The Secrets to Creating Amazing Photos

83 Composition Tools from the Masters

Marc Silber

• Publisher: Mango
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781633537675
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

The Secrets to Creating Amazing Photos —Natural Lighting & Composition recipes for improving your photography, right now!

Picture perfect secrets: There's a common misconception that composition and lighting are mysterious and that only certain people have that natural gift for the techniques involved. The truth is that both involve a set of skills that you can master. Just as you can use cookbook recipes to make your favorite meal—you don't have to be a famous French chef—you also can make picture perfect photos by just following a recipe!

Easy-to-follow photography lighting and composition recipes: Marc Silber has spent years studying the works of masters and interviewing some of the biggest names in photography. Now he can provide you with simple and easy-to-follow recipes for creating photographs that you and others will love! The Secrets to Creating Amazing Photos: 83 Composition Tools from the Masters puts at your fingertips ideas for improving your skills by giving you easy-to-follow "recipes" that will improve your photography right now!

Take your photography to the next level: Composition and use of natural light are the two biggest keys to creating photos that others will love. No matter what kind of camera or smartphone you're using, you can take your photography to the next level and beyond by learning lighting and composition tools and secrets known to the masters of the art.

Carry The Secrets to Creating Amazing Photos in your camera bag: The book is compact in size and easy to carry with you, so you can flip to the look you want and follow the recipe for creating an image that inspires you. Use it when you're out photographing to get new ideas and inspiration. You'll be able to rapidly up you photography game by learning the skills in the book.

Key benefits of owning The Secrets to Creating Amazing Photos include:

• Taking better photographs today by learning the keys to composition and lighting
• Having quick and easy to follow "recipes" for composition and lighting at your fingertips
• Learning the secrets of composition and lighting from the masters

PART ONE:
FUNDAMENTAL COMPOSITION GUIDES AND TOOLS

“Composition is simply the arrangement
of your subject matter within the confines
of your picture space.”

—William Palluth, artist and author

The Oxford American Dictionary defines composition as, “the artistic arrangement of the parts of a picture.”

Always keep in mind that composition means how you arrange your subject within the frame of your camera in a way that best tells your story.

Also note that when I say “camera” I’m referring to any type
of usual camera or smartphone (you’ll see many of my photos
in the book were taken with an iPhone which I noted in the caption.) Almost all cameras produce a rectangular image, but a few are square.

You’re the captain of the ship when it comes to composition: you have an enormous number of choices for placing your subject within the frame of your camera and one of the adventures of photography is discovering new ways to do that creatively. My goal is to help you do so easily, even intuitively, by practicing with these tools.

As a note, whenever you hear or see the phrase “take” Photos, I’d rather you think of it as creating them.

The following are your 83 guides or tools for composition. You’ll be able to find many more, but I’m giving you the main ones that will get you rolling, and leave it to you to keep discovering more.

Also remember that, like basic ingredients that I mentioned, these too can be combined in different creative ways. Keep in