Break the Rules!

Don’t always be on the level!

Tilting your camera to achieve a more interesting image can look great in people photos, animal photos, macro photography, abstracts and architectural photos can all look great when your level line is not green. It adds drama and energy. If you are an Instagram poster, you can draw more attention to your image. In general, angled or tilted lines are more interesting than straight vertical and horizontal lines. It is only when we have a natural flat horizon that tilting an image becomes a challenge for the viewer. 

Centering is a legit activity!

You don’t have to go to Sedona to have get centered with your photography. While our eye tends to like things off center, particularly at the intersection of thirds, there are times when placing your subject smack dab in the middle of the frame works for impact. An object that is quite symmetrical can work well. A tree, a solitary mountain peak, or a building can all work. Macro images and images for advertising or note cards often use centered subjects. As in the case of trees, there will be a supporting cast of surrounding limbs, shadows, clouds or lines that help provide a bit of necessary unbalance to the image. 

Rule of thirds

When it comes to big skies, big water features or minimalism, throw out the rule of thirds! You may want to emphasize the space around a standout subject by tucking it in a corner. An expansive sky over a western plain or a Hawaiian beach may provide more drama and the only possible composition that works. A compelling abstract image may not have areas that can fit into the rule of thirds. Be sure to look for these possibilities that fall outside the rule of thirds.

Even the odds!

It doesn’t always have to be an odd number of objects. Yes, one or three leaves on the ground usually looks better than two or four. But some things come in pairs. Just think, we would never photograph twins if we had to stick to odd numbers. You wouldn’t do a still life of your three baby shoes. An odd number of groups of even number of items will often look as good or better than an even number of groups of an odd number of items.

Is this a group of four sandhill cranes? Would it be a better image if the top crane was removed? I don't think so. It appears to be an image of three nearly identical sandhills and one separate sandhill. That is, there are two odd groups that provide some balance to each other. 

Unbalance your tones

Histograms are a great help in creating well balanced images. We like images with some white whites and some black blacks. Or at least that’s what Ansel Adams promoted. But high key (mostly lights) and low key (mostly blacks can work in some situations. For artistic effect, you may also decide to saturate just certain colors, say reds, and desaturate the other colors. These techniques are mostly done in post processing. These techniques can create some stunning still life’s and portraits. In this low key photo I have removed the purples and magentas at the top of the image for an image that is heavy on the red side of the color wheel. Have fun experimenting. 

Use selective focus

In landscape photography, we most often want everything sharp. But in portraiture and floral photography we often like to emphasize the subject by blurring the surrounding areas. There may be times in landscape photography where you want to treat your subject as a person in a portrait. Other situations call for emphasizing the subject with out-of-focus surrounding areas. For example, looking out a cave opening with blurred edges on the cave will give more depth and mystery to the final result. There are also times where you may want subjects blurred, such as people walking on an urban sidewalk or autumn leaves flowing down a gentle stream.

Selective focus to blur a background can be achieved more easily with a wide aperture and long lens as in the picture of the flying heron. Another alternative would have been a longer exposure time and narrow aperture, which would have shown motion with the birds wings and would have blurred the background due to the panning during the exposure.  

Use High ISO

As beginners, we are taught to use the lowest ISO possible for a given shot. This would mean we only raise the ISO as necessary to capture detail in the blacks or stop the motion of blowing leaves or moving creatures. The most artistic use of high ISO is when you want to simulate a grainy black and white film effect, especially for journalistic, street or portrait photography. Experiment with the difference between the noise created by increasing ISO and adding grain in post processing to see which works better for you.

High ISO is also valuable to stop motion of the subject or blur from a longer lens, to increase depth of field, particularly in macro photography and in darker scenes such as the one included here, shot handheld at 1600 ISO. May photographers don't think about shooting late into the blue hour. High ISO can change this. If you don't like the increased grain (I actually increased it here), there are a variety of in field techniques combined with post processing that can minimize noise.

Don’t Go Deep!

Not every image needs depth to be a touchdown in terms of depth! In particular, a flatter or more two dimensional appearance helps the viewer to be able to examine the image for meaning. Certain subjects work best when isolated from their backgrounds, such florals and still lifes by using selective focus as mentioned above, but don't ignore potential two dimensional subjects.