Basic photography

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Basic photographyArt, composition, and computer
principles

• AEE 211
• February 24, 2003

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What makes these images effective?
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Overview

• Basic composition
• Mood and atmosphere
• Qualities of a good photo
• Basic composition
• Improving composition
• Working with the computer
• Files
• Scanning
• Printing

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Creating mood

• Overall feel of a picture
• Created by
• Perspective
• Color
• Focus (isolation and distance)
• Weather and light
• Sunrise/sunset
• Misty, rainy days
• Sun vs. overcast

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Characteristics of a good photo

• Shape
• Line
• Pattern
• Texture
• Size and space

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Shape

• Tends to be noticed first, before texture and
  pattern
• Easiest and most recognizable composition tool
• Shape helps create a mood/character for the
  picture
• Search for the unconventional or surprise shape
  in objects

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Creating shape

• Common
• use backlighting to create a silhouette
• Uncommon
• side lighting with simple background
• underexpose to focus on shape vs. color or texture

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Line

• Lines create
• Shape
• Pattern
• Depth
• Perspective
• Line leads the eye
• Focal point/subject
• Diagonals
• S-curves

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Line creates perspective

• Lines into the horizon show depth and perspective
  for the viewer
• Vanishing point
• Point at which lines converge and vanish in to
  the horizon
• Place off-center
• Close-ups decrease perspective while wide-angles
  can exaggerate it

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Pattern

• Orderly combination of shape, line, or color
• Pattern can help echo the character of a photo
• Catching attention
• Random patterns
• Slight variation in a pattern
• Pattern in common places

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Texture

• Adds realism (sense of touch) to a photo
• Sharp (hard) light highlights texture
• Especially important for close-up and b/w shots
• Side lighting highlights texture
• Most portraits use front lighting to decrease
  texture on skin

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Using light for depth

• Sometimes hard light is inappropriate for
  illustrating shape and depth
• Soft side lighting can give a sense of shape and
  depth without high contrast
• Portraits
• Still life
• When shape/depth is more important that texture

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Size and space

• 2D pictures distort depth, relative size, and
  distances
• Include reference item
• Include parts of the fore- or background
• Use a frame
• Be creativemaybe you want to distort

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Giving perspective

• LinearLines which converge into the distance
• Diminishing sizeobjects further away are smaller
• Aerial perspectiveatmosphere creates haze, which
  lightens objects farther away

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Depth and perspective

• Overlapping formsoverlapping objects in a
  picture create depth and distance
• Selective focusingfocusing on the foreground and
  blurring the background

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Improving composition

• Rule of thirds
• Simplicity
• Angle and perspective
• Framing

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Have a strong center of interest

• Take pictures at different angles with different
  compositions
• Work around the rule of thirds

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Simplicity

• One strong center of interest
• Foreground or background should be simple or
  complimentary to center of interest
• Include foreground or background for sense of
  isolation, distance, depth, etc.
• Avoid mergers

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Cut offs

• Avoiding cutting out parts or wholes of people or
  main subjects
• Avoiding cutting out the path of a moving object

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Give the object somewhere to go
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Working with angles

• Low angles
• Clear sky backdrop
• Accentuate movement or action
• High angle
• Eliminate cloudy sky
• 45 degree angles will cut glare
• Avoid centered horizons

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Framing

• Adds depth
• Should fit theme
• Helps subject fill the frame
• Can block unwanted subjects from view
• Watch focus on foreground
• Focus on foreground in landscape
• Focus on subject in portraits
• Auto-focus should be centered on main topic
• OverallDEPENDS ON CAMERA

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Balance

• Balance color and weight in a picture
• Formal and informal
• Symmetrical and asymmetrical

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Symmetrical
Asymmetrical
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Fill the frame

• Would this picture look better if I was closer?
• Focus on subject
• Detail
• Start far and move closer
• Fill the frame with objects that fit
• Long range shots provide depth and perspective

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Digital issues

• File formats
• Scanning
• Printing

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Native file formats

• Format used by computer program
• Retains ability to edit within native program
• Unreadable on WWW or graphics programs
• Product families (Adobe, Microsoft, etc.)
• Examples
• .ppt, .doc, .mix

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Nonnative file formats

• General formats that multiple programs can open
• .gif, .jpg, .tif, .bmp
• Formatting cannot be undone within a program
  picture must be reedited
• Save pictures in both native and nonnative file
  formats

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Resolution

• Quality of the pictures on a screen, print, or
  file
• DPI dots per inch (printer)
• PPI pixels per inch (screen)
• More resolution means higher file size
• Different file types contain more or less
  information (resolution)

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Resolution and bits
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Tagged Image File Format

• Very flexible and can be opened by most programs
• Saves as pixels
• Scan as a .tiff or as a native file format if
  possible

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EPS files (vector)

• Only some programs use FreeHand, Illustrator,
  CorelDraw
• Saved as separate images not as pixels no
  resolution lost with resizing
• Use the Options button under PRINT in PageMaker
  to save as EPS

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Graphical Interchange Format

• Great for the WWW
• 8-bit 256 colors (indexed color)
• Usually set at 72 pixels for the WWW
• Allows for transparency
• NOT used in printing

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Portable Network Graphic

• 24-bit (millions of colors)
• Transparency with jagged edges
• Alternative to the .gif
• Newer computer programs only

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Joint Photographic Experts Group

• 24-bit color
• Lossy compression
• You can usually set your compression here
• Best for WWW pictures

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Portable Document Format

• Embeds all data into a single file
• Fonts
• Format
• Pictures
• Text
• Works on any computer with reader
• Standardizes your document
• Work on WWW and as attachments

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Postscript files

• Will print on any postscript printer
• Do not need program to output data
• Print to file
• Make sure you know what kind of printer you are
  dealing with

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PNG GIF JPG - TIF
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General rules

• Scan a photo as a .tiff file
• For web pictures, use .jpg
• For print pictures, use .tiff or vector format at
  a minimum of 300 dpi
• When possible, scan/save the picture at the size
  to be used 300 dpi will look poor if enlarged

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RGB Color

• Red-green-blue
• Monitors and scanners determine level of the
  three to put on a pixel
• Light directly into the eye cannot look the
  exact on paper
• Out of gamut (cannot be printed in CMYK format)

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CMYK Mode

• Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Key (black)
• Commercially output documents or special printers
• Four-color printing
• Process colors
• Color bounces off object and onto your eye
• Get a process book or color guide to select
  (Pantone, Tru-Match, Agfa)

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Comparing the two

• RGB have smaller file sizes
• RGB has some features that the other does not
• Convert between the modes at the end or you will
  lose information

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Understanding resolution

• Resolved to our eyes realism and accuracy
• Printer DPI
• Monitor bit depth (colors displayable)
• 72 ppi is good enough for electronic photos

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Understanding pixels

• Picture elements (dots) per inch
• Standard monitor displays 640 by 480 pixels
• 640 by 480
• 1024 by 768
• More pixels requires more RAM, which may mean
  lower bit depth

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Enlarging with pixels