Point and Shoot Artistry. Volume 2 - Framing your Subject -or- Why you might not want to center everything you shoot.

Welcome to volume 2 of my series of posts to help you become a better photographer using your point and shoot camera.

In the last post we covered how to make sure your subject is in focus by half way holding down your shutter release button. Hopefully you have employed this technique and come up with some good results!

Today we're going to take things a little bit further by talking about framing subjects in the viewfinder, rules of composition (and how to break them) and how to generally make your photos look more dynamic.

As with every post in this series, all technical instructions are based on general functions on MOST digital point and shoot cameras. If something I write in these blogs doesn't work for your camera...always consult your cameras owners manual.

And now...on with Volume 2 - Angles and Centering.

Framing your subject in the viewfinder is the first step in creating a photo that can be amazing, or a resounding flop. A vast majority of us are guilty of sticking something in front of the camera, centering it in the middle of the viewfinder (generally underneath that strategically placed box/dot/star/etc.) and snapping a shot. Then later on when we look at the image or print, we generally go back and wish we would have done something to make it look not so boring and stagnant.

To fix this problem the simplest and most effective thing to do is to move your subject around the frame, adjusting how closely you are zoomed in, and adding empty space around them. But...but...EMPTY SPACE?!?! Yes, leave some room around your subject to add some area for the eye to rest, plus if you have some negative/empty space around, your viewer will be much more likely to focus their attention on the true subject of your photo...what ever that may be.

For example....

In this image we have an hourglass stationed beautifully atop a concrete tie along side some rail road rails.

Sure, it's an interesting subject, the background (what you can see of it anyway) seems to be interesting. But since the hourglass is so centered and filling a majority of the frame it's a pretty stagnant, safe shot that doesn't really say much.

So, how do we adjust this photo so that it makes more of an impact? Let's move it around the frame for our next shot...

In this shot, I moved the hourglass further to the left of the frame. This leaves more of the railway tracks to be seen, gives more of an idea of where in space/time/the world this object is located, and it offsets the visual weight of the photo.

The visual weight of a photo, in it's most simplistic terms, is how much stuff is crammed into one side of an image. The balance between left and right, or top and bottom.

Moving your subject to one end of the frame or the other will instantly move the heaviest part of the visual weight of an image and create an entirely different feeling.

So, now that you're armed with a bit of new found or newly refreshed knowledge, go out and photograph something interesting. Give it some empty space and see what sort of effect and feeling you can elicit by moving in around. I would love to see some of your examples, so please feel free to drop me a line and attach an image in the comment section of this post!