Welcome guest

Lonely Images

The Rule of Thirds
Whether oriented in portrait or landscape, visualize two vertical lines dividing your viewfinder into thirds. Now visualize the same thing with two horizontal lines, creating nine boxes like a tic-tac-toe grid. Position your subject at one of the intersections of the lines, or partway between one of the intersections and the center. This will usually give a more pleasing compostion than having the subject exactly in the center of the photo. Here is an example.

The Sunny 16 Rule
The basic exposure for a scene taken in bright, sunny light is f16 and a shutter speed equal to 1/ISO setting. For example f16@ 1/100th at ISO 100.

Camera Shake Rule
Never shoot hand-held at a shutter speed slower than 1/focal length or 1/100 for a 100mm etc... The exception are the IS/VR lenses.

Always Meter from a gray card rule
Metering a gray card is a excellent way to get a good mid-tone exposure. What do you do if you don't have one? Expose the palm of your hand and open up one stop.

DOF Rule
When shooting for maximum DOF focus, shoot about 1/3 into the photo, This is because the DOF is twice as deep behind this point as in front.

Exposure Rule
The advice "expose for the highlights and let the shadows take care of themselves" is fine for slide film and digital but for print film you are better off overexposing one stop.

Flash Fill Rule
If your flash does not provide flash fill ratios you can manually do it. Set the flash ISO to twice the camera's ISO. Meter the scene, select the f-stop and set the flash to the same. This will result in a 2:1 ratio.

Flash Range Rule
How far will my flash reach? Double the distance, four times the speed. If a flash is good for 20 feet @ ISO 100 it will be good for 40 feet @ ISO 400.

Sunset Rule
Meter the area ABOVE the sun without including the sun. Set 1 F-Stop down to make the sunset look later or set the exposure compensation to -1.

SIMPLICITY
The simplicity rule directs that you should keep the items in your photo relatively simple. If your main subject is close to the lens, then your background should be very simple in order to avoid distractions. Another good idea is to avoid objects or lines that lead the eye away from your main subject.

CONTRAST
The contrast rule directs that light subjects should be placed against dark backgrounds and vice versa.

FRAMING
The framing rule directs that using natural surroundings mindfully can add more meaning and focus to your subject. The surroundings could be anything such as bushes, windows, trees or even a doorway. When using this rule be sure to focus on the main subject and not on the surroundings that are framing it. It is also a good idea to use a narrow aperture (high f/stop) when using this rule in order to create a high depth-of-field.

TEXTURE
The texture rule can add a great amount of interest to most photos. When people see texture in a photo it can spark their imagination and make the photo more real to life. Texture would be a good idea when taking photos of rocks, walls, surfaces, hands or even leaves. In order to create texture try to compose your photo so the light is coming from the side and therefore casting shadows in key places.

DIAGONALS
The diagonal rule directs that diagonal elements or lines can make a photo more dynamic. Diagonal elements could be fence posts, roads or even tree branches.

LEADING LINES
The leading lines rule can be used to direct the eye deeper into a photo and commonly to the main subject. Leading lines can lure the eye to a subject by leading to it from any side or depth of the photo. Leading lines could be roads, rivers, tree branches or even bridges.