composition

Composition: A Parkour Frame of Mind

This is a guest post by Andy ‘Kiell’ Day. He is a renowned Parkour photographer, practitioner of parkour himself, and rock climber / builderer. His book… Read More »Composition: A Parkour Frame of Mind

Photo Project: Going Retro With Your Camera

A while ago, I wrote about how to retrograde your DSLR. A guide to temporarily hide all the digital/smart features that your digital camera has, and turn it into something a bit more dated. Yes, it is a strange thing to do… But you know how people go back to writing with pen and paper to really connect to their thoughts? This may help you to do the same with your photography and compositions.

Now, let’s look at how you can use that retro DSLR to gain a deeper understanding of photography and to change the way you think with a camera in your hand. Let’s get started!

20 Beautiful Images that Work – Because of Symmetry

This post is the last in a series of posts about how to make use of symmetry in your photography. Let me close off this batch of posts about symmetry with a few images that I think are really beautiful. Each of these photographs have at least of the four kinds of symmetry to thank, because that is why they work… Even if the symmetry is not blatantly obvious.

I invite you to take a good look at the photographs featured here and try to pick out which form of symmetry, Reflection Symmetry, Rotational Symmetry, Translational Symmetry or Glide Reflection Symmetry are responsible for making these pictures stand out.

Symmetry in Photography: A Guide to Using it

How to Use Symmetry In Photography

There are graphical elements, and visual tools that photographers use to make their photographs simpler to understand – because our brains are used to seeing, and understand these patterns and phenomenon – but also make their images stronger, visually.

Symmetry as a graphical tool in Photography is an extremely strong compositional device that can be used to draw the attention of your viewers. It declutters the image, and makes it visually simple, yet intriguing.

Beyond Photo Tips has a running project about SYMMETRY; and you’re welcome to join us in its exploration. Now, let’s look at what symmetry is, and how you can spot it in nature, and even create symmetry in your images.

Photography Project: Symmetry. Pic by James Jordan

Photo Project: Symmetry

Join other photographers as we explore the world around us, and understand the various principles of photography as we do so. We start off with looking at Symmetry, and how we can use symmetry in our compositions to tell us something more about the subject, to create an emotion or to create an aesthetically pleasing image. We wrote this article about how to use symmetry. Take a look at it, and then return here to join us in this exploration.

The Fine Art of Observation

Photography is as much the art of observing and appreciating things as it is the art of capturing them on film. No matter which branch of photography you prefer, you will find that the best photographs are a result of a photographer seeing things that most people miss out on.

Obvious Street Photography Tips

Not everyone is bold enough to get out on the street and take photographs of life as it happens around them. If you’re someone who has been wanting to do this … to document the world around you as ‘life happens’, then here is a compilation of the best tips that I’ve seen over the years, about Street Photography. At the end of the article, I’ve also included a few additional resources so that you can continue to learn more about street photography from reliable sources.

What you can do with your mobile phone while you wait

11 Things To Do With Your Camera Phone While You Wait

NOTE: This article was written in 2008. After the launch of the iPhone, and before photography with smartphones became high quality, and ubiquitous. Do read the article keeping in mind this scenario, and you may then understand the reason for the tiny images included here. :D Have fun!

Waiting is difficult to put up with, in today’s fast-paced world. There’s a tonne of things to learn out there, and we’d never get to learn all we want to learn or do all that we want to do if we sat around waiting – doing nothing in that time.

Tiny Tips 9: On Composition

You are a photographer, so remember that you have a powerful tool of creativity in your hands… the Camera! Try to create a masterpiece every… Read More »Tiny Tips 9: On Composition

8 Ways to Keep Your Compositions Simple

Simplicity is memorable. Compositions are hard. Balance, shape, texture, rhythm, harmony, contrast, there are so many elements to think about when framing an image that you hope will be memorable and distinct … how can a beginner hope to get all of this under control?

The Best Lenses for Architectural Photography

Photographing Architectural calls for Tilt-Shift lenses – most of the time. These lenses correct perspective distortion. You can think of this as making sure that the vertical lines of a building actually look vertical, and not slanting towards each other. In the past, this may have called for a ‘technical camera‘ or a ‘bellows‘ attachment, but tilt-shift lenses are easier to manage in the field.

Sometimes, photographers may use an extremely wide-angle lens, or a special-effect lens to photograph architecture, but these instances are extremely rare because most architectural firms want to see their work the way that it was envisioned. These lenses are mentioned below, but their usage is rare.

Why Filters are Fun

Using filters have always been a fun part of my photography. They allow you to take a photograph of a normal scene, and make it look extraordinary. There are various kinds of filters; coloured filters and special effects filters.

Digital photography allows you to apply much of what these photographic filters can do even after the image is captured, but sometimes using filters while taking your photographs makes a massive difference, especially when you use filters that dramatically change how the image is captured – like an ND filter or starburst filter. That’s when they become fun to use.

Tiny Tips

Tiny tips are where you get a small dose of photography theory and suggestions. There will be more added regularly, so please do come back!… Read More »Tiny Tips

Zoom Out in Your Mind

Have you ever noticed the way in which you seem to be able to focus on just one object of a scene (say a spoon on a table or a shop’s signboard on a street) when in fact your eyes are covering an entire scene? No? Make a mental note of the way you look at things the next time you walk down a busy street or drive down a busy road.

How to Take – A Better Picture

Three years in the Advertising business has convinced me that ideas are really powerful and that a photograph that has a strong idea is the most powerful tool to convey a message. A strong idea is always brought out in a simple, clear picture that has a strong subject and minimal interference from un-necessary elements.

Everyone’s seen pictures where things have gone wrong; Bleached out faces, heads cut off, tilting horizons and telephone poles sticking out of heads! All of which interfere in our understanding of what is happening in the photograph itself.