We're all busy. We're on our phones. We're on computers and you're able to stop them during their daily routines and have them see this image and And they may spend a few minutes looking at it. And that's what I want. That's what I want with every image. Is that it stops people doing what they're doing and they're imagining they're there. And to do that, I think it's important to start with an idea. I always start with an idea. I come up with this idea. Even if it sounds silly, I'll try to do it. And I think you need to have a good idea to make a strong image. I'd like to start off talking about harmony. I think that nature and the world, humans, we all crave harmony. And I think using that to ...

your advantage in images is important. So what does it mean to have harmony in an image. It starts with having a balance images. It's not always about having symmetry. It's good to have it. And I'm gonna talk about that a bit later but just when you look at a mountain scene and there's mountains on each side. There's a river that leads to a lake or a waterfall. So it's very symmetrical and the body's the same way. There's eyes and a nose in the middle. And I think that's very inspiring and keeping in that in mind keeping in that in mind when you're shooting photos I think its key for me. So to create harmony, I like to rely on a set of rules. First one being the rule of thirds. It's pretty straight forward. You probably seen it before. Imagine an image that's cut into nine rectangles. There's a top third, a lower third, I like to place my horizons on a higher third. And place my subjects on the lower third. I think that it makes for, it gives already the image a good balance. Doesn't mean you have to rely on it. Doesn't mean you have to use it all the time. But it's good to know it and then you can start playing with it. So do I center my subjects on my images all the time? No. But I think certain image formats call for certain compositions. So there's three image formats. Portrait, landscape and square. So for the portrait format, I think it calls for layers. Lots of layers. So we had this natural scene in the lake to be the foreground. The trees are in the second ground and the moutains are in the third ground. I think that that's what the portrait calls for for me. It's really layering, having thin layers of texture really makes portrait images. The landscape format, for me, is really about huge scenes and epic vises. Having the biggest mountain range in front of me and maybe a leading line to it. Whenever I shoot in landscape format I want to have everything in it. Everything I can fit. Cause it's just made for that. The square format, for me, is about centering. It used to be the old format of Instagram back in the day where everything was square. And it was good fun to train with that. For me, it's just about centering my subject's background positions. It's very harmonious balance. It's just very symmetrical and I like to use it in that way. Even when you using an old Hasselblad film camera that's square. I love to shoot my landscape with it because it forces you to center things and to see differently. One of the other things that I use to infuse more harmony in my images is knowing in what direction we read images. So we read them from left to right in a "Z" pattern. And just knowing that will help you infuse just more balance and harmony. It's the same with leading lines. Having lines that, strong lines in landscape that lead to your subject is also very important. One of the thing that is important to keep in mind when you going out shooting is where do you want to shoot your photos from? Some people like to shoot it from below, some from above and some from the side. And at some point you will shoot from all these corners but it's important to know what's your favorite and try them all. For me, it's all about shooting from above. So the highest point I can get to truly amounts... I'll try to get up there and shoot down. And doesn't mean you have to go into the mountains but even just getting up in a ladder will change your point of view and I think it's important to experiment with that and find what you like best. (light techno music)

Ratings and Reviews

David Corrochano
 

There's a lot of useful information on how to start up your bussiness or your carreer as a photographer. Great advices, he shows his personal workflow, from the beggining of a shooting till the end. That was what I was looking for. The editing process maybe could be reduced in only one chapter. Worth it.

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