Wednesday, January 16, 2013

How Not to Compose a Photograph

I headed out to photograph late in the day. After a few minutes I had an idea - change the Color Balance setting on the camera from "Auto" to "Daylight." This photograph if shot on "Auto" would be a neutral gray - the camera tries to take out any "off" colors. By using the "Daylight" setting, the blue light of late in the day is recorded as it should be. When I am composing a photograph, I am intuitive, and don't really consciously think about where to put things in the frame. So I moved the camera around and ended up with this composition. Just now, while looking at the finished photo, I realized that the photo is very symmetrical - the top and the bottom are the same. And do you know that there is a rule in photography that the horizon in a photograph should NOT run through the center of the photo? I know that rule. I rarely follow it. After writing all this, I don't have space to tell you why I liked this scene in the first place.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pressed for time this am and only took a quick look at your photo but after reading your long explanation came back to take a longer view and glad I did - just love it but probably can't explain why. Scudder Pond has always been a special place and you bring out the best.

Anonymous said...

Lovely photo. The colors are beautiful.
Joan

ken schwarz said...

Photography Rules and Creative Photography sounds like an oxymoron to me. Very nice composition!