Flat Stanley and Flat Hal stayed in the backpack while their photographer tried to up their game and learn some new tricks.
A professional photographer led a tour in Moorea, showing us some of their favorite places to take photos on the island, and offering tips and advice for getting visually interesting photos.
One of the first things I realized was I already had on my phone screen, as well as my camera, a grid, that not everyone knew how to make visible or use.
This grid is really helpful for positioning things, like the horizon in a photo. Things at the middle of a picture (whether it is the horizon, the water in a lake, or trees in front of a mountain) may look a little “off” to the human eye, but move them down to the line that is 1/3 of the frame from the bottom, and suddenly they look more natural.
Rule of Thirds grid. It’s a compositional guideline that suggests placing key elements of your photo along the lines or at the intersections of the grid to create a more balanced and visually interesting image.
Look back at some of the photos in this journal, can you see when I did a good job using the Rule of Thirds grid?
We also talked about having something in the foreground, or close to the camera, to add depth, and perspective, it can also add some interesting detail in a photograph where most of what is in the distance is big solid color — like a stone mountain with no trees growing on it.
The photographer also talked with us about having something to draw the eye, like a fence leading you to a trail in one of these photos. Or the line of a wave crashing against the shore. We also explored adding something with a known color and details to a place, like a coconut that recently dropped from a nearby tree to a black sand beach to add both interest and something to help set off, or showcase, the black of the sand.
Can you see how two of these pictures are almost the same, but look drastically different using several pieces of advice from the photographer?
