The park isn’t the only place you’ll find visual debris. Set your cute baby on the couch and then look through the camera at her. Now check the entire frame for other people, trash, toys, dishes, and laundry - and stains on the couch that you’re so used to you don’t see them anymore unless you’re looking for them. Cover those stains with a baby blanket.
Tic-Tac-Toe Makes a Great Phoe-Toe
Most people know you can win a game of tic-tac-toe by placing your X or O first in the center square. The opposite is true of taking pictures. As you look through the camera at your subject, imagine the entire field is the nine squares of a tic-tac-toe board. Never place your subject in the center square. Ever. I’m pointing my finger at you. Never.
When photographing someone’s face make sure their eyes are not in that center block. There are very few exceptions to this rule. If you want to know the exceptions, take a class or buy a book; otherwise, enjoy the improvement on your technique and don’t try to fix what isn’t broken.
A symmetrical photograph is a boring photograph. Our desire for symmetry generally only applies to the faces we see, not the photographs we take of the faces we see.
Compare your own or anyone else’s photographs, being mindful of the ones you like the most. The ones you like most are more than likely of an off-center subject. When taking a picture of a person, make sure not to center their face.
About Face
Ask anyone (who isn’t one of the 100 most beautiful people in the world) to show you a photo of themselves that they like. I will eat my camera if you can see the underside of that person’s chin. Nothing says, “Look how old and unfit I am” like a picture of our necks. This is made worse when amateur photographers center the person’s face in the picture — because now our eye is drawn to that which is not centered: the not-so-tight and/or double chin.
For many people, the neck seems to age faster than the face; it tends to reflect our lack of fitness more accurately than any other body part we’re willing to make visible. Take pictures of people when they are sitting down and you’re standing up, or have them tilt their head down a bit. If your subject is wearing glasses, tilting the head can help keep light on the lenses from hiding their eyes.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
These are all great tips, and those are some stunning photos! I assume you took them? I'm so thankful for digital. Back in the day, I spent hundreds of dollars with rolls of film trying to get a decent shot. Now trial and error is much more affordable.
2 - diana hartman
thank you joanne :)
yes, i took them all...for years i averaged about two good pictures per roll, the cost of which wasn't as hard to stomach as it would've been had i bought unexpired film...i like digital cameras, but i do wish i had a better one - and one that would be super easy to use...i'll be glad when fisher price comes out with a digital pentax!
3 - Teri Centner
Another alternative to keeping photos on your computer is putting them out on the Internet for your friends and family to see when they have the time and inclination. You can organize by subject, date, trip, location, etc., and people can comment or discuss the photos, which I think makes having the photos more fun.
I use Flickr, and often get comments from people I don't even know. Which is kind of fun! (I mostly take photos of stuff, not people, and I don't have kids whose privacy I want to protect, so I don't password protect my photos.)
Other online options include Snapfish, Kodak, Picasa, MyFamily, MySpace, Facebook and Webshots.