Photography Lesson

Photo Tips for the Newbies

All photos taken by Joy Singleton at Limestone College

1. Lighting (Contrast) 

When taking photos, look for spots that have contrast in lighting so that your photo has a good amount of highlights and shadows to work with. Try not to have too bright of highlights though, because your camera will lose information in bright spots. You can always recover from shadows. 

2. Balance

Make sure your photo has some kind of balance, weather it be symmetrical or asymmetrical. Having balance makes your photo feel more meaningful in composition. This photo has symmetrical balance. 

3. Line 

   

Having lines help to lead the eye through photo. The photo on the left has diagonal lines that lead your eye back to the horizon line of and back down to the other lines. 

4. Rule of Thirds 

The rule of thirds is when you use lines that separate your photo in thirds horizontally and vertically. You can use those lines or the points where they meet. In this photo I lined the horizon line and the stop sign with those lines. 

5. Texture

Texture is great in a photo. It gives the photo not only depth but variety in color and value. Texture also gives the more life instead of just a flat image. 

6. Fill the Space

   

Get close and fill the space when taking photos, that way you have more positive space and less negative space. You also can get great detail and depth when getting close. Most times when you get close to objects you get something called shallow depth of field. That is when your object is in focus and the background it not.