(This was a macro of my Panasonic LX3 screen taken with a Canon Ixus 850 compact, the lines should really be straight but what you are seeing is “barrel distortion“)

The idea is that with or without the lines on screen, placing the main subject on one of these lines maximises your chances of creating a pleasing composition. The lines are only guides, and with even a little practice you will probably turn the guides off again as they will be “in your head” so quickly. You don’t have to use them precisely, just roughly placing the subject near an intersection improves a composition in most cases. Here are some examples:

Notice how close its head is to the thirds intersection.

Again, the eye being the main focal point being placed instinctively on the thirds looks great.

This one is a little off the thirds, but even being close to the intersection is a decent composition.

Bang on the thirds this time and it works.

Here, Gillian is slightly off-centre and her eyes (the focal point in a portrait) are close to the thirds lines. Portraits are an interesting exception however in that they can frequently work with the subject centred. That said, rule of thirds usually gives the best portraits.

Here’s one of me that someone took about a decade ago, notice how boring the centre composition is to the eye? (This is particularly a problem with landscape format pictures which have a lot of space either side of you centre the subject. Basically your eye wants to see the background as well as the subject, and the centre composition gets in the way and makes that difficult.)

Here’s one taken of my friend Gerry within a few minutes, but better composed in terms of “thirds”.

So in summary: Place the main subject, or the eyes of your portraits near or on the intersections of the lines that split your frame into equal thirds. Most times this will give you a reliable and pleasing composition. Remember however, that it isn’t a rule, you can break it if you feel like it. Some of the best photographers have incorporated rule-breaking into their style, but first you can bet they mastered the rules they later choose to break.

The tree with its reflected image provides a focal point for your eyes. The problem is that there is some grass growing in the foreground about 3 strands of which are distracting when you try to look at the tree. Almost a good picture, but this lets it down.

This is the original picture of Jess that I used for my 100 portraits project. Clearly Jess’s face is the subject here, but notice how you keep getting drawn to look at the ceiling lights near her head. I removed these for the project as shown below:

In the following picture, the kitten is the subject, but notice how my mouth on the upper right draws your attention. Humans are programmed to scan pictures for faces and this really cuts down on view-time for kitty. Poor composition I’m afraid.

In the following picture of me on our boat (in younger days), the classic error of having something rising out of my head has been committed.  It’s an easy error as you are usually looking at someone’s eyes through the camera and not therefore scanning the top of their head. This backstay (wire) will draw your eye when you look at me.

The following photograph of a young footballer didn’t need a plantpot behind his head. Notice how that draws your attention from his eyes.

This next one taken on a previous trip to Madeira would have been better without the foliage in the foreground. How much effort would it have cost me to shoot from over it or perhaps to the side. Very distracting.

And to close, here is a portrait of Bob. He is the subject, and there are no distracting elements. This is the strongest picture in this posting because of that clear focus on the subject with no distractions:

So in summary:

Items growing from your subject, poles, plantpots, distracting colours or patterns should be avoided.

Bright lights draw the eye, so if they are near your subject they will probably be distracting.

Parts of faces or just any other faces tend to draw the eye so they can be a problem

Watch out for intruding foreground items, e.g. grass, intruding on the subject.

Next time: Simple rule of thirds.

]]> http://www.matthewboyle.net/2009/02/24/little-lessons-6-composition-dont-distract-from-the-subject/feed/ 0 http://www.matthewboyle.net/2009/01/26/little-lessons-3-control-your-compact-exposure/ http://www.matthewboyle.net/2009/01/26/little-lessons-3-control-your-compact-exposure/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:34:27 +0000 Matthew http://www.matthewboyle.net/2009/01/26/little-lessons-3-control-your-compact-exposure/ The last time I posted a “little lesson” we looked at controlling the focus so that your camera didn’t make incorrect decisions about what the subject is in your picture. So now all your photos are sharp where you need them to be sharp, you’re half way to having control. The only other challenge is exposure. “Aha”, I hear you say, a technical word, you said that it was easy to take control of your compact without learning techie stuff, well, I’ll keep my part of the bargain. I’ll tell you what exposure is, and you’ll realise you knew anyway.

Exposure: Basically, this is the brightness of your picture. If it’s over-exposed then it’ll look too bright and some of the detail will be lost to a wishy-washy brightness. If it’s underexposed it’ll look too dark, and again there will be areas that are too dark and it’ll be hard to see the detail. See how easy this is!

Exposure more or less equals the brightness, and when you have got it right the picture will show as much detail as it is possible to see. (Not too dark and not too light).

So what, many people will tell you that the best place for the compact camera is auto, where you only have to think about composing the picture; the camera is so good at getting this right itself, that I don’t need to think about it! Wrong. Every camera I own or use, two high end compacts and a decent midrange Digital SLR have the same predictable habit; they get it rightish most of the time, but they often get it wrong. Think about it, when you check the screen on your compact, can you honestly say that it hasn’t made the picture too bright or too dark?

