Take a waterfall, tall and beautiful. Now visualize a small stream trickling over the edge of a few large stones. If you shoot it just right, they could look the same. “Wait a minute,” you're saying, “those are as different as night and day.” That’s a good point, but unless you also include something to compare the water to, you have no point of reference. This concept is generally referred to as opposition.
Say you’re hiking in a National Park, and find a really cool waterfall. You get close to capture detail, and shoot against a clear blue sky (so the background won’t distract.) You tell your friends about the adventure, and eagerly await your pictures from the photo lab. When they finally come back, you flip through the shots looking for your master piece. When you finally see it, your heart sinks. It looks OK, but there’s no magic, no majesty. It’s just not the same.
What happened? When you saw it live, you were there. You climbed over rocks; you walked through streams, and pushed pine branches out of your way. When you looked through the view finder of your camera, these images were also in the back of your mind. The human mind is a wonderful creation; it takes images, sounds, and smells and blends them all into wonderful memories. The problem lies in the limitations of the medium.
A photo tip worth remembering is; we experience in three-dimensions; but we photograph in two-dimensions. Opposition is one of several creative techniques that makes your photo appear more three-dimensional. The more three-dimensional you photo appears the more likely your viewer is to experience at least part of what you did when you took the shot.
Size is relative. A small mountain may seem big compared to a boulder. A boulder may seem huge compared to a rock. Even a small rock will seem gigantic compared to a grain of sand. In the world of micro photography, even a grain of sand could look like a vast landscape if there was nothing to compare it to.
At one time or another, most of us have seen a close-up of something that was made to make us think it was something else. Why did we not recognize the item for what it truly was? Simply put, you had nothing to com"pare it to. You had no point of reference. This works in both directions, small and large. I'm a big fan of simplifying an image when you can, but there are times when you can simplify too much. Leaving a rock or a branch in the edge of the picture can often mean the difference between a nice shot and a great shot!
A few years back I did a series of nature shots in which I included a “Barbie Doll” in every shot. This was the California doll; because her skin was more tan than most, so from certain angles she did look more realistic. Most of the shots I did either had the doll in silhouette or they were looking over her shoulder from behind. In most cases, I could have used a real model, but not all of them. One shot in particular showed this beautiful girl who had apparently hiked through the woods (pine needles were framing the shot) and she was looking at this gorgeous waterfall. The catch was: the waterfall in question was only 24 inches tall.
Think of your subject as the star in a major motion picture. Often that star does well, because of his or her supporting cast. No one is expected to go through life as a one man show. The people we meet, hang out with, or interact with also influence how people see us. Your subject; be it human or nature, is the same way. Include elements that support your vision, eliminate the distractions that do not. I firmly believe that in order to get the big picture, you need to include the small details. One of those details is showing size, by using opposition.
Listed below are more articles related to the above article from the "Photography" article category.
People interested in the above article "Better Photo Tips - Size Does Matter" are also interested in the related articles listed below:
Sharing images with family and friends is nowadays such a common task, but sometimes the images require a bit of editing for sending an e-mail or comply with the web requirements, especially for you have large number of images. And for this, you must have to convert your images to the desired format for proper use, the first thing is that you should have the appropriate tools that support batch conversion images and provide good output image quality.
One of the best parts of mushroom hunting is taking mushroom pictures. I've been identifying wild mushrooms for around a decade now, and my collection of mushroom pictures continues to grow with every mushroom hunting season. At first my mushroom pictures were pretty poor quality. Back then I was just taking mushroom pictures to help me try to casually identify in my wild mushroom field guides at home, or maybe to show off to a friend. Who knew that so many years later, I would have developed specific skill-set taking high quality mushroom pictures in the wild? Lucky for you I can teach you how to take great mushroom pictures and save you the many years of trial and error!
Digital cameras are one of the most popular forms of photography out there today making them the first choice of most people when they head out to take photos. Due to this fact, it is highly likely that your favorite photo of a friend, family member, or nature scene is stored on your digital photo memory card. This can be highly convenient when you want to email it to a friend since you can simply pop it onto your computer and then send it off, however, when you want to do a bit more with the photo the digital format may toss you for a loop.
As a photographer, whether you are a professional or just an amateur that likes to play around with photos, when you take an amazing photo it is hard not to want to show it to everyone in the world. This is why many people often times take their best photos and blow them up to place on their walls. This is especially true if the photo happens to contain your family members because then you have more than one reason to want to show it off to other friends and family members.
The photo album is much more than a book of photographs. It is a book of memories, reminding us of past events and chronicling our own lives. There can be no surprise then that albums need to guarantee these photos are kept safe. This article looks at some of the reasons why a leather photo album is arguably the finest choice of photo album available.
Jerry Hart, a well known personality who is an environmentalist, a nature lover and also a green revolutionist had contributed a lot to spread the awareness on GO GREEN, Healthy and nutritious food. He is highly concerned toward the greenery of the environment. He well knew as being the initiator and founder of charity "Healthy food in School". He also hosted a Talk show host in both the media Television and Radio, Mr Jerry Hart had talk over large number of issues to make people aware about many importance fact about making life healthy and how to utilize nature gifts by not giving any harm to nature. He also has known as Mr Green to the world.
Over the last few years, technology has made the job of taking photographs easy and hassle-free. Various models of modern cameras are being introduced regularly in the market and catching a gizmo of preference has become easy with a significant numbers of online retailers putting on sale online latest cameras of different brands. With auto-metering and auto-focusing functions embedded in contemporary cameras, a wit is going round in circles that even a dunce can now take photos. Not hurting the sentiments of professional photographers, this light remark is aimed at to express easiness arriving because of today's humanoid technology.
