Obviously, I am not a professional photographer. However, I can take some awesome pictures by simply following these simple basic rules using a simple " aim and shoot" digital camera. Here are the seven basic techhniques:
Technique #!: Color Combinations
Colors are the essential ingredients of picture composition. They provide beauty, vibrant, life, and story to the viewers. Check my cute picture. LOL. Colors are made up of 7 basic hues of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet, or ROYGBIV (an acronym we learned in physics), but they can actually produce millions or even billions of colours. For examples, to produce orange, we just combine yellow and red; to produce green, we combine yellow and blue; and to produce Indigo, we simply combine Blue and Violet. From these techniques, we can select what colors need to be with what colors to make our pictures more appealing.
Technique #2: The Distance Backdrop
The statue in this picture is called the Merlion. This mythical creature was taken in Singapore. To capture its size, beauty and perspective, I placed the subject a distance away from me and used it as a background or backdrop instead. This technique is good for iconic buildings and large objects.
Technique #3: The Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds simply means that the subject isn't centered in the picture, but placed instead a little offshoot to one side of the frame. This rule is to catch the attention of the viewer's eye into the composition of the whole picture instead only of the main center subject. To compose a photo according to the rule of thirds, imagine your photo is divided into nine equal parts with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines. To see these lines, open your camera apps on your phone and turn on the gridlines. To do this go to:
Technique #4: The Horizontal Line
The Rule of the Horizon Line simply means that if we divide the picture frame into three equal horizontal parts, the horizon should be near to one of the two lines that divide the frame. In this picture, the Disney Cruise Ship was placed horizontally 1/3 of the frame while the subject occupied 2/3 of the picture frame. This technique is good for Nature's landscapes, oceans, mountains, and plains.
Technique #5: A Frame within A Frame
This technique uses Nature's creations to frame your subject. In this picture, leaves, flowers, and branches were used as a picture frame.
Technique #6: Leading the Eyes
This technique leads the viewer's eyes to objects that are in symmetry, eg. linear, geometrical, patterns, forms, sequence.
Technique #7: Perspective
The stone formation in this picture is called the Dragon Eye. It was taken inside the Antelope Canyon located in Page, Arizona, USA. To create this picture, your iphone setting must be changed by:
Other serious tips and tricks:
Colors are the essential ingredients of picture composition. They provide beauty, vibrant, life, and story to the viewers. Check my cute picture. LOL. Colors are made up of 7 basic hues of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet, or ROYGBIV (an acronym we learned in physics), but they can actually produce millions or even billions of colours. For examples, to produce orange, we just combine yellow and red; to produce green, we combine yellow and blue; and to produce Indigo, we simply combine Blue and Violet. From these techniques, we can select what colors need to be with what colors to make our pictures more appealing.
Technique #2: The Distance Backdrop
The statue in this picture is called the Merlion. This mythical creature was taken in Singapore. To capture its size, beauty and perspective, I placed the subject a distance away from me and used it as a background or backdrop instead. This technique is good for iconic buildings and large objects.
Technique #3: The Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds simply means that the subject isn't centered in the picture, but placed instead a little offshoot to one side of the frame. This rule is to catch the attention of the viewer's eye into the composition of the whole picture instead only of the main center subject. To compose a photo according to the rule of thirds, imagine your photo is divided into nine equal parts with two vertical lines and two horizontal lines. To see these lines, open your camera apps on your phone and turn on the gridlines. To do this go to:
- Settings
- Camera
- Grid, slide the button to on
- press home button
- take pictures
Technique #4: The Horizontal Line
The Rule of the Horizon Line simply means that if we divide the picture frame into three equal horizontal parts, the horizon should be near to one of the two lines that divide the frame. In this picture, the Disney Cruise Ship was placed horizontally 1/3 of the frame while the subject occupied 2/3 of the picture frame. This technique is good for Nature's landscapes, oceans, mountains, and plains.
Technique #5: A Frame within A Frame
This technique uses Nature's creations to frame your subject. In this picture, leaves, flowers, and branches were used as a picture frame.
Technique #6: Leading the Eyes
This technique leads the viewer's eyes to objects that are in symmetry, eg. linear, geometrical, patterns, forms, sequence.
Technique #7: Perspective
The stone formation in this picture is called the Dragon Eye. It was taken inside the Antelope Canyon located in Page, Arizona, USA. To create this picture, your iphone setting must be changed by:
- go to camera apps
- select the color palette on the top right corner
- scroll the color selections at the bottom
- change original color to vivid warm
- start taking pictures
- high speed photography - small aperture f/11 or f/14.
- night photography - super slow shutter speed for longer exposure.
- moving objects - slow shutter and pan along with subject
- Traffic light trails - slow shutter speed
- panoramic photography - 180 degrees
- macro-photography - close-up shots
- silhoutte photography - faster shutter speed
- reflection photography - small aperture such as f/11
- water drop photography - small aperture f/11 or f/14 and fast shutter speed 1/160
- Blur effect photography - slow shutter speed while zooming in and out
- depth of field photography - wide aperture f/2.8 or f/1.4
Remember, (i) shutter speed is for amount of time, (2) aperture is for amount of light, and (3) iso is for the amount of noise. These three basic photography features are called collectively as the Exposure Triangle.
Technique #8: Using a Smartphone and Gimbal
