Welcome to Technique Challenge #1. Please accept my apologies for being late in posting this, normally it will be posted every Wednesday.
Technique challenge #1 is about composition and filling your frame. Filling your frame is a way of filtering out all the other background "noise" in your photo. The purpose of filling your frame is to both make your photo more interesting and to really focus in on what you want your audience/viewer to see.
Take a look at the two photos I have below.
The picture of the Black-eyed Susan's is simply put - boring. It is a photo that generally you would either discard or take a short glance at and move on. It is hard to determine what the true focal point of the photo is and there are lots of distractions.
Now take a look at my second photo:
Simply by filling my frame with the close-up of the flower itself it is a much more interesting picture. The depth of focus is such that your eye goes directly to the flower. You can see the imperfection in the flower's center and look closely at the top center of the flower and you can see a bug sticking it's "legs" out. Now that is cool!
Here are some links that have good information and examples of "filling your frame" and ways to go about it! In addition, an outstanding reference book is "Learning to See Creatively" by Bryan Peterson. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to improve their photography skills and eye.
http://digital-photography-school.co...ll-your-frame/
http://www.photips.com/photography-t...-up-close.html
http://photoinf.com/General/Theresa_..._the_Frame.htm
Your assignment for the next two weeks is to practice filling your frame. Find a subject and take the first shot that occurs to you. Then on your next photo - "fill your frame." Look through your view finder and identify what distractions there are in your photo. This is harder to do than you think because your brain will automatically draw you to the item you want to focus on. So you will have to actually stop for a few seconds and look in the view finder left to right and top to bottom to see what the camera sees, not what your brain sees. Then determine if you will get less distractions by changing your angle, moving closer or changing your camera settings.
Post your before and after photo in
this gallery and then come back here and share with us your experience. What did you learn? What did you do to make the 2nd photo more appealling? We can all learn from sharing our experiences.
I can't wait to see everyone's photos! Have fun with this!