Advance Tips on Composition in Photography

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The key to a good photograph is that everything should point to the focus of the photograph. A good way to accomplish this is not just by positioning the subject in the right part of the frame, but to also have all implied and literal lines in the photograph pointing towards the subject or emphasizing the pose of the subject.

A literal line is a line in a picture like the edge of a road or a straight fence. Ideally these lines would be widest at the foreground and then would narrow towards the subject. These types of lines will draw one?s eye directly to the subject who is the focus of the picture.

An implied line is a not so obvious line. It would be that of the subjects arms and legs, shoulders and eyes. These lines should enhance the pose but should not be the focus of the picture. They are positioned to facilitate the shot. A break in the wrist will complement lines of clothing, a tilted head towards the shoulder that is closer to the camera will create a gentle feminine feel to the picture. A tilted head to the shoulder that is further away will create more of a masculine feel.

If their are lines in the picture that frame the subject they should always be pointing towards the subject. If the lines go away from the subject so will the focus of the picture. The key is to always emphasize the focus which is almost always the face or the eyes in a picture.

Lighting is key to a good picture and their are literally books written just about lighting. With only a paragraph to write about lighting I will say the most important thing about lighting is to have plenty of it. Multiple light sources are the key to amazing photography and your best bet for out of the studio lighting is multiple flashes set up via remote. The light mounted on the camera will always make the subject look flat. By using the on camera flash as only a fill light and using other slave flashes as your main sources set up off center to the subject, you will get the dramatic and defining effects that make great pictures.

The key to many of these techniques is to produce a three dimensional feel of a two dimensional photograph. That is where the artistic side comes into photography. The techniques in this article and others are to emphasize the bringing out the greatness in people or emphasizing that which is great. A picture is a moment capture in time forever. Nobody wants a picture that shows their flaws or even worst… emphasizes their flaws. Bringing out the best in somebody can be learned but the greatest photographers take the techniques as fundamentals and excel at recognizing the best in people. That often comes with intuition, practice, and understanding people. If you can connect with somebody it is almost hard to take a bad picture. In with knowing the right techniques it is almost impossible to not take a great picture.

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Bill Cotter is an author about phoenix wedding photographers. Bill writes about phoenix wedding photography for http://memoriesputtomusic.com.