A quick guide to composing your photos

1. Rule of Thirds
Patterns
Framing

2.  Composition is simply learning to ‘see’
photographs in the world around you
 Luckily there are a few rules of thumb to help
you…

3.  This requires that you imagine a noughts & crosses board in
your viewfinder…

4.  You use some (or all) of the four intersection point
to compose your photo…

5.  Or use them to centre your image…

6.  Or to link separate objects

7.  Why it works…
…nobody looks at
the edges of
photos!

8.  It works as a good place to put the horizon in
landscapes…

9.  Or even at the bottom…

10.  A few more examples from the web…

11.  And the best thing is… it works perfectly when
taking portrait photos!

12.  See if your camera has the option to display a
Rules of Third grid in the viewfinder

13.  Individually or as pairs, have a stroll around the
building and take at least three photos each that
use the Rule of Thirds…
 We’ll look at them as a group when you get back

14. >>> VIEW STUDENT PHOTOS <<<

15.  The Rule of Thirds is probably the most used
method of composition, but there are many others.
 Let’s look at two of them:
 - Pattern
 - Framing

16.  The world is full of patterns. Some natural, some
man-made. Photography lets you isolate them and
can make for some interesting images:

17.  Patterns can often be found by looking at places
from different viewpoints…

18.  And a few off the web…

19.  Framing is a method which uses one object in a
photo to frame – and draw attention to - another:

20.  A frame can be almost anything…

21.  Here’s a photo from the web that uses framing,
pattern and Rule of Thirds…

22.  If you haven’t already done so, send Mike an
email so he can invite you to the group’s Flickr
account…
mancatdesign@gmail.com
 …if you need to, sign up to Flickr

23.  Take as many photos as you like, then upload
your two best Pattern and two best Framing
photos to Flickr. Add a brief comment to each of
your photos.
 Look at the photos from other students and add
(nice!) comments.

24. >>> END<<<