2 Days, 2 Photos, 2 Churches in Paris

Though the summer has been slow to grow, early July has produced some hot days already and the heat  almost always pushes me to church. Any church will do on a hot day in Paris. In off peak times (no mass), and little tourist traffic the cool quiet air is the perfect atmosphere in which to breathe and to recover some semblance of sanity from the crazy outside world.

I do not go into churches with the intention of photography but sometimes as they say in the zen of creativity the photograph arrives.

Which brings to mind Sir John Berry's (1635-1690) quote "the bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp".

The two photographs you see here were presented to me in two separate churches on two different days. And you could say I saw the light. Which I did.

I only had to meter and compose and press the shutter to capture these two simple images.  I quote many great photographers when I reiterate, "simple photographs are best, or the best photographs are simple. Whatever way you want to say it, it's true.

By Kevin - Adventures thru the Lens Paris

Getting The Details Through Cropping

Photography is not only cropping, cleaning and auto balancing your image to make that great shot.  However, I understand that in commercial, portrait, and creative photography, cropping, resetting, and altering the images is the norm.  Who wants to look at an advertisement for beauty cream with the face all blotchy and full of pimples? Have you ever seen a real live person that looks a perfect as they do in the magazine?

The secret for taking beautiful images lies in your aspiration, passion and admiration of the subject, if it be landscape, people, buildings or food.  For some reason, when you are attracted to the subject it shows in your images and they reflect your passion. Using techniques such as composition, angles, and light can help you to create a wonderful image that can only be tools to help enhance your images.  Using light can draw your focus onto your subject; the angle use can change the representation of your subject from short to tall for example.  Perspective is important while deciding on what angle to use, what light is best to set up your shot.  Rule of thumb, take your time and never be in a hurry before taking a shot.  Imagine in your mind that instead of using your digital camera that allows you to trash the images you do not like, you are using film.  That precious film that costs so much to develop each roll and each shot depends on your angles, perspective, and lighting.  This way, you can learn to be careful and think before snapping and shooting your image.

Perspective

Don’t just walk up to something that you want to take a picture of and snap a shot!  Don’t only look at the subject from eye level!  Walk around your subject, if you can, or take a one -meter step to your left, to your right, up and down while looking through your viewer.  Do you see anything that stands out to you?  Which position reflects what you want to show in your image?  Take a series of shots from different angles.  I saw a new stature in front of the Pitti Palace in Florence, Italy and walked around it. Like This!

You can see the difference with the various perspectives, just by walking around the statue and taking my time to look at what I am seeing.! Which one do you like best?

Susan Robens – Adventures Thru The Lens Florence Photographer, Guide, and Muse

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds helps you to produce better images. It is something most people learn in beginning photography classes and is a useful rule to remember when framing your subject!  Of course, rules can be broken, but if you break this rule, remember the rule and know why you are breaking it!

 This rule is actually very simple.

 1)    Take your frame and divide it into 9 equal squares like this:

  2)      Now take the intersections of the lines as your points of focus:
 
 
 
   3)    Then imagine going in the direction of the “eye” lines that we call power points: by placing our subjects near the power points we can give a balance to a composition making it more engaging to the eye. Here are some examples:
 


In the top photo, the tree is to the left of the center, notice how the focal points are at the lines.



In the center photo,  this tree is focused on the center.



In the bottom photo,  the same tree is on the right line.

Which one do you think is best?

Which image draws your eye through the image?

Which one looks umm sort of boring?

When you center your subject, it gives the impression that something is missing, the image is not complete.  The image with the same tree on the left gives more depth to the image, and draws you to different focal points.  The same tree on the right, does the same thing, only with fewer trees!

Avoid making the horizon in the center of the frame, putting it either 1/3 higher or 1/3 lower than the center.  You can use this rule either horizontal or vertical.  When doing this you want to create a visual path.  Here are a few examples:


In the photo above, the horizon line is in the middle of the frame.  Again, when you put the horizon in the center point of the image, most of the subjects are missing the focal points, the image looks cut off and not complete.

Of course, when you put the horizon at the bottom 1/3 you will have more sky, creating a different feeling than when you focus the horizon at the upper 1/3 line.  In this case, it depends on what you want to represent.  The land and lines of the olive trees?  Or the vastness of the countryside with a broader sky?  Here are example:


 


 
When you look through your lens, look at the focal points and imagine the lines move your camera to see which angle you like best before taking that shot!  Remember, the easiest way to remember this is to "keep your horizons high or low, but not in the center!"

Happy shooting!

Susan Brannon - your Photo Adventurer photographer in Florence Italy.