Tip #6

Adding dimension to your photo's continued.

Following on from yesterday, I explained about subtle ways in which you can add depth and dimension to photo's creatively. This photo is not one of mine, as I could not find one of mine which described exactly what I was wanting to explain in portrait photography.

As with the boat in the previous example. The idea here is to creatw some dimension to the photo by looking over the shoulder of someone else. She is clearly the subject, however there are almost layers to the photo now which makes for some creative photography, particulary when the photograph continues to fall off in the background and out to the door!

This photo here is one of mine, with a similar effect however it does not have the level of depth due to the lack of forground - but it still uses the dimensions.

Tip # 5

Tip # 5 Adding Dimension to your photo's

Hello again....yes slack I know very slack, I have not entered a tip for a few days I apologise!

Today is a simple technique to add dimension, layers (and effectiveness) to your photo. This can be used with portraits, landscape etc. Today I will focus on landscapes. This is not something that I have read anywhere and I am not entirely even sure what it is called!! But in studying other people's and my own photo's and self learning which most of you are doing, I know it is a technique which works well and does add a dimension to photo's. Similar to framing, but not so obvious. When you have your subject in mind, as with framing, you can choose to simply take the photo of the subject (which of course always works well!!) But for something different, try adding something in the foreground which does not detract from the object, but demonstrate the depth and dimension to your photo. eg in this photo I took in New Zealand a few years ago as an absolute amateur completley unedited straight from the camera......without knowing this technique - I still used it. Instead of just photographing the beautiful lake/mountains etc, I added the dimension of the boat to the side. It does not detract from the photo as the subject is still clearly the landscape, however, it has added the dimension of being on a boat, having a foreground and layers in the shot without detracting from the subject.....see what I mean? You can use this in almost any form....just remember...you don't want it to detract from your photo or it will become messy and too busy and noone will know what the actual subject is and where to look. If you are using this as a technique simply to add dimension and layers SUBTLE is the key!

I will have tips tomorrow on how to use this same technique with portrait shots.

Photo composition Tip # 4

We are going to continue to discuss framing today.........

One of the common problems with many shot's is that the object is not captured well due to the object not filling the frame...... there are several way's to obtain this which we will go into details with in another entry. But simply, if you want to photograph a soccer player kicking the ball, the photo will be much more effective if only the soccer player and ball are in the shot, rather than the entire field, 2 teams etc! It will be a far more dramatic shot with great details if it fills the frame. Sounds simple, but this small change makes a HUGE difference to your shot's!

This photo I took, I wanted to capture the face details and expression, so instead of doing a full body shot, I filled the frame with the object I was after - predominantly the face and only the face! It has allowed the details like the eyeleashes, lips etc to beam. Have fun practising.....