Photography 101

Be The First One There!

Galen Rowell's iconic snap of the rainbow over the Dalai Lama's palace: He made that by running a mile in the rain, pretty much knowing that he'd get the shot, and even when he invited the rest of the photo tour group he was leading, they all preferred to stay back at camp and have dinner instead. Galen won because he took a calculated and informed risk. They lost because they were lazy.

Composition

• Every image needs strong underlying compositional order so that it grabs the eye

• Red jumps out at you, especially when put in front of blue. Red does that.

• When composing, ignore details. Be sure to exclude everything not directly contributing to the image.

California Ruin

Eye Path

• Our eyes are first attracted to the brightest, or the “contrastiest”, or the most colorful part of an image.

• After we've caught the eye, the eye starts to wander around and see what else there is to see.

• Careful! If there are words in the photo – EVERYONE will read them!

Rule of Thirds• The theory is that if you place points of interest in the

intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally.

• Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot

• Lastly – keep the rule of thirds in mind as you edit your photos later on. Post production editing tools today have good tools for cropping and reframing images so that they fit within the rules

Perspective

• Bird’s eye view• Worm’s eye view• Different angles

Get Closer

• One of the biggest differences you can make is to get closer to the subject in your photo.

• Look for different angles• Too many photographs are taken too far from

our subjects.• Take a few steps closer, zoom in, whatever it

takes.

Framing

• Framing is the technique of drawing attention to the subject of your image by blocking other parts of the image with something in the scene.

• Leading the eye towards your main focal point