COLOR COMPOSITION CORE SKILLS Color can be used to express emotion in an image.

Pale, soft colors are

restful and tranquil, while rich, vibrant colors burst with energy and demand attention. Color is integral to
visual experience, but in photography it is almost a separate subject in itself. The basis of successful color
photography is to use color in its own right, instead of merely capturing the many hues of a scene. Color as
subject One approach is to photograph colors themselves rather than the objects they imbue—that is, to try
to treat the subject as if it were the incidental feature in the scene. You do not need to learn to see in color,
but you do need to learn to see colors for themselves—entirely separate from the thing that displays the
color. This change of mental focus could radically transform the entire way you photograph. You evaluate a
scene not in terms of whether it is a marvelous vista but in color analytic terms. You will observe that colors
vary not only with hue—the name given to a color—but also with intensity, or saturation. Soon, you will
appreciate another quality: the value, or brightness, of a color. With more experience, you will appreciate that
certain colors can be captured in their full richness, whereas others will appear weaker. Understanding each
dimension adds to your ability to compose with color. Color wheel The colors of the rainbow can be arranged
in a circle (the “color wheel”): the basic primary colors CHANGING VIEWPOINTS CORE SKILLS Always be on the
lookout for viewpoints that give a new slant to your work. Don’t ignore the simple devices, such as shooting
down at a building instead of up at it, or trying to see a street scene from a child’s viewpoint rather than an
adult’s. Your choice of viewpoint communicates subtle messages that say as much about you as they do your
subject. Take a picture of someone from a distance, for example, and the image carries a sense that you, too,
were distant from that person. If you photograph a scene of poverty from the viewpoint of a bystander, the
picture will again have that distant look of having been taken by an aloof observer. Lively markets are popular
photographic subjects, but what do they look like from a stallholder’s position? If you enjoy sports, shoot from
within the action, not from the sidelines. Practical points Higher viewpoints enable you to reduce the amount
of foreground and increase the area of background recorded by a lens. From a high vantage point, a street or
river scene lies at a less acute angle than when seen from street or water level. This reduces the amount of
depth of field required to show the scene in sharp focus. However, from a low camera position subjects may
be glimpsed through a sea of grass or legs. And if you look upward from a low position, you see less
background and more sky, making it easier to separate your subject from its surroundings. ▲ Less can say
more At markets and similar types of location, all the activity can be overwhelming—and the temptation is
often to try to record the entire busy, colorful scene. However, if you look around you, there could be images
at your feet showing much less but saying so much more. In Uzbekistan I noticed next to a fruit stall a lady
who had nothing to sell but tERCEIVED DEPTH OF FIELD Acceptable sharpness varies according to how much
blur a viewer is prepared accept. This, in turn, depends on how much detail a viewer can discern in the image,
which, in turn, depends on the final size of the image (as seen on a screen or as a paper print). As a small print,
an image may display great depth of field; however, as the image is progressively enlarged, it then becomes
more and more obvious where the unsharpness begins, thereby making the depth of field appear increasingly
more limited. ▲ Right aperture Even an ultra wide-angle lens will offer insufficient depth of field when objects
are close to the lens and very distant unless a small aperture is used. In this shot, the charm of the scene
would have been lost had either the château or foreground flowers been unsharp. The smallest aperture on
this lens was set to give maximum sharpness, but the long shutter time needed meant that a tripod was
necessary. ▶FOCUSING AND DEPTH OF FIELD CONTINUED CORE SKILLS Autofocusing (AF) Cameras are able to
focus automatically on your photographic subject by using one of two systems. The active system, which uses
a beam of infrared (IR), is now largely obsolete but was formerly much used in compact AF cameras. In the
passive system, however, sensors analyze the image to determine whether it is in focus and, if not, how best
to bring it into focus. One passive method detects the contrast of fine detail in the image: unfocused images
present as low-contrast, because they lack detail. The lens is then made to change focus so that contrast is at a
peak, corresponding with a sharp image. This method requires good light levels to work well. Another passive
method samples a part of the image, then splits it into two beams. When these beams fall on certain
reference points in the sensor (the beams are “in phase”), the lens is considered to be in focus. The crucial
property of this method is that the phase differences vary, depending on whether the lens is focused in front
of or behind the plane of best focus. This information enables the system to work very rapidly, even
continuously. For best results, note the following: ▪ For off-center subjects, aim the focusing area at your
subject, “hold” the focus with light pressure on the shutter or focus-lock button, then reframe. ▪ Extremely
bright objects in the focusing region— sparkling reflections on polished metal, for instance— could confuse
