Composition

W H AT W I L L Y O U R IMAGES L O O K LIKE IN 1 0 YEARS ?

A good question to ask yourself is,
Where will my images be in 10 years?

Most cameras produce compressed files known as JPEG files. When JPEG files are compressed, data is lost. The most important drawback of keeping your images in JPEG format is that if you open them and then edit and save them, your image will lose quality. If you repeat this process many times, youll end up with an image of very poor quality. Theres a good chance youll see the little pixels that make up the image. This is called pixelization. In order to prevent file degradation, it s best to convert your JPEG files to another format called TIFF, where there is less compression and thus less loss of data.

An Interview with John Woo Bright Star Film Journal

I think of how the poem will be written or the painting painted rather than what techniques to use. It is not the method that is important but the feeling and imagination that goes into creating a film. How a story is told is vital and so I make use of specific techniques to create the action sequences in my movies. Often these are based on how I am feeling at the moment. My films have a lot of action in them but I dont treat them as pure action movies I want my films to be something more than that. I direct action sequences in the same way that one would choreograph a musical, with every movement planned.

Cropping Photos to Make Them Look Better

THERULEOF THIRDS
Painters discovered a long time ago that balance in a painting can be achieved by placing subjects or parts of subjects one-third of the way from any of the four sides of your frame. When you re out in the field, you can easily achieve this, but many times you will forget in the process of capturing that ideal photo-op moment. Also, when you frame in the field, sometimes your estimations of one-third away, say, from the left side of the frame can be off.

Rule of 3rds

Critiquing
You can evaluate it by its composition Meaning whether the photo invokes strong feelings its technicalities, and, finally, things you like and don t like about the photo.

Whats wrong with this photo

BIGPHOTOMEANSBIG RESOLUTION
When you send out your photos for enlargement, it s best not to fool with them before you do it. If you resize or resample your photo in an image processing program (see the section For example, if you increase the resolution of your photo to 300 dpi and enlarge it to the size you want it printed, Photoshop (or another image processing program) will rebuild the pixels. One thing is for sure, the rebuilt pixels won t provide the nice detail you had in the original photo. Many enlargement services use photo enlargement programs that are much better than Photoshop, so it s best to leave the enlargement up to them. There is a good oneGenuine Fractals GF PrintProthat s fairly user-friendly if you absolutely have to do the enlargement yourself. The photo that you upload should be one with a high resolution. Before you decide to enlarge a photo, look at it on your monitor at 100-percent magnification. (Type 100 into the bottom left of the window in which your photo is displayed in an image processing program.) If it looks soft or ragged, know that the inconsistencies will show up in the enlargement. With today s high-megapixel cameras, enlargement has become a lot easier. It s not uncommon to get a photo enlarged to 4264 inches if it s a decent picture taken with a dSLR camera of 8 pixels or more.

Composition
Great composition consists of: Lighting and great moment

EQUIPMENT: Ernst Haas

There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.

THE VIEWFINDER IS OUR CANVAS AND LIGHT IS OUR PAINT

We have at our disposal six avors of available light: Frontlight This is the light coming over your shoulder and falling on the subject. Frontlight creates a at, often dull light. If you want to shoot in frontlight, try moving around the subject so the light comes more from behind, and try using a ash.

Sidelight
As the name implies, this light comes directly from the side. Great for landscapes and scenic shots, this light is pretty severe for people pictures, unless youre trying to emphasize character in a face (lines, crags, and the like). Be kind here, because you want to be remembered in Aunt Betties will. This being such perfect light for landscapes, as it creates dimension in your photos, you can perhaps include a person in the shot to provide a sense of scale, placing him or her at the edge of the shot, and shooting widejust establishing the human presence.

Toplight
Noon, with the sunlight illuminating the subject from the top down, is not a favorable light for photographing people, because it creates harsh shadows and tends to be colorless.

Backlight
This light comes directly from behind and can create an ethereal look, emphasizing the spray in ocean waves, adding depth and magic to smoke, and creating halos when used in portraits. This is wonderful light, but it does weaken the saturation of color. Try popping in a little ash to bring up the light on the backlit side and strengthen the colors.

