Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Composition Ideas Fill the frame & 2 nd reading Copyright © Kenji Tachibana

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Fill the frame and 2 nd reading Composition Ideas: 1.The subject must fill-the-frame by taking at least 85% of the image. 2.Composition must also have 2 nd and 3 rd reading elements beyond the subject to enrich the composition and story. 3.The main function of the second and third reading elements are to ‘flesh out’ the story idea. 4.In a photo, there will always be 2 nd reading elements. The idea is to ‘pack’ your own to control the story telling.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Avoid split subject Student Example: Avoid having two or more subjects as shown below.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Make the subject clear Fix Stage 1: Reposition the dominant subject Use the 1/3 rule to move the subject.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Use overlap Fix Stage 2: Move the 2 nd reading behind the subject Using overlap is a good device to signal when an object is meant to be supporting element.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Give meaning to the second reading Fix 3: Change the prop Replace the dead tree trunk with flowers which might be more appropriate to the facial expression.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Start thinking color Fix Stage 4: Add color Use propping as an opportunity to add color. You can also use it for scale, contrast, or any number of other ideas. Yes the squiggly color lines are meant to be flowers…

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Right choices Fix 5: Packing & decisions Size, position and other attributes can play very key roles in the story telling. Your choices are about making the right packing decisions

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Composition – Background considerations Background: Make it count How you handle the background can be a make-or-break decision. Here I am choosing to continue on with the color theme and to blur it out so that it does not compete with the subject and the prop.

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Avoiding Tangency: In the original, the hat is creating a perfect tangency with the right edge of the image. This kind of error is easy to make in the heat Of capturing the decisive moment. Make sure to watch out for things like tangency and amputation in your camera Playback review. You know now after your Free Choice re-shoot experience that re-shooting can be a major challenge. So, getting it right the first time is a very good idea. Composition – Avoid tangencies & amputation

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Safety Margin: Frame tight but back up by 10% for the final shot. I call this the 10% safety margin and it shown as a white rectangle to the right. rectangle to the right. This tends to not only avoid the tangency issue but provide practical solutions to other advance layout issues which we will discus later… Composition – Safe margin

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Flip The Rule: For tension Place the subject on the ‘wrong side’ to add tension. Lot of advertising images are done this way to grab your attention. Learn the classic rules and Apply them correctly first. Once you ‘get-it’, move on to more dynamic compositions when the story requires it. Yes, everything leads back to your story. Composition – Break the rule

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Compare the Difference: Go from the original image above to the improved (?) image to the right. Whether you like the changes or not, they were all based on concrete composition and story ideas… Composition – Reference Images

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Concluding Thoughts: You know best Whenever you have a question about a technical matter (f/stop, shutter speed, and other) or about aesthetics (composition, negative space, design, and other), always go back to your story. The story can determine the exact brightness. It can also determine the shutter speed from stopping a bullet using 1/10000 sec or letting the water fall suggest movement by using 1/15 sec. Composition – Thoughts

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Summary: Take an art class, take a design class, take part 2 to this class. Take any class that will improve your visual literacy. The camera is only an image capture device. What’s more important than capturing images is to become an Image Maker. Composition – Last thoughts

Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I x End