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Photography for Beginners: Knowing when to break the rules

The skills of Good Photography are numerous and varied. Art, Technology, patience, technique and individual flair all come into play

As A beginner, would not it be nice if all this could be explained by a simple set of rules that were easy to understand. Of course, someone could just tell you that the opening for use in a situation given, or how the structure of a composition to obtain the best results every time?

The photograph is a bit like learning to drive. With a car, you need to know the rules of the road, and you need to know the basics of management, the acceleration and braking. These can be learned easily with a little practice. But even when you have mastered the essence, you still need to learn to Know your car because every car is a little different. Next, you need experience with night driving, driving in the rain, driving off road …

What you must understand is that following the rules does not take you far away. In photography, you will find that the rules help at the beginning, and some rules will stay with you throughout your career. The trick is to understand when the rules do not apply, or when you choose to ignore. This is the kind of knowledge that can not easily be taught. It comes with experience, and this gives you indiduality as a photographer.

Here are some rules that, for an experienced photographer, are only made to be broken.

Photography Rule No. 1. Photos must be taken outdoors early morning or afternoon. This is one of the first principles of Landscape Photography, and can be applied to almost any outdoor photography. The soft and warm colors of the sun at these times adds beauty and character almost any scene. It also creates much lower contrast, which allows you to avoid shadows and overexposure of the Facts Highlights of your photos.

When can we break this rule? I can think of two situations immediately.

Black and white is defined contrast rather than by subtle color, if you often want stronger shadows to create the best image. For this reason, black and white photos are often best taken closer to the middle of the day when the light is stronger.

Rainforest photography is also the best in the middle of the day but this time you do not want sunlight, Cloudy Weather you want to create a nice even light throughout the forest. Otherwise, the spots light through the canopy will "all the hot spots on your image.

Photography Rule # 2.The Rule of Thirds. The rule of thirds is an excellent guide for beginners learning the composition. In simple terms, it divides your picture into three parts vertically and horizontally. The lines of demarcation are the best places to position long objects on a picture (such as trees and lines of the horizon). The points where the lines intersect are the places more effective to position smaller objects for most impact.

Photos which are taken according to the rule of thirds appear balanced. They respond to our natural sense of visual order and simply look "right. Unfortunately, the world is not so easy to organize the rule Generally, it is therefore impossible in nature to take pictures that way. In addition, sometimes you can choose to ignore the rule, giving greater impact to the photo to shake the normal balance of the composition.

When Can you break this rule? Here is an obvious example, but I'm sure you can think of many others.

Sunset photos feature colored sky, and silhoettes first. If you have a sky really spectacular, it makes no sense to fill one third of the image with the dark void. You can choose to tilt the Camera up to an the sky, and reduce the area filled by the foreground.

Rule No. 3. Your light meter is always right. Most of the time you can trust your meter. If it indicates that your photo is well exposed, it is likely to be … but not always.

When can we break this rule? When there is a large difference in light levels between the subject and its environment.

You may be Photographing a person, animal, flower, etc. in full sun, but background is shaded. It is a very effective way to make your subject stand out from the environment. In this situation, different levels of light are required to fool the meter. In fact, if you take your photo on auto, your subject will probably be overexposed. The best approach is to move your camera manually and adjust your aperture or Shutter Speed until the photo is underexposed by one or two stops. This will darken the background and put the subject in a perfect exposure.

Can you see a pattern developing here? The rules are there for a reason, and will improve your skills leaps and bounds if you learn them and put them into practice. But after doing this, you're ready to take the next step. Start experimenting outside the rules and see where it leads you. Know and respect the rules will make you a good photographer. Choose when and how to break them get even better.
About the Author

If you found these tips helpful, Andrew Goodall has released two top-selling ebooks that have already helped thousands of new photographers learn the art and skills of Nature Photography. See Andrew’s images and ebooks at http://www.naturesimage.com.au
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Any good beginner Digital Photography classes in London?

I am looking for a weekend day or evening class this summer on a night / evening a week. It must Torun in July or August for beginner photographers in London. The cheaper the better.

Take a look at hotcourses.com or floodlight – They are search engines for all types of courses in the UK and London

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