Written by Patrick This article is from 10e20 Blog
Do you want to sharpen your creative picture taking instincts? Do you want to combine new ideas with your current projects and techniques? These techniques will be better executed with digital cameras and meant as some direction or guidelines to taking ‘better‘ pictures. You are your cameras best viewfinder!
Why digital as opposed to film you say? You don’t have to buy tons of film if you are learning new ideas and trying different things and also you see the results right away.
That being said some of these photos were taken with Polaroid film. Polaroid has such an expressiveness to the colors and creates unique one of a kind images every time. The film is expensive but worth it. Once you get some basics down, experiment with film.
1. Perspective– Ansel Adams once said, “A good photo is knowing where to stand.” Explore your surroundings and take multiple shots from various angles. Look for vantage points that capitalize on the best available light, ones that have the least. Shoot from far away, get close, even closer, lie on the ground, use a ladder. Hold the camera above your head, tilt it at crazy angles. Stand right next to your subject, move with it or even walk around it. The main idea is to investigate normal and radical perspectives.
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2. Unequal Space- Vary the amount of distant between your main subject and the pictures edge. This makes for a more attractive composition and flow for the viewers eye to move around.
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3. Framing- Try to use various elements to form a visual ‘frame‘ around another element. This helps to direct the viewers eye and lead to the more important elements. Here are some examples from the Natural Framing Flickr pool.
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4. Horizon Line- Place the positioning of the horizon line above or below the center of your subjects.
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5. Cropping- Dead center is usually not the most interesting shot. Cropping tightly, or aggressively, into the subject creates dynamic visual space between the subject and the edges as well as dramatic imagery.
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6. Intentional Empty Space- Just like Unequal Space but more dramatic. Sometimes less is best.
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7. Shape- Simple geometric shapes are familiar and the basics of every form. Simple shapes can create order and sense within an image. Look out for interesting shapes and patterns in everyday objects.
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8. Lines and Curves- A painting professor I once had said that every curve was made up of tiny straight lines, this stayed with me. A curve is both relative to and different from a line. Find something you see everyday and breakdown your composition into lines, curves and shapes.
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9. Visual Texture- This can be made up of anything that densely fills the image. Look out for ‘Harmoniously Organized‘ texture like a close up of a man-made pattern. ‘Harmoniously Disorganized‘ such as a field of wheat or blades of grass on a lawn. ‘Chaotic‘ like a garbage dump.
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10. Depth- Draw the viewers eye in and back through an image. Consider various points of view that amplify depth like a pathway in the woods or lines on the road.
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11. Spin- Add some movement to an image by shaking the camera or moving around to add some motion blur to subjects that are standing still or stationary. Try this awesome spinning technique provided by Photojojo that makes for the coolest shots of kids having fun!
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12. Motion Shots- Shoot subjects that move to fast for the human eye to follow and see clearly. The technical aspects of shooting motion are easy: a fast shutter speed (or the action or sports setting) will freeze motion, a slow one will introduce motion blur. Also, check out this French photographers work with this idea…hang on!
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13. 360 Panoramic- Taking shots individually as you turn your body around. Later you can stitch these together in Photoshop. Feeling like pushing it further? Try creating your own planet aka “Polar Panoramas”– now that is cool! Click thumbnail to view full image.
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14. Composites- Using the same technique as the panoramic but with this just shoot freely without any order or grid. When you have your images downloaded to your computer later put them all into one Photoshop document and compose the scene. Check out the Panography photo pool on Flickr for some creative inspirations. Click thumbnail to view full image.
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15. Beautiful Decay- Expand your definition of beautiful and look for worn down subjects either man-made or natural. Ugly can be beautiful.
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16. Clouds- Clouds have endless variations and possibilities. All you need to do is stop and take pictures of them and you will see the beauty. Point straight up and shoot!
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17. Shadows/Reflections- They can transform an ordinary object in something artful or abstract. Teach yourself to notice not just the subjects,but the shadows and reflections they cast.
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18. Light Painting- Using a longer exposure setting place your camera on a tripod and grab yourself a small pen light or flash light and ‘draw‘ with the light or shot your subject in the dark and use a ‘bulb‘ setting for a long exposure and use a flashlight to ‘paint‘ in the light. Another variation of this would be to hold your camera and move it around the light source or simply set your cameras self-timer mose and just before it clicks toss the $350 camera into the air, just be sure to catch it. Check out these creative light painting photographers and what they are doing with the technique. Here is the Camera Toss Flickr pool. here is their groups description:
This is a “technique” group, and the technique here is regarded by some as insanity. For we are the reckless folks on flickr that enjoy the abstract, chance, generative, physical photography that results from throwing our cameras into the air (most often at night in front of varied light sources).
It is about trading risk for reward in the pursuit of art. It is not about being a photographer, it is about enabling the photography that happens naturally when you let go of the process, give up control, and add a hell of alot more variables. It is about physics, gravity, angular momentum, acceleration, direction, chaos, and timing… most of which you have tenuous control of at best!
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19. Light Direction- By exploring various points to light a subject with artificial or natural light, you can get the best possible image. Bounce light off of the ceiling, point the light right at the subject or from the side. Create a silhouetted effect and point the light at the backdrop, called backlighting, or experiment with alternative light sources like candles.
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20. Night Shots- Working with relatively low lit situations can be tricky but also very rewarding. The semi-abstract look of night shots can be great at evoking mood and emotion. I took this shot at dusk with a toy Holga camera with a blue filter. Photojojo has some great tips for taking some “Sparkling Firework Photos”.