Overcast/shade
This is one of the kindest types of light for photographing people.
Clouds create a giant soft box, softening the light and smoothing out the skin. This light also helps out the exposure, as the dynamic range of light that the chip can capture is within range; often side/front/toplighting will provide an exposure range greater than the sensor can capture in the frame.

Twilight
Twilight can be the magical hour for taking great shots. The sun has nearly or just passed the horizon, and
the ambient (aka available) light starts moving toward the blue range. Shooting on a daylight setting will emphasize this e ect, but do not set auto-white balance, because that will remove this cool/cold e ect.

COMPOSITION
Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper... the photographer begins with the nished product. Edward Steichen

RULES OF CLASSIC COMPOSITION

The Rule of Thirds One of the classic compositional theories is the rule of thirds. This is a simple but quite e ective way of constructing your image so the viewers eye is drawn to one of several key spots. Applicable in both the art and photographic worlds, this helps you create images that are nicely balanced and pleasing to the eye.

S-Curves
The eye is also attracted to the gentle sweep of an S-curve Be it a road or river leading from the foreground into the distance, this curve will draw the viewers eye along the path where your main subject can be placed.

Composition
As moviegoers, we expect to be entertained for two hours by both the story and the visuals for the price of admission. Sometimes we can overlook technical problems, such as a poorly lit scene or flat composition, if the story is really strong. It is the message that is the most important element in a scene, but if technical problems become too apparent, it will ultimately weaken the message, no matter how engaging the story line.

The Visuals
Visual style begins and ends with the composition, which in film, television, and animation is the arrangement of elements such as line, weight, and shape within a two-dimensional frame shape. To create a visually strong composition, you need to know the purpose for each shot in a scene, and how that shot relates to the overall production. Once you have an idea of what you want to suggest with a shot, you can arrange the elements of the composition to give it meaning.

Narrative Illustration
Suppose two characters are about to say their wedding vows. What can you imply about the characters or the situation? Maybe the script calls for the characters to appear radiant and excited. Or perhaps you need to convey their uneasiness in the composition because the couple has made the wrong decision. Elements of the composition can be arranged in a distinct order to evoke a specific response, whether it is joy, fear, angst, or any other emotion.

Elements of composition

Elements of a composition are arranged to evoke a specific emotional response.

Line

Vertical line power Horizontal line imply Stability Diagonal line motion

Center of interest

Headroom
When framing a subject, you must consider headroom, which refers to the amount of space between the top of the head and the frame. If there is too much space, the subject will appear short. If there is not enough headroom, the subject will appear crowded.

Headroom
A technique for achieving adequate headroom is to align the eyes of your character to the top one-third line.

Lead room
also called look space, refers to the amount of space that is in front of the character to the edge of the frame. Generally, you want about two-thirds lead room in front of a character. This allows the audience to comprehend where the character is moving (or looking), which produces an aesthetically pleasing image.

The world
We see the world in three dimensions, but when that world is recorded onto film or video, depth becomes an illusion. The concept of perspective is based on the way the human eye sees the world. Our eyes are constantly in motion, scanning objects and the environment.

 the world in perspective

We view the world from different positions that alter the way objects appear. If we look out the window from the sixth floor of an apartment complex, for instance, the environment looks much different than if we were on the ground looking up.

 feeling of depth
So, what happens when you want to convey a feeling of depth, but the material you are working with is essentially flat, and twodimensional? As a storyboard artist, you need to have a firm grasp on the laws of visual perspective to make objects appear to have dimension and distance. Understanding perspective allows you to consider different viewpoints of a shot.

Depth..
The most regarded system of representation is linear perspective. Critical to linear perspective is lens choice, and the distance between the camera and the subject. Perspective will change anytime the lens or camera position is rearranged. Other important cues include overlapping, texture, spacing, size, and foreshortening.

Illusion of depth

Illusion of depth in perspective

The V. point

V. Point

V. Point in Perspective

Lighting
is a key component in the development of a visual story. It creates depth within an image, directs the focus of attention, creates mood within a scene, sets the time of day, and highlights particular objects and characters.