This one will let you get out of the confines of any camera limitation you might have, and gets on to the fun parts!
Before we get into the meat of this one, a quick tip to remember.
For this project (and many more down the road) its the rule of thirds.
This is a pretty simple concept and one that can help make most of your photos stronger.
It is simply putting the main focus of your image somewhere off center. image if you will a photo with lines breaking it into 3rds, both horizontally and vertically. where these lines meet is where you'll look to place your main focus of the image. Look at many great photos and they work this way rather than having the subject dead center. It does a better job of leading the eye around the image, and is often much more balanced.
Now, as with any rule in the arts, it's often meant to be broken and can be to great effect, but pay attention to how and why you are doing so.
Alright, onto the project.
Lets start with color.
There are so many things you can do here, that we'll just address the broad points.
You can make color the focus of the image in and of its self, without something else going on.
or you can use selective color, where you have a small splash of color in an otherwise drab background (think a pile of brown leaves with one bright red on sitting in the middle, or a rose growing in a field of green grass, that one small spot of contrasting color pops out and becomes the focus of the image).
The photo below shows how color becomes the main element of the image:
This photo shows how having just a splash of color draws the eye into the image (note it does not have to be a color and black and white image to function like this):
Some things to keep in mind with color:
-Colors will look their brightest and most vibrant in slightly underexposed settings vs over exposed (think evening or morning light, not the hard midday sun)
-Colors will look brighter on overcast vs sunny days, as the lower light levels will make them "pop" more.
The next area we'll take a look at are lines.
Lines can do any number of things within an image but are important to help guide the eye around the frame. They can be found in any number of places in day to day life, and themselves can be made the focus of the photo.
The photo below shows how lines can be used to pull the viewer in, in this case the edge of the dock running back into the setting sun:
The use of lines can be simply form related where they are the subject of the photo (such as with patterns, etc) or they can help within an image of something else (the edge of a persons face, a handrail on a set of stairs, etc). Just pay attention to how they move through the frame and try to use this.
Next, we'll look at contrast.
This is something you'll want to pay attention to in almost all photos. In simple terms contrast is simply the range from light to dark in a photo. An image with pure whites and pure blacks will be high in contrast, while one with less difference between the two will be lower in contrast. This can be the differences between light and dark areas, white and black, or between colors.
The photo below shows fairly low contrast (notice there are really no pure whites or blacks):
This next photo shows a normal range of contrast from white through black and everything in between, there are the highlights, shadows, and a good range of mid tones:
This last photo is an example of a very high contrast photo, there is little here outside of pure whites and blacks:
With what we've already learned about exposure, and the basics of color, lines, and contrast outline above, you're now ready to start putting some of these ideas together in your photos!
Happy shooting.
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