LO1: Photography Techniques

Composition

Composition is the way in which everything is organised within the frame. This is very important in photography because as a photographer you must decide what the main focal point of your image will be.

For example in this image by Bensliman Hussan your eye is instantly drawn to the Eiffel Tower.

You could argue that your eye is drawn to this strictly because it is a well recognized landmark, but in terms of composition this image is made up of four parts - the ground, the sky, the person and the eiffel tower.

Colour is also very important in this image as the dark orange of the sky helps to outline the Eiffel Tower. Due to the lighting there is a huge contrast in colour between the sky, person and Eiffel Tower.

Another technique used in this image, sort of, is leading lines. The Squares on the ground are carefully composed in the image so that the eye is again lead to the Eiffel Tower.

Leading Lines

As I have just mentioned, Leading Lines is a technique used in photography to lead the eye to a particular part of an image. 

It's a very interesting technique, I think, and is used to create spectacle in an image. Angles can be very important when using leading lines in an image because if your photograph is just taken randomly you might not be able get that perfect line-up of shapes like in this image.

Centre of Interest

I'm not sure I need to explain this one but basically Centre of Interest is when the thing of interest is in the centre. The image to the left was taken by Kim Braden and is called 'Dominant Center of Interest'  because that is indeed what it is.

The striking colours of the hot air balloon against the simple blue of the sky means that your eye is straight away drawn to the centre of the image. Like alot of photography techniques this all comes back to composition. The photograph has been perfectly composed so that the Hot Air Balloon sits almost exactly in the middle. It's almost as though the rest of the image is just there to frame the centre... and that brings us straight on to our next photography technique.

Framing

This photograph is called 'Black and White House' and was taken by Scott Ableman and is an excellent example of framing in my opinion. It creates spectacle through an using an interesting shape.

Framing is a technique in photography that can be done in numerous ways. It's a great way of adding interesting shapes to your photographs and again is used to draw the viewer's eye to a particular area of the photograph.

Colour

Colour is used in photography to create spectacle. Manipulating colour is a good way to change people's perception of a photograph. It's also used to evoke certain emotions.

In this image blue and red is used and slightly offset from eachother to give it that cool traditional 3D look. By using a plain backdrop the photographer is able to almost force the viewer to look at the model. The clashing of the colours in the centre makes the image even more interesting I think. This is certainly, to me, the most interesting photography technique and so it's highly likely that I shall play around with this when editing my photographs.