CENTERED COMPOSITIONS

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

When learning photography composition for the first time, the rule of thirds is no doubt the first lessoned learned. These compositional guidelines are essential to learning how to frame great images, and move forward in your exploration of photography.

Centered compositions tend to take back seat to off-centered images in the early years of studying photography, no doubt because centered framing tends to be a normal (and possibly boring) method of composing.

If the subject matter is naturally symmetrical however, you may find that the most powerful choice of composition is to keep the subject matter perfectly centered. Symmetrical scenes, when framed perfectly in the middle, offer a sense of mystery, power, and authority.

I took this photo a few days ago in a Mexican cemetery, and was pleased to see that it contained both framing methods; the rule of thirds (tree) and centered symmetry (everything else).

Email this Blog to a friend!

 Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

COLOR AND COMPOSITION

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

When considering composition, we mainly arrange our picture space according to physical variances of objects in front of us.

Color is another compositional dimension that can be exploited to great ends. Look for geometrical color patterns such as rectangles, triangles, circles, and "s" curves".

Apply the same rules of composition to your color images, and experiment with breaking those rules!

This photo was taken by me yesterday in San Miguel, Mexico. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and is a stunning location for photography!

Email this Blog to a friend!

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

COVER PHOTOS

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

When considering travel photography composition, it is always wise to take a number of different views of the same scene. I have heard many magazine art directors complain that photographers rarely consider the most important photograph; the cover shot!

If a scene in front of you is cover-worthy, make sure you take the photograph in a vertical format. Leave plenty of space at the top for the magazine name and other text.

I often forget to consider cover photo compositions, however if you get into the practice of doing these, art directors will be very pleased with your varied compositional selections. Each different view of the same scene will greatly enhance your chances of having the right shot for the client's needs.

This photo was taken by me three days ago in the lovely Cayman Islands, a good place to escape from our Canadian winter.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

TEXTURED BACKGROUNDS

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

One of my great joys when photographing people is placing them in front of textured backgrounds. I do this in the studio quite often, but more interestingly, outside in villages, towns, and cities.

This photo was taken in a small village in the south of Hungary. Because many of the houses are built with plaster, and are painted with wonderful pastel hues, there are always great locations available for portrait sessions.

When planning a photo shoot that has a textured background, look for the following qualities:

1. The texture should be rough, but somewhat uniform, and consistent.
2. Different paint colors will have different emotive characteristics.
3. Aged and worn backgrounds usually have more soul.
4. Direct sun will show more texture, but makes portraits more difficult.
5. instead of using a low f-number, try using a tripod and a higher f-number for greater background and foreground sharpness.

Email this Blog to a friend!

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

DEFOCUSED PHOTOGRAPHS

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

Rarely is it acceptable to take photos out of focus, however there are times when such a practice can yield strange and wonderful results. Fine Art photography often utilizes certain elements of defocus, and sometimes stock photography. Much to my surprise, I have had many stock photo sales from my intentionally out of focus photographs.

Not every subject will work out of focus however. The technique seems to require a scene that emotes a feeling of loss, confusion, distress, or loneliness. I took the above photo in the Toronto airport, of a captain reading the flight info screens. I immediately grabbed my camera, set my focus to manual, and captured an image that speaks of confusion . . . in my mind an airplane captain should not need to find out where his plane is located.

Give this technique a try, and don't forget to keep the photos a cool tone instead of a warm tone. A bluish cast aids in the sense of isolation, whereas a warm toned photograph tends to be inviting and embracing.

Email this Blog to a friend!

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

CROPPING FOR POWER

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

Cropping in the digital age is extremely easy. Not only is it easy, but your chosen crop is repairable, if you feel that you made a mistake (this is the value of using the RAW file format).

Most digital cameras have a standard rectangular aspect ratio. Some images however might fall apart if left un-cropped. Why is this? Too much useless and unnesessary space either above or below the main subject matter.

This attached photo of musicians was a prime example. I was extremely pleased with the quality of light on the faces and upper bodies, however below the waste was just pure shadow. I could have left the shadow in, but I felt that the image would express much greater power and authority if it was a bit tighter. I decided to keep the viewer's attention on that which is the most emotive, and get rid of the unwanted elements.

Now, here comes the more controversial part. I believe that cropping just slightly below the top of the head is (sometimes) another means of positing greater drama and strength within a portrait. If you say this out loud at a photographer's association meeting, they would no doubt shout you down quite quickly. However, it is not the photo associations that effect and forcibly evolve compositional design; it is the fashion and art magazines that set the trends. Look through Vanity Fair, or even a J. Crew catalog, and you will see that the photographer or graphic designers are far less concerned with "appropriate" cropping, as they are with creating visual power. Often you will see crops with the tops of heads cut off . . . I like this, as it is indicative of an attitude of indifference toward established visual precepts.

The only downside to intelligent cropping is a loss of resolution. It is best therefore to increase your resolution in your RAW converter prior to any Photoshop editing.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

SOLVE OVER-EXPOSURE

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

There may be times when you do a portrait and the image is just a bit too over exposed. The skin tone looks pink/white-ish, and there seems to be no way to color correct the model's face. Instead of deleting the photo, you may be able to salvage the image by making it a black and white photograph. There are many ways to create monochrome images in Photoshop, however for this specific skin tone issue, the normal Hue/Saturation slider works the best. Drag the Saturation slider down to 50%, 25%, 10%, etc., until you get a look that you like. The greater the desaturation, the more your over exposed skin problem will be corrected.

Coupled with the desaturation, I tried a slight warm tone to the above sample image, and found that it worked nicely.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com

Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com