Composition Guidelines Cheat Sheet
Transcript of Composition Guidelines Cheat Sheet
IT’S IMPORTANT TO LEARN THE FRAMEWORK TO GET UHHMAAZZING
PHOTOS EVERY TIME:
1. FIND BEAUTIFUL LIGHT FOR YOUR SUBJECT.
2. USE THE COMPOSITION GUIDELINES TO TELL A GREAT STORY WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPH.
3. FINISH THE STORY BY EDITING TO RE-‐CREATE THE FEELING YOU FELT WHEN YOU TOOK THE PHOTO.
COMPOSITION GUIDELINES CHEAT SHEET:
GUIDELINES ARE NOT RULES
LEARN THE GUIDELINES (SO YOU DON’T LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT)
THEN BREAK ALL THE RULES!
(BUT MAKE IT LOOK INTENTIONAL)
THE RULE OF
THIRDS
The Rule of Thirds is what happens when you place your subject on one of the imaginary lines that divide your frame into three equal parts.
SYMMETRY (AND THE AWFULNESS OF ALMOST SYMMETRY)
For our purposes, let’s define symmetry as centering our subject and making sure the background has an even amount of interest on both sides.
CROPPINGThe cropping of a picture is important, because it can set the whole tone of a
photograph.
You can always crop more when you edit the photo, but you can’t add any
extra to the picture that you accidentally crop out.
Make clean cuts with your cropping. Don’t crop out hands and feet when half of the hand is sEll in the picture. The key is to make it feel intenEonal.
IF IN DOUBT, LEAVE EXTRA SPACE AND CROP LATER.
WRONG CORRECT
DEPTH OF FIELD
Depth of field is the amount of space in focus.
SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD
LARGE DEPTH OF FIELD
DEPTH OF FIELD IS CONTROLLED BY TWO THINGS:
1. Aperture (the size of the hole in the camera that lets light in).
2. Proximity to your subject.
Since the iPhone has a fixed aperture, the only control we have is to physically
move closer or further from our subject to affect depth
of field.
Note: The digital zoom on your iPhone will not affect depth of field, so use your
feet, you lazy fool!
CLOSER TO SUBJECT = BLURRY BACKGROUND
FURTHER FROM SUBJECT = SHARPER BACKGROUND
HAVE FUN.