Basic photography—
Art, composition, and computer principles
What makes these
images effective?
Overview
• Basic composition
– Mood and atmosphere
– Qualities of a good photo
– Basic composition
– Improving composition
• Working with the computer
– Files
– Scanning
– Printing
Creating mood
• Overall feel of a picture
• Created by
– Perspective
– Color
– Focus (isolation and distance)
– Weather and light
• Sunrise/sunset
• Misty, rainy days
• Sun vs. overcast
Characteristics of a good photo
• Shape
• Line
• Pattern
• Texture
• Size and space
Shape
• Tends to be noticed first, before texture and
pattern
• Easiest and most recognizable composition
tool
– Shape helps create a mood/character for the
picture
– Search for the unconventional or surprise shape
in objects
Creating shape
• Common—
– use backlighting to create a silhouette
• Uncommon—
– side lighting with simple background
– underexpose to focus on shape vs. color or
texture
Line
• Lines create
– Shape
– Pattern
– Depth
– Perspective
• Line leads the eye
– Focal point/subject
– Diagonals
– S-curves
Line creates perspective
• Lines into the horizon show depth and
perspective for the viewer
• Vanishing point
– Point at which lines converge and vanish in to
the horizon
– Place off-center
• Close-ups decrease perspective while wide-
angles can exaggerate it
Pattern
• Orderly combination of shape, line, or color
• Pattern can help echo the character of a
photo
• Catching attention
– Random patterns
– Slight variation in a pattern
– Pattern in common places
Texture
• Adds realism (sense of touch) to a photo
• Sharp (hard) light highlights texture
• Especially important for close-up and b/w
shots
• Side lighting highlights texture
• Most portraits use front lighting to decrease
texture on skin
Using light for depth
• Sometimes hard light is inappropriate for
illustrating shape and depth
• Soft side lighting can give a sense of shape
and depth without high contrast
– Portraits
– Still life
– When shape/depth is more important that
texture
Size and space
• 2D pictures distort depth, relative size, and
distances
– Include reference item
– Include parts of the fore- or background
– Use a frame
– Be creative—maybe you want to distort
Giving perspective
• Linear—Lines which converge into the
distance
• Diminishing size—objects further away are
smaller
• Aerial perspective—atmosphere creates
haze, which lightens objects farther away
Depth and perspective
• Overlapping forms—overlapping objects in
a picture create depth and distance
• Selective focusing—focusing on the
foreground and blurring the background
Improving composition
• Rule of thirds
• Simplicity
• Angle and perspective
• Framing
Have a strong center of interest
• Take pictures at different angles with
different compositions
• Work around the rule of thirds
Simplicity
• One strong center of interest
– Foreground or background should be simple or
complimentary to center of interest
– Include foreground or background for sense of
isolation, distance, depth, etc.
• Avoid mergers
Cut offs
• Avoiding cutting out parts or wholes of
people or main subjects
• Avoiding cutting out the path of a moving
object
Give the object
somewhere to go
Working with angles
• Low angles
– Clear sky backdrop
– Accentuate movement or action
• High angle
– Eliminate cloudy sky
• 45 degree angles will cut glare
• Avoid centered horizons
Framing
• Adds depth
• Should fit theme
• Helps subject fill the frame
• Can block unwanted subjects from view
• Watch focus on foreground
– Focus on foreground in landscape
– Focus on subject in portraits
– Auto-focus should be centered on main topic
– Overall—DEPENDS ON CAMERA
Balance
• Balance color and weight in a picture
• Formal and informal
• Symmetrical and asymmetrical
Symmetrical
Asymmetrical
Fill the frame
• Would this picture look better if I was
closer?
– Focus on subject
– Detail
• Start far and move closer
• Fill the frame with objects that “fit”
• Long range shots provide depth and
perspective
Digital issues
• File formats
• Scanning
• Printing
Native file formats
• Format used by computer program
• Retains ability to edit within native program
• Unreadable on WWW or graphics programs
• Product families (Adobe, Microsoft, etc.)
• Examples
– .ppt, .doc, .mix
Nonnative file formats
• General formats that multiple programs can
open
– .gif, .jpg, .tif, .bmp
• Formatting cannot be undone within a
program – picture must be reedited
• Save pictures in both native and nonnative
file formats
Resolution
• Quality of the pictures on a screen, print, or
file
– DPI = dots per inch (printer)
– PPI = pixels per inch (screen)
• More resolution means higher file size
• Different file types contain more or less
information (resolution)
Resolution and bits
Tagged Image File Format
• Very flexible and can be opened by most
programs
• Saves as pixels
• Scan as a .tiff or as a native file format if
possible
EPS files (vector)
• Only some programs use: FreeHand,
Illustrator, CorelDraw
• Saved as separate images not as pixels – no
resolution lost with resizing
• Use the “Options” button under PRINT in
PageMaker to save as EPS
Graphical Interchange Format
• Great for the WWW
• 8-bit – 256 colors (indexed color)
• Usually set at 72 pixels for the WWW
• Allows for transparency
• NOT used in printing
Portable Network Graphic
• 24-bit (millions of colors)
• Transparency with jagged edges
• Alternative to the .gif
• Newer computer programs only
Joint Photographic Experts Group
• 24-bit color
• Lossy compression
• You can usually set your compression here
• Best for WWW pictures
Portable Document Format
• Embeds all data into a single file
– Fonts
– Format
– Pictures
– Text
• Works on any computer with reader
• Standardizes your document
• Work on WWW and as attachments
Postscript files
• Will print on any postscript printer
• Do not need program to output data
• Print to file
• Make sure you know what kind of printer
you are dealing with
PNG – GIF – JPG - TIF
General rules
• Scan a photo as a .tiff file
• For web pictures, use .jpg
• For print pictures, use .tiff or vector format
at a minimum of 300 dpi
• When possible, scan/save the picture at the
size to be used – 300 dpi will look poor if
enlarged
RGB Color
• Red-green-blue
• Monitors and scanners determine level of
the three to put on a pixel
• Light directly into the eye = cannot look the
exact on paper
• Out of gamut (cannot be printed in CMYK
format)
CMYK Mode
• Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Key (black)
• Commercially output documents or special
printers
– Four-color printing
– Process colors
• Color bounces off object and onto your eye
• Get a process book or color guide to select
(Pantone, Tru-Match, Agfa)
Comparing the two
• RGB have smaller file sizes
• RGB has some features that the other does
not
• Convert between the modes at the end or
you will lose information
Understanding resolution
• Resolved to our eyes = realism and
accuracy
• Printer = DPI
• Monitor = bit depth (colors displayable)
– 72 ppi is good enough for electronic photos
Understanding pixels
• Picture elements (dots) per inch
• Standard monitor displays 640 by 480
pixels
– 640 by 480
– 1024 by 768
• More pixels requires more RAM, which
may mean lower bit depth
Enlarging with pixels
