Taking up a new hobby is an excellent New Year’s resolution, and with everyone having a camera at their fingertips these days, you might have an itch to try properly taking up photography. Becoming a good photographer is more than just point and shoot, though. It’s all about composition, framing and understanding space. Here are three top tips for getting started.
A staple of good photography is the rule of thirds, in which you split the image up into nine imaginary boxes, all equally spaced across the frame, using two horizontal and two vertical lines. Placing the subjects of the photo in the cross sections with background elements such as sky or sea aligned with the lines helps to create the best possible framing for your picture. Some cameras will generate this grid automatically, so you don’t even have to imagine it.
Even if you only intend to photograph one thing, the rest of the image is also part of the photograph. Take advantage of that by using empty space to highlight the true subject. Zooming out and allowing your subject to take up a smaller space in the picture can bring focus to the beauty of the image and help create a story as well as taking the pressure off the subject to draw focus.
Consider a frame within a frame. While a slightly tricky technique to pull off, sometimes the environment itself will provide you with a stunning extra frame for your subject within the frame of the photo. This could be an obvious one like a car window or a doorway, or it could be beautifully created by objects in the shot, such as gaps in trees in the foreground or fortuitously placed shapes in the background.
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash