Stepping out of my comfort zone, be brutally honest

MZC386 · Jun 28, 2011

pgriz said:
Think of an image as telling a story. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The image beginning is usually a bright or sharp area that attracts our eyes, or a human face (eyes especially). From this "entry point", we start to scan the rest of the image to get an understanding of what we're seeing. Lines, diagonals, curves that lead us from the starting point to other areas of the image help us explore and guide us. Things that take away from the narrative are elements that compete with the main subject (bright blotches of light, lots of detail in the background or foreground that isn't relevant to the subject, and composition that leaves the viewer unclear on what the point of the image is. The end comes from having taken in the key elements of the image and "gotten" the reason why the image was taken. This is why we usually tell people to make sure the eyes are sharp - because that's what we as humans tend to look at first. Areas of the image that are sharp and bright are signals for us to "LOOK HERE!". Therefore the main subject (be it a rose, a human face, or a car) should be sharp and well-exposed. The rest of the image either adds to the narrative by providing context, or takes away by being distracting. Photographers have learned to use the depth-of-field to leave the un-important areas out of focus, and therefore not competing with the main subject. Placement of the main subject on the 1/3 or 2/3 line (the rule of thirds) allows the eye to have a space to move to after identifying the main subject. Placement of subject dead-center gives us no clue as to where we should be looking next, and generally is considered a weak composition UNLESS the object is symmetry. The use of different focal lengths allows photographers to exaggerate or compress the relationship between near and far. When you think about taking an image, pause for a moment and consider what aspect of the image caught your attention in the first place. Since we humans have selective vision, we can blank out distracting elements, but the camera will see it all, and in framing an image we need to check whether the other elements in the image (foreground, background, light direction, shadows, etc.) contribute to or detract from the vision that you had. Learning to "see" is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice. Learning to arrange elements into a pleasing composition can also be taught, but having some talent makes the process much easier.

Wow, very well said. You got me thinking(is it suppose to hurt?)