the sensor and reduce accuracy. ▪ Photographing beyond objects that are close to the lens—for example,
through a bush or between the gaps in a fence—can confuse the autofocus system. ▪ Restless subjects, such as
children or flowers in a light breeze, may be best kept in focus by setting a distance manually and then
adjusting your position backward and forward to maintain focus.Effects of lens aperture The main reason for
changing lens aperture is to adjust camera exposure: a smaller aperture restricts the beam of light passing
through the lens. However, the aperture also alters depth of field. As you set smaller apertures, the cone of
light passing through the lens becomes slimmer and more needlelike. As a result, even when it is not perfectly
focused, light from the subject is not as spread out as it would be if a larger aperture were used. Thus, more of
the scene within the field of view appears sharp. In this illustration, lens focal length and focus distance
remain the same, and depth of field at f/2.8 covers just the depth of a person, whereas at f/8 it increases to
6ft (2m) in extent. At f/22, depth of field extends from 5ft (1.5m) to infinity. ◀ Effects of lens focal length
Variations in depth of field resulting from focal length alone are due to image magnification. With our figure at
a constant distance from the camera, a long focal length (135mm) will record him at a larger size than does a
standard lens (50mm), which, in turn, creates a larger image than the wide-angle (28mm). To the eye, the
figure is the same size, but on the sensor or film, the figure’s size varies directly with focal length. Where
details are rendered smaller in the image, it is more difficult to make out what is sharp and what is not. As a
result, depth of field appears to increase. Conversely, longer focal length lenses magnify the image, so
magnifying differences in focus. Thus, depth of field appears to be greatly reducedFOCUSING AND DEPTH OF
FIELD CORE SKILLS Depth of field is the space in front of and behind the plane of best focus, within which
objects appear acceptably sharp (see opposite). Though accurate, this definition tells you nothing about the
power that depth of field has in helping you communicate your visual ideas. You can, for example, vary depth
of field to imply space, to suggest being inside the action, or to emphasize the separation between elements
within the picture area. Varying depth of field Your chief control over depth of field is the lens aperture: as you
set smaller apertures (using f/11 instead of f/4, for example), depth of field increases. This increase is greater
the shorter the lens’s focal length, so that the depth of field at f/11 on a 28mm lens is greater than it would be
at f/11 on a 300mm lens at the same working distance. Depth of field also increases as the subject being
focused on moves further away from the camera. Meanwhile, at close focusing distances, depth of field is very
limited. Using depth of field An extensive depth of field (resulting from using a small lens aperture, a wide-
angle lens, distant focusing, or a combination of these factors) is often used for the following types of subject:
▪ Landscapes, such as wide-angle, general views. ▪ Architecture, in which the foregrounds to buildings are
important features. ▪ Interiors, including nearby furniture or other objects, and far windows and similar
features. As a by-product, smaller apertures tend to reduce lens flare and improve lens performance. A
shallow depth of field (resulting from a wide lens aperture, a long focal length lens, focusing close-up, or a
combination of these) renders only a small portion of the image sharp, and is often used for: ▪ Portraiture, to
help concentrate viewer attention. ▪ Reducing the distraction from elements that cannot be removed from the
lens’s field of view. ▪ Isolating a subject from the distracting visual clutter of its surroundings.
Chimping is short for “checking image preview” and seems very appropriate for photographers who
exclaim “Oo! Oo! Ah! Aah!” while reviewing their images on the camera’s LCD screen. If you allow yourself to
be distracted by the preview image, you will miss many shots. It also breaks the rhythm of shooting, and
interrupts the concentration you should be applying to the subject. Try to reserve your reviewing to rest
breaks and moments when you are sure nothing is going on. You do not have to go as far as some
photographers, who tape up their camera screens to wean themselves off the habit, but turn off the preview
and you will find you photograph more, and become more attuned to your subject.

Photographers have the good fortune to be able to build on the experience of centuries of painting and
graphic art with the unique visual tools of photography. Photographic composition arises through the joining
of elements such as angle of view, perspective, depth of field, color, and tone with the visual structures that
generations of artists have found effective in their work. Any photographic composition can be said to work if
the arrangement of the subject elements communicates effectively to the image’s intended viewers. Often,
the best way to ensure a striking composition is to look for the key ingredients of a scene and then adjust your
camera position and exposure controls to draw those elements out from the clutter of visual information that,
if left competing with each other, would weaken the photograph’s impact. Composition is not only about how
you frame the picture; it is also how you use aperture to control depth of field, focus to lead the viewer’s
attention, and expose to use light and shade to shape the image. If you are new to photography, it may help to
concentrate your attention on the scene’s overall