Composition and Lighting

The major components of any photograph are its composition and the lighting of the subject. These pictures illustrate how important each is: each photo here, taken recently in northern Indiana, displays careful attention to the rule of three’s (note that the pictures are uncluttered with just a few central features), or rule of thirds (you can divide each picture into thirds, with nothing centered, not to mention that each is taken late in the evening or very early in the morning when the color is more vibrant and the shadows help outline the images and create a dynamic instability.

For you high end users and Photoshop owners, these pictures are shot in raw, which on my D80 gives much more initial vibrancy to the pictures than jpg files, plus they are photoshopped using the curves and vibrance tools. I open them first in Bridge and play with the blacks a bit, then move to Photoshop for the rest.

Notice too I wasn’t afraid to shoot directly into the sun. You are often told not to do this, but doing so provides many creative opportunities.