A tribute site to those photos that I think are amazing and contributions of my own – My Own Interestingness – Click on Images to View Owner’s Original Photos
A tribute site to those photos that I think are amazing and contributions of my own – My Own Interestingness – Click on Images to View Owner’s Original Photos
Recently my family went to India to fulfil a desire of my husband’s to take the kids to see the Taj Mahal at the same age that he first saw it. There were loads of images of the Taj Mahal, and I don’t flatter myself thinking that my images were any better than the myriad of photos that have been taken before, but there was one photo that I took of my darling, gorgeous husband that just plain floats my boat (or rocks my socks, whichever you prefer).
My Love - at the Taj Mahal
Is this a great photo? No, not really – it breaks a lot of rules about focus and exposure. But I think this is why this particular photo works for me. As a portrait it conveys a lot about the character of the person.
I have some other great classic shots of him, however the grittiness of him on vacation, smiling, carrying the kids’ shoes over his shoulder, with one of the most classic symbols of love in the background seems to be expressing him better in this overexposed shot than in some of the more traditional shots that I took that day.
Is there a formula for over- or under-exposing shots? Well it certainly involves letting more or less light into the photograph, but as for when or how to use it, there are better writers than me that can describe this. However I will say that over-exposing tends to lend itself to more edgier and informal shots, and under-exposing adds moodiness and tends to increase contrast (especially with very light or bright elements within the photo). This can also serve to highlight shapes (eg. a silhouette), or increase the saturation in some colour elements.
Certainly I’m not the only one to appreciate this. Check out the links below.
I am thinking of putting a portfolio together, and as such I am putting together some links for reference in what to do (and what not to do). At the moment it’s a work in process, so no links to my work yet, however any contributions for online portfolio website or any useful tools will be welcome. Post here or on the Facebook page!
I was with a friend recently and he told me about his Dad taking photos… basically he uses a camera that has a swing out LCD screen, and takes the photos from about hip or thigh height.
It got me thinking about perspective, and how I like to occasionally put the camera on the floor and take a photo, so here goes with 7 things you can do to change perspective in photos and make them more interesting.
Lay on your back and look up – this works really well under a tree or in a field of flowers, but can work equally well for buildings, in rooms, under stairwells, underwater (if you have the gear), to name a few. In some cases you don’t need to lay on your back… some good shots can be taken with your camera on the ground pointed up, but it may take you a few goes to get it “just right”.
Turn you and the camera, or your subject, upside down – this can give startling results. If you are upside down, and you focus on composition, sometimes the change in perspective can give you a new way to look at an old subject. Subjects can also be turned upside down for interesting results, although be careful with pets – I will not accept any responsibility for scratches and other injuries!
Take a step back – I use this one for portraits, and it works well with camera phones as well as regular cameras. Taking a step back from just a person in a shot often forces us to consider a principle composition technique that is used with landscape photography – include a foreground, a midground and a background. The photo on the left is one that I took of my nephew could have just been an expression of joy on his face as he was placed on the Ben & Jerry’s cow by my brother. Taking a step back included the cow (the source of the joy), and the background (Singapore Zoo’s Ben & Jerry’s outlet), and provided a bit more context and interest for the shot.
Tilt the horizon – be warned with this one… you either do it a lot or not at all. What I mean is either tilt the horizon drastically, so that it looks deliberate, or keep it flat and straight. A small tilt usually ends up looking like you couldn’t be bothered setting up the shot correctly.
Shoot from the hip – don’t use your eye in the viewfinder, or (depending on whether you’re trying to be surreptitious) even look at the LCD screen. Shooting shots from this low perspective can either be done so that people don’t realise you’re taking the photo, often resulting in more candid photos, or just a different height level – 2 or 3 feet off the ground, instead of 5 or 6. And because you aren’t consciously framing every detail of the shot, sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised by the results.
Get down on their level – advice often given for taking photos of children and pets, however this works on objects as well. A popular example is flowers in a vase – don’t (some say never) shoot from above. Try side-on or below. This works for rooms as well. If you take the photo from a 5-6 foot level, you often see all the clutter on tops of surfaces. You could try taking at a lower angle where less clutter appears (just make sure you dust, because at this angle it can be quite apparent if you haven’t )
Shoot from above – this works for subjects that you wouldn’t normally look at from above, like buildings and adults. As the objective here is to change the perspective, don’t include pets and children in this one, as we are constantly looking at them from a height above. This is probably why a lot of people like aerial shots.
Obviously the above is not a definitive list, and if you have more ideas or links to sites that have other suggestions, please post in the comments below.
Other articles that are available with information on shooting from a different perspective are as follows.
Digital Photography School forums has a photo assignment based on breaking some photographic rules.
I did a post a few days ago about Breaking the Rule of Thirds, and one of the ways to do this was to centre your subject in the photo – also called the Bulls-eye technique.
So get practicing and submit your photos – the topic closes at 8am GMT on 3rd Feb, and make sure you check out the rules…
There are a number of ways that the Rule of Thirds rule can be broken, the most obvious of these being the Bullseye – centering of the subject in the photo.
Other ways to break this rule can be through the use of repetition, symmetry and blurring.
Rules are meant to be broken, but for budding photographers, the rule of thirds is one of the first “rules” that we learn, and can actually get results from when we put it in to practice. Having said that, there are loads of photos that are interesting and inspirational without following this rule.
If you are interested in reading more about the Rule of Thirds, the following are bookmarks that I have used over the years.
I just simply don’t have room to carry a tripod around all the time. So bracing, breathing and perfecting my camera settings have been key to clear(er) photos for me.
I found a couple of useful tips summarised in the links below:
I have been following Brian on Epic Edits and Trevor on TrevorCarpenter.com as they have pursued the December Challenge of taking a portrait photograph a day. There have been some great results.
I have been inspired to challenge my own photography, so for January I am going to take a photo a day of Urban Landscapes.
Just some other options that I think I can explore as part of this project:
Taking photos in black and white or sepia
Looking for abstract architecture
Looking to tell a story behind the landscape
If anyone knows some good links, or wish to provide their own suggestions about how best to explore this through photography, then please post in the comments.
I have been starting to research a little more about my camera’s capabilities – I have a Panasonic DMS-FZ5. I normally fiddle with the Shutter and Aperture settings to get fairly decent results (considering the limitations of the camera), however since I have decided to get a little more technical and have started doing some reading, I am discovering ISO speeds and the impact of adjusting these to affect the results with regards to sensitivity to light.
One of the more enlightening and easy-to-understand articles that I have read can be found at Megapixel.net – The importance of ISO capability of a camera. Time to fiddle with all three settings – aperture, shutter speed and ISO sensitivity!
I’m not a SLR girl – I find them cumbersome to drag around and I’m not that good a photographer. I’m more into Prosumer models – they meet my needs in terms of size (portability) and features (optical zoom, resolution and shutter/aperture tweaking).
So currently my eye is on the Canon Powershot S5 IS.
I love photos, and it never ceases to amaze me seeing the imagination and skill some people have in creating them. This is my tribute to those photo (especially those hosted on Flickr).
All rights for images on this site are owned by the original takers of the photograph, and distributed under Creative Commons license. To find out more, please click on the image itself. This is an image appreciation/fan site.
I’m not a SLR girl – I find them cumbersome to drag around and I’m not that good a photographer. I’m more into Prosumer models – they meet my needs in terms of size (portability) and features (optical zoom, resolution and shutter/aperture tweaking).
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