PHOTOGRAPHY

 Where did you draw the flower in 1 st grade?  Where did you position an object the first time you took a picture?  What is the problem with this?  No visual stimulation  No excitement generated if easily provided to viewer

 Strength  Ability to attract the viewer’s attention  Clarity  Ability to maintain viewer’s interest  Average person viewing pictures has the attention span of a 3- year old child COMMON TERMS

 Eye flow  Elements the guide the viewer’s eye through the entire frame  Dominant element  Main subject of the image  Simplicity  Only what is essential is included in final image (blurred background)  Balance  Symmetric or asymmetric, subtle or obvious DESIGN ELEMENTS

 Draws the viewer’s eye to an area first  Isolate the subject  Contrast in color/tone  Placement of elements FOCAL POINT

RULE OF THIRDS

 The placement & color contrast--draws the viewer’s eye to go to the rose first  If the main subject is always placed at one of four points in the frame, creativity suffers RULE OF THIRDS

 when there’s nothing else in the scene that competes with the main subject.  If a flower is in sharp focus and everything else is out of focus, the viewer’s eye will go to the flower  Placing the flower in the center of the frame works, in this instance, because the flower is a complete subject on its own, and there are no other elements to compete with the flower. CENTRALLY PLACED ELEMENT

 when there’s a strong sense of balance in the scene.  Placing a strong horizontal line in the center of the frame works only when one half of the scene is reflected in the other half.  Notice that the image below has a strong horizontal line (tree line) in the center of the frame.  Works due to the strong sense of balance in the scene. CENTRALLY PLACED ELEMENT

 Create tension depending on placement of focal point, implied action, or movement in the picture  Action located at center of frame  Left to right in Western culture  Which makes you nervous, curious, tense? MOOD

 Disturbance  Don't need to leave space on all sides  take picture right to the end.  Open the center.  Have sides unequal size.  Proximity  Distance between camera and subject.  Stare. Get up close and personal.  Don't let subject get swallowed up in surrounding landscape.  Move subject away from center of the frame and to the edges.  Don't lose the detail by being too far away. Get intimacy into the picture. SPICE IT UP!

 Vantage Point  Bend your knees or raise yourself up to get picture.  Abandon your normal vantage point and experiment with shooting from different angles  Shoot from other than your eye level.  Place  Be sure to tell WHERE you took the picture.  What clues from the picture do you see in the foreground/background?  Trim away excess background so that only the essence of the place remains. SPICE IT UP!

 ml/intro.htm ml/intro.htm  Select 5 pictures  Give the name of the picture from the cutline  Explain what elements of photography are being used (from your notes)  What is the dominant element? How did the photographer create that focal point? EXAMPLES