There are some situations that cameras really struggle with. Snowscenes, or bright skies with foreground in shadow, portraits with bright areas like skies behind the subject. The camera tends to attempt to get most of the scene the right brightness, but if the scene has for example a face, with a bright background, the face may be too dark since it’s a small part of the overall scene; you see the camera may not know that the face is the most important face in the world to you, and slightly too dark (underexposed), all its microchip cares about is that most of the scene is about right..not good enough for an important picture.

Above: The first snap is out of focus, but more importantly for us here, too bright (overexposed). A quick decrease on my exposure compensation control and my friend’s faces are more detailed and just the right brightness.

To be fair, cameras use “intelligent” scene recognition to try to guess when a person is backlit, and therefore to allow the face to be correctly exposed, and allowing the background which doesn’t matter quite as much to you, to be a little too bright. In my experience, the automation only works sometimes, but that might get better in the future.

Above: Here the camera has exposed for the sky and my friend’s face is darker than I would like. Increasing the exposure in software improves the brightness and detail of his face.

So you’ve looked at the screen, and aunt Madge looks too dark (but in perfect focus, well done) while the vast Arizona skies and setting sun behind her are perfect. The camera got it wrong again. Most people will shrug and say, “it’s only a snap, I can make her out, it’ll do”. But you care! Remember my promise, you don’t need to be all techie to take control and have a picture that aunt Madge will put in a frame and treasure for ever. So what do you do?

Most decent cameras, have a little control called “Exposure Compensation”

The symbol will usually look like this if it’s on a camera button. (Check your manual).

Sometimes (as above) it is a button on the camera, that you can press after taking a picture, make a quick adjustment and take the picture again.

Just as often in a compact camera (below), it is in a “quick to reach” menu, so that you call it up to make the adjustment after a picture that you think could be better.

Note: Canon use a different symbol in their menu. It doesn’t matter, just find what your compact uses.

These will pretty much always bring a little line onto your screen with a (+) at one end and a (-) at the other, sometimes with a zero at the centre. Once you call them up, you simply use your camera’s controller to move it up if you need to make the next picture brighter or down to make the next one darker. That’s it, it’s that easy; find your exposure compensation control, and now get into the habit of checking the picture after you have taken it to see if it’s too bright or too dark where you need it to be just right, adjust the control and take the picture again if you need to.

Note: I’m assuming you can see the screen, If its too bright/sunny you might need to cover it to check. (I’ll share a better way to check this in a later lesson, but that’s enough for now).

Summary: So now you can use centre selected manual focus before “recomposing” the picture while half pressing the shutter. You can also adjust the picture brightness and take the picture again if you’re not fully happy with it.

Note: Not all cameras have all functions, exposure compensation and user controlled focussing would be normal in all but the very cheapest compacts. As before, if you are still confused, check with your local camera shop, and maybe buy something from them!

Next lesson: I’ll show you another way to achieve the same thing with your compact if it has selectable metering modes.

Compact cameras are generally fairly powerful tools these days. Like all tools, getting the best out of them requires you to know how to use them. I’m not talking about deep photographic expertise here, but just a little knowledge that will go a long way to improving your pictures.

I had a great conversation with a couple of my dearest friends this summer when they were getting some pictures on their Fuji compact on an alpine holiday that were too bright or dark or perhaps in poor focus. Over a beer in an alpine hut I showed them the two simple things that they needed to do to get better pictures. (I tried not to bore them too much). They tell me that they have made extensive use of these two simple things since then and that they have been enjoying their photography all the more since; they feel more in control of their compact, they are getting fewer disappointing pictures, and they have avoided learning anything more about cameras than they need to know.

In this entry, I want to discuss the first and most important technique for taking control of your compact:

Controlling the focus.

In the picture above, I’m not sharp but the background is. The camera has guessed that the centre of the scene is the priority and focussed on the boats and mountains.

Here is a picture a moment later to show me sharp for comparison, as my wife intended.

Have you ever photographed someone you really wanted a picture of, and found that they weren’t as sharp as the tree behind them, or a different person in the scene? This is the most common problem with a compact camera on “auto” mode. It tries to intelligently guess what part of the scene you would like to be pin sharp, and sets the focus on that point. Unfortunately, even the most expensive compact camera isn’t as intelligent as you are, and simply can’t always guess what your subject is. As long as you let the camera decide for you then some of your pictures will disappoint you by having your subject out of focus.

So what do you do about it? These days there are three focus modes built into most compacts:

1.  Auto or intelligent focus: This is the one that causes the problems, it decides, and it does get it wrong a lot. If you really don’t care about nailing the person or item you might not get to photograph again, then leave it in this mode and take your chances.

2.  Manual or centre Focus: In a compact this means that the “auto or intelligent” focus is switched off. This will almost always give you a simple focus point in the centre of your screen. When you press the shutter button half way, the camera will focus on that centre point while you hold the shutter half way down.

3.  Face detection: This is the latest and very useful thing, but it shouldn’t be left on all the time unless you only ever take party or people pictures. It automatically detects faces in the scene and tries to ensure that they are all in focus. That may sound great, but there are times when you only want your husband’s face in focus, and the other people at the party, more out of focus. You can do that so much better without “face recognition”.

