Geek Lab: Tips for taking better photos in 2015

January 1, 2015 by Mariah 3 Comments

Hello everyone and welcome to 2015!  I wish you a very happy new year filled with blessings and happiness.

Today, I want to share some tips with you to help you improve your pictures this year.  I previously posted some photography tips regarding the first, most important aspect of picture taking, lighting.  In case you missed that post, you can go here.  Today, I’m going to show you some ways to make your photos more interesting. Let’s talk about composition.  Composition is the arrangement or placement of objects in your photos.

Let’s start with the Rule of Thirds.  Think of your phone screen or camera viewfinder as something that can be divided into three sections, or parts.

Here is a sample viewfinder or phone screen.  You can see I divided it into three sections.  You can use these imaginary lines to help you with photos.  So, let me show you one of mine.

There are three ways to use the rule of thirds.  First is to center you subject in the frame.

Here it is in my sample viewfinder.

Next you can center your subject on the left hand side of the photo.

This is the most downtrodden Chiefs fan ever. Ha.  Here it is below.  You can see that he is centered directly on the left line in the sample viewfinder.

The other example is to center your subject on the right hand side of the photo along that line.

And here it is in my sample viewfinder.

My advice to you is to practice with a subject or object, and try all three different lines.  See which one you like better for the photo.

My next tip for today, is to look for lines in your photos.  These lines should draw attention to the subject of your photo.

I drew a line to show you what I mean.

Well, I hope you found these tips easy to understand and helpful.  If you have any questions, just ask in the comments.

Happy New Year!