Light 1: Outside
Light 2: Inside
Focus 1: Foreground
Focus 2: Background
Composition 1: Thirds
Composition 2: Lead Room
Through compiling these photos, I’ve begun to learn how to manipulate my camera and my surroundings to get the exact shot I want rather than aiming, trying to focus on a subject, and hoping for the best. For the first photo, I wanted to catch that beautiful, contrasting sky. To do this, I made sure to focus on the sky itself and then capture the shot. I made sure to follow the rule of thirds by placing the horizon in the lower third grid line. For the second shot, I wanted to have a clear “rule of thirds” effect even though every element in the picture is the same kind of leaf. So to make sure that one leaf stood out from all the others, I captured one of the lighter leaves and placed it where the top third and left third grid lines intersect. I also made sure to focus on it so it would be set apart from the blurred background leaves. I took this photo using natural window light mixed with inside lamp light. I love the monochromatic color scheme in this picture. For the focused foreground picture, I used a macro filter in order to be able to get a good close up and make sure the background really blurred against it. For the focused background photo, I simply used my camera’s metering option to focus on the background rather than the leaves in the foreground.
In the “thirds” photo, I placed the flowers on the left side third grid line, the green plant on the intersection of the right side and bottom third grid lines, and the strong leading lines in the picture (on the wall) lead to grid line intersections on the right as well. In the last picture, I placed the flowers on the left most third grid line and the wilting stems on the bottom third grid line. I left plenty of lead room on the right of the flowers.
Jessie Jackson Creations 