the rule of thirds!

When you're taking a photo and trying to get the 'perfect' proportions then you should try and keep this rule in mind!

This 3 x 3 grid gives you an idea of where your focus should be. Ideally, your focus point should be where the lines cross over (the yellow dots!) or on one of the lines. I've been told that this is 'more pleasing to the eye'!
I'll give you a few examples..

As you can see Rebecca's eyes are really close to the cross over of lines, making it almost perfect proportionally ;) Also, almost two thirds of the photo have been taken up with the garage door, and the horizontal lines give this lovely focus on Rebecca, as she stands on one of the 'lines'. I hope that makes sense! (By the way, the photo isn't at it's highest quality!)

This rule also works with landscapes. You ideally want the sky and ground to be in the ratio 1:2. For example, in this photo that i snapped in Tunisia, the sky takes up two thirds of the photo and the ground is only one third.  

Hope that's been helpful! Lots of Love xxx

Flash!

When i use my little camera, it always puts the flash on automatically, but i hate flash!
okay, hate is a strong word - but most of the time, i don't like using flash..

I did a photoshoot with my lovely friends down the park a few months back and so i'm going to use a few of the photos from them to give you a few tips about flash!
We found this wonderful tree that was hollow, and so Rebecca stood inside it...

As you can see, the photo is really over-exposed. This is because the flash has gone off and the camera has taken in a lot more light than needed for the photo. I saw on the back of the camera that it was too light, and so i turned the flash off...

The next photo had a much better exposure. You can see more of the detail on Rebecca's face and in the tree trunk. Unfortunately Rebecca had changed position and her hair is covering one of her eyes.

Anyway, if you're taking photos and wondering why they look like the photo above, then it's your flash! Do a bit of experimenting with the flash though, its often a good thing to add light into your photo, but go without flash for a more natural look.

Off camera flash is also a great photography tool, but i'll save that for another post :)

Any questions, tweet me - graceclaydon :)