Elements of Photojournalism Photo Compositition Elements of Photojournalism

8 Skills to Better Photographs Rule of Thirds Worm’s Eye View Bird’s Eye View Self-Portrait Natural Framing Leading Lines Lighting Repetition

Rule of Thirds In your head, divide up the screen of your camera into thirds horizontally and vertically. Try to center the subject of your photo where those lines intersect. See the next slide for a visual. Put your subject where the red circles are on the screen.

Rule of Thirds

Rule of Thirds

Worm’s Eye View Think about a worm: he looks at the world from below. This view is when your subject is above you and you’re looking up at it. You can also get down on the floor and shoot your subject at his or her level.

Worm’s Eye View

Bird’s Eye View Think about a bird: she sees the world from above, always looking down on things. This view is when you’re above your subject, looking down on it. Shoot your subject from above; this is a great way to add some depth to your photos.

Bird’s Eye View

Self Portrait Take a picture of yourself! Make it something that tells us who you are. This is the only chance you’ll have to be in any photos this semester!

Self Portrait

Natural Framing Use what’s around you to frame your subject. The key here is NATURAL: make it look real, not staged. For example, just because your subject is standing in a doorway doesn’t make the framing natural. Sure, it’s framing, but how many people you know actually stand in a doorway for a photo?

Natural Framing

Leading Lines This is when lines in your photo lead to your subject. The lines draw the eye to the subject. The key here is LEADING: just because you have a photo of lines doesn’t mean they lead anywhere. They need to have something at the end to point to.

Leading Lines

Lighting Use the light around you to creatively light up your subject. You can light your subject from the front, back, above, below, from an angle; any way you want! The best light is in the early mornings and evenings; everyone looks good then!

Lighting

Repetition This is when you repeat colors, shapes, subjects, anything in your photos. Sometimes, you can make one thing a little different to make the entire photo more interesting.

Repetition

Things to remember for the first assignment Make sure to always save original photos. This is not Facebook or Twitter, and your photos shouldn’t look like it!  You should not be in any photos (ever) except the self-portrait. You should turn in 8 photos, but in order to get 8 good ones, you will have to take about 50!