By Harold Merton, A.P.
When one thinks of composition, lighting and other things that go into a good picture, then you can easily see that you are really building a picture and consequently the word "making" is a much better description of what you are doing.
There are some very good guidelines that give strong direction to pleasing those who view your pictures. Here are a number of guidelines that can be used by anyone making pictures whether it be with an inexpensive "point and shoot" camera or a professional piece of photographic equipment.
- See your picture before you make it
- Create a centre of interest
- Use framing techniques
- Watch the background very closely
- Compose your picture carefully in the viewfinder
- Seek visual perspective
- Consider any motion
Certainly all pictures are not works of art. Some pictures are not made with this goal in mind. Some of them are made strictly for information or record purposes. Many times pictures are made to record things that may not be pleasant to view. Consider photographs of accidents, crime scenes etc. The photographer is not really interested in a pleasing arrangement of the elements in a picture of this type but photography is being used as a tool to create these types of pictures as well.
However when it comes to more pleasant pictures, then the above guidelines can play an important part of creating a picture that will be a pleasure to view.
Keeping a picture simple can be one of the best methods of creating a good picture.
Too much content can sometimes make it difficult for the viewer to understand what the central theme of the picture was.
The viewfinder can be used to carefully compose or arrange the subject matter rather than just to see how much you have in your picture. Sometimes film is just wasted when the photographer fails to take a few extra seconds to study the picture in the viewfinder.
Filling the viewfinder up is critical for clarity in the finished picture. If you leave a lot of room around each side of the picture when you are photographing a group of people (a common practice among amateur photographers) the faces will appear much smaller in the final print, making it difficult to distinguish significant detail. A much better picture is created when you move in and fill up the frame. The quality of the print will probably look much better with the latter because if you use only 50% of the negative area of your picture you may decide later that you need to crop some of the unused area off the edges of your picture. Basically this means instead of using an area 1 1/2" long in your negative you have really only used perhaps an inch and you will have to blow this part up much larger to end up with the same size enlargement.
This is especially important in digital pictures too because you are using only a portion of your picture information. When you then try to enlarge that smaller area it is the same as if you were enlarging the original to almost twice the size.
To create a centre of interest find something in the picture to focus the viewer's eyes on. You have the opportunity to select a portion of your picture to make it stand out. Also the angle that the camera is held in relation to the main subject helps to determine how the subject will be viewed. However if your picture has too many centres of interest it has little or not interest at all. It could really be confusing!
Framing techniques really make a picture stand out. I am referring to framing in the picture not framing the picture afterwards.
Scenic pictures like landscapes and seascapes can be highlighted when you use trees or other object to create "in-picture" frames.
If you are shooting a picture of the parliament buildings in Ottawa like my father William Merton did when he was a young man, you can do as he did and frame the main building by shooting from within the arches of another building. The result was a beautiful natural arched frame with the spire of the main building in the centre of the archway. My father was not a professional photographer but he did make some great amateur pictures in his day. He knew that they were pleasing pictures but it wasn't until I became really involved in photography in my 20s that I truly understood why that picture and others of his were so good.
If you can't find a natural frame where you want to make your picture, sometimes you can move it to where you want it. I remember one photographic team that shot pictures for RV brochures and in nearly every picture there was a pleasing arrangement of tree leaves in one of the corners. It seems that one member of the team brought a knife with him on the photo shoots and nearly always cut a branch off a tree and then held it in place in a corner of the picture. The pictures always looked great with that bit of natural framing in place. Look around. There's quite often something that can be used in this way.
Watch the backgrounds! People appear sometimes to have sprouted everything from telephone poles to trees out of the tops of their heads. To the human eye background objects are not as prominent as they are to the camera, especially a digital camera that has a lot more depth of focus that a conventional camera.
Make it a habit to check the background each and every time. Sometimes it is just a case of moving a foot or so one way or the other to eliminate unwanted material.
Take a second or two to also check the edges of your picture for intrusions. Sometimes protruding objects will take the viewer's eyes off the main subject. Again moving the camera angle just a bit will probably eliminate this distraction.
Perspective is important to consider in making pictures. Converging lines, such as those seen when looking down railroad tracks, give the viewer a sense of distance and depth. Photographers can also improve many of their pictures by coming down to the same level as the things they are making pictures of - especially children. Remember that things closer to the lens will appear larger than they really are, and if you really want to accentuate this use a wide angle lens because this is even more prominent with wide angle optics. Shooting straight up at a tree or structure will also give a different perspective and will make a pleasing picture. Experiment with perspective, it will surprise you!
Be sensitive to motion! Moving objects can be photographed with precision. There are two main methods - stopping the action and panning. The first involves using a fast (short) shutter speed to freeze the action. Panning involves moving the camera with the action as you shoot. The latter is a lot more difficult to master but quite often yields some great pictures. You will need to prefocus your lens to something that is the same distance from the camera as what your subject will be when you make the exposure. Don't count on all your pictures being good oneswith this method. If you shoot three or four and come up with one or two ood ones you are a winner.
If you are using a fast shutter speed to freeze the action try to use a high speed film (ASA/ISO 400) so that you can achieve a fast shutter speed and still retain a reasonable depth of focus. If you were to use a slow speed film (ASA/ISO 100) by the time you set your camera to a fast shutter speed (1/500th or 1/1000th of a second) you would have to use a very wide aperture (f4 or f5.6) to get enough light to properly expose your picture. (This is a hypothetical estimation because actual exposure would depend on the lighting at the time).
By using 400 ASA/ISO film that same aperture would move to f8 or f11
(because every time you double the film speed you can go one f stop
smaller - in this case you doubled the film speed twice - once to 200
and then second to 400). For this reason alone many people standardize
on 200 or 400 ASA/ISO film.
Guidelines for composition should be considered whenever a picture is
being created. Even if it is just a picture of two people at a tourist
attraction - the picture can be made much better by thinking about the
guidelines discussed in this article. When composition guidelines are
considered pictures look a lot more interesting.
Good shooting!