So my simple rule for you is this:

To control your focus and get the subject sharp EVERY TIME without your camera messing up for you, choose the second option: manual focus or “intelligent” or “face recognition” off. The technique now is simple. Place the subject at the centre of the scene, half press the shutter button until the camera indicates that it has locked focus, now KEEP HOLDING THE BUTTON HALFWAY DOWN while you move the camera a little to compose the scene the way you want it. (You might not want the subject in the centre.) When you are ready, assuming the subject has stayed still, press the whole way and take the picture. This is called “focus and recompose”.

In the above picture, I have focussed over the moggie’s eye, I am holding the shutter half-pressed, and I can slightly move the camera until the cat is where I want it in the frame.

If you focus and recompose, you will always choose what is in focus, and as long as you keep your finger halfway pressing the button, your chosen subject will stay in focus. Practice this with your compact and you will get the right part if the picture sharp every time.

Note: Every camera has a different menu, and may use different wording for the focus settings. If you can’t figure them yourself, ask a photographer friend to look for you, or take it into your local camera shop and ask for their help with it.

Next lesson: We’ll look at the second simple technique, controlling exposure.

Looking towards your eventual aspirations as a photographer is essential when you are choosing your camera. Essentially there are 3 levels of aspiration even though the boundaries are a little blurred between them. They are:

Level 1: Point and Shooter:

Level 2: Enthusiast:

Level 3: Expert or Professional

Each different level of photographer expects different levels of quality, features or build from their camera. Knowing which level you are at, and more importantly knowing which level you aspire to over the next few years is key to getting the right camera. (It might be key to satisfying yourself that you have the right camera already).

So what do people at these 3 levels want from their cameras and photography?

Level 1: Usually these photographers don’t want to get hung up on the technical details of their cameras. In general they want to point the camera, and press the shutter. They may be interested in knowing how to get the best from the camera if a few simple controls could make a significant difference, but they don’t want to know about apertures and shutter speeds. These photographers may be really interested in better composition and possibly even using the camera for macro (close up) compositions.

The camera will usually be chosen for simplicity, “pocketability”, style and quality of lens and of course image quality from reviews.

Level 2: These photographers cover a wide range of knowledge levels. Generally they want a camera with total control over aperture, shutter-speed, ISO settings, metering, exposure approaches and a stack of other things. In short, the more control they have the better. They also realise that the larger sensor of a DSLR or similar camera means better image quality and control over both noise levels and depth of field. They realise that this means a larger camera and they are prepared to carry it for the benefits it will bring. Clearly level 2 photographers will want to take photographs for the sake of making pictures rather than just photographing family and friends at events, or just using the camera to record their hobbies such as a hillwalker always carrying a point and shoot camera. Magazines, books and websites will generally be read to develop their skills. There might be aspiration to take the hobby further in future.

The camera will be chosen for image quality and features within a budget which will vary a lot from person to person. A budget or mid-range DSLR would be a typical choice. Some enthusiasts might choose a high-end compact which allows control over all settings since it is easier to carry. In this case noise performance and “Depth of Field, (DOF)” control will be sacrificed.

Level 3:

These photographers are not all that different to level 2 photographers. The key difference is that they are well up the learning curve and have a high degree of confidence in their own skill level. They may be photographing professionally or undertaking major photo projects allowing them to spend a lot of time using their camera. This heavy use of the camera, combined with a sense of expertise is what dictates this level of photographer’s choice of camera.

In essence, the cameras will seldom do anything much that an amateur or enthusiasts’ camera does, but it will be built with quality and durability in mind. The camera will have expensive lenses that seek out that extra detail and sharpness that an enthusiast’s camera can’t quite manage, even though it may come close. The sensors that record the image will often be larger and more expensive but will allow sharp pictures in even lower light levels when an expert often just has to deliver a good image. The cameras will often be built to survive a drop within reason and a drop of rain or even dust shouldn’t trouble it while the enthusiasts’ lenses might be better kept in the bag.

Conclusion:

• So if you just want to take snaps, you don’t care. As long as it has an automatic mode and you can press one button you’re happy. Frankly this article wouldn’t much interest you anyway.

• You love pictures but you don’t yet feel interested in technical details. You want to take better composed pictures with fewer under or over-exposed as well as fewer blurry shots and absolutely no more lampposts out of your friends’ heads. A decent compact or point and shoot is fine for you at present.

• You put picture quality as your main priority and you don’t mind doing some learning and reading to achieve the best you can. You’re not embarrassed by carrying a “real” camera. A DSLR or other serious camera like a four-thirds or even an advanced compact is for you. But then you probably know that!

• You’re making a name for yourself as a photographer, you have exhibitions, you are making money from this now or you’re undertaking major projects, then you need the best. Of course you might be level 2, but with money to burn, well why not! (Buy me one too please)

I am aware that these are perhaps slightly crude levels, but the point is to realise that you need the camera for your aspirations, and to know what your aspirations are. Just for the record I put myself in level 2, probably getting well up the curve but still with immense amounts to learn.

Any terms you didn’t understand I’ll cover in future articles. Next “little lesson” will be “making the best of a compact”

DP Review has a great series of articles starting here about choosing a compact.

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