I attended a weekend photography conference last weekend. This conference is called RMSP Weekends and it is put on by the Rocky Mountain School of Photography. I highly recommend checking it out if it comes to your area as I feel I learned a ton!
The sessions I attended for Day Two
- Composition – Designing a Great Photo
- Photographing People
- Critique Session
The notes I took
Composition: Designing A Great Photo
Instructor: Tony Rizzuto
When photography bugs (bees, butterflies, etc) - do so early in the morning, before they become active.
Bright tones are active (warm), Dark tones are passive (cool)
Eyes always need to be sharp
Fill the frame - move closer or zoom in
Focal Length
- Wide angle - brings dominance to closer objects - makes a bumper look bigger to the boat in the background
- Telephoto - subjects are compressed
Lines
- Horizontal - restful, tranquil, grounding
- Vertical - stable, static, powerful
- Diagonal - active, feeling of depth
- Intersecting
- Leading Lines - active, leads viewers eye
- Converging Lines - leads to something (railroad tracks)
- S-Curves - elegant and calming
- Arcs - graceful, make sure not to clip
- Implied Lines
- Shape - circle, square, triangle
An odd number of objects in a scene is better than even. (3 objects rather than 2 or 4)
Negative Space - area of the photo where your subject is not
Rule of Thirds - Left = comfort, Right = Tension
Perspective
Power points
Balance - calming, easy to look at. Imbalance creates tension.
A-Symmetrical balance - equal weight, different places in the frame
Rhythm/repetition
Color - Red = active, Blue = calm
Recommended Photographers
Main goals of Composition
- Create photos with a clarity of the subject
- Think simplicity
- Move the viewer through the image with intention
- Keep your viewer in your photographs
- Give your viewer a place to rest
--
Photographing People
Instructor: Tony Rizzuto
2 types of people photography
- portrait
- environmental portrait
Elements of a portrait - eyes, light, expression, background, fill frame, directness
Elements of an environmental portrait - quality of light, background, fill frame, clarity of idea/story
12-35mm wide-angle lens is ideal for an environmental portrait
50-100mm lens is ideal for a portrait
telephoto lens (70-300) - compresses space, so it takes in less background