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21. Intentional Overexposure/Underexposure- Add some style and visual impact to your shot by either overexposing or underexposing the image. Use the cameras flash at close range or by pass the flash altogether.
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![Mind-Blowing Photos - FlickrMeeting - Genova - G3 - [Ghe semmu + DieciCento + Milanoue!!W ]](http://88.198.60.17/images/pictures-photos/photos-12.jpg)
For some odd reason, young boys love cracking their knuckles. Whether it’s the sound of the crack or the feeling it makes, we feel relieved when one cracks a knuckle. After getting all that finger stress out, Mom smacked you upside the head, reminding you of the extreme arthritis you’d get because of all that cracking.
One of the most important times in a young man’s life is the first sight of facial hair growth. A teen can sometimes grow a beard in their early years while others try to catch up to their more-manly brethren. Mommy doesn’t want her little boy to grow up to quickly, and devised the reverse psychology technique of telling you that shaving would make your beard come back fuller. So you shaved constantly and mom had a boy for a little while longer.
The first things you did after school involved plopping your little butt down in front of the TV and catching some cartoons. G.I.Joe, Transformers, & My Little Pony- all of these wonderful programs kept us at bay for hours. We kept our eyes glued to the action – all at the risk of going blind, something mom loved to point out.
When was the last time you saw an adult who was happy that it was cold and snowing outside? The upside of cold weather included snowball fights, Christmas, and missing days from school. The downside? Catching a cold, supposedly. Mom always had us put on multiple layers of clothing. Was mom just being too over protective of her freezing young ones or just a little crazy?
Taking a bath was on the most hated list of things to do, right up there with cleaning your room and going to bed early. Mom knew this, as she spent years dragging you into the water and forcing that Johnson’s & Johnson’s baby shampoo all over your noggin. When it was time to wash ourselves, the “potato ears” were just frightening enough to keep them squeaky clean.
Kids love watermelon, meticulously picking out the seeds as they ate the favorite summertime treat. Everyone remembers the time that one got through – what did we do? We ran to mom to tell her what happened and that we were scared of the watermelon that would eventually grow inside of us.
When it came time for us to be allowed to chew gum, mother only did so with the strict knowledge that swallowing that gum would hurt our little tummies for years to come. Then came the day when you simply forgot about the Juicy Juice that you were chomping down on one minute and before you know it, down the hatch it went.
When you are a kid, the notion of being grown up seems so cool, which just proves how innocence and stupidity go hand and hand. Every parent started their day off with a nice fresh cup of joe. As you wanted something that made you feel more grown up, mom was there to mention coffee would stunt your growth. Back to coco we went, because being short was like being a kid forever!
The white lies that mom threw at us were to make sure we stayed safe. Now carrots, on the other hand, were something that she encouraged us to eat – because, eating them would make our eyesight better. Already we had come to terms with going blind from sitting too close to the TV, so if there was a way to reverse its affects by eating carrots, then we were all over it.
While we had a dog or cat growing up, what was even cooler was getting to play with animals that you didn’t see on a regular basis. And when it came to animals in the backyard, finding a frog or toad jumping around was a rare occasion, resulting in chasing it down and giving it the mason jar treatment. Until we learned about the warts.
Splashing around in the pool was all day affair. Once the hot dogs and hamburgers were gone, it was back to the pool for any unfinished water business. Then mom warned that if we jumped in the water too soon, it might be our last time. All of a sudden that pool of refreshing water turned into a pool of fire.
One if the earliest forms of making fun of your classmates was using your facial expressions. Flashing a tongue, crossing our eyes, pushing our nose up – all of these things either made some unsuspecting friend cry to mommy. That is, until mom caught on and let us know that those crazy faces could end up becoming permanent.
Growing up, whatever resembled a lightsaber from Star Wars probably at some point got used as a weapon. Whether it was a toy, a broom handle, or even the cardboard from a roll of wrapping paper, Mom would always warn us about “poking someone’s eye out” which either scared us enough to stop or made us swing even harder.
Teenage boys tend to enjoy spicier foods. You have young men everywhere seeking out the spiciest things around in the hopes that they can brave the heat to sit at the table with the “big boys” like Dad and Uncle Ron. “Bring on the wings, the salsa, the jalapeno”, you say. And mom chimes back with, ” and “don’t forget the ulcers!”
Thanks to all the comic books that were read as a child, it’s no shocker that many a young gal or lad were caught climbing trees like Spiderman. Mom of course shouted for you to come down before you “cracked your head open”. The mere thought of your head spilling out its insides like Humpty Dumpty sealed the deal.
Out of all the lies that mom mentioned to us over the years, perhaps none was taken more seriously by adolescent boys then the possibility of it it “falling off”. How dare mother get involved in the first place – she didn’t have one, so how could she know for sure? Then the epiphany kicked in – of course, that’s why she didn’t have one! She knows because it happened to her!
Executives: John and Forrest Mars, the owners of Mars Inc., makers of M&M’s
Executives: Executives of 20th Century Fox’s TV division (pre-Murdoch)
Executive: Robert Uihlein, Jr., head of the Schlitz Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
IBM once hired Microsoft founder Bill Gates to come up with the operating software for a new computer that IBM was rushing to market … and Gates turned to a company called Digital Research. He set up a meeting between owner Gary Kildall and IBM … but Kildall couldn’t make the meeting and sent his wife, Dorothy McEwen, instead. McEwen, who handled contract negotiations for Digital Research, felt that the contract IBM was offering would allow the company to incorporate features from Digital’s software into its own proprietary software – which would then compete against Digital. So she turned the contract down. Bill Gates went elsewhere, eventually coming up with a program called DOS, the software that put Microsoft on the map.
Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company.
