7 things to consider when taking a photo

The first thing you need to understand before reading this article is that there is actually no rule for photography. You can take a photo in any way that you want, It is totally up to you. These things I will teach you in here are just the guidelines. You don’t have to follow every instruction.

1. Rule of third

This is the very first basic rule to photography. It is easier to understand it if you would imagine a photo is divided into 9 parts, by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines. The subject of focus or the important element in your photo should be along those lines or in the intersections between lines. This will make your photo look interesting and well-balanced. It is easier to follow this rule since most of the digital camera nowaday have grid function in which it will show those lines on your screen.

2. Balance

Placing your element along lines and spots (from the rule of third) can make your photo look interesting, however, in some circumstances it might not work. Sometimes you may need other objects to balance the weight of the photo so the photo wouldn’t look too heavy in one area.

3. Symmetry

This rule is totally up to you because it is all about preference. Some photographer might like their photo to look symmetrical as possible because it gives you a perfect well-balanced feeling. However, sometimes perfection doesn’t really indicate beauty. A beautiful picture doesn’t necessary mean that it need to be symmetrical.

4. Leading line

Leading line is very important for a picture that has a lot of objects and elements because by placing the line in the right position, it can draw attention from eyes. It will pull people to look at the entire scene of the photo. The line doesn’t have to be straight, it could be any type of line that place throughout the picture.

5. Framing

Framing is how you present an element in a picture by placing a subject in relation to other objects. For example, if you want the focus of a picture to be a rock in the middle, you might want to put some other objects like trees around it to create a focus point on a rock.

6. Depth

Even though a picture is in two dimensional but you can create a depth of field by having an object in the foreground, middle ground, and background. The foreground is the closest thing in a picture. It is usually an object in focus and full of detail while objects in the background are usually plain and clear, a sky for instance.

7. Viewpoint

Viewpoint is perhaps the first thing you need to consider before taking any pictures. It can change the perception and message of the picture. Think about where you will shoot a scene from. If you shoot from above to create a bird eyes view, it would make a scene look far away, creating a nice and calm feeling. I recommend you to try out a different point of view when you take a photo, just so you will get to experiment which viewpoint is best for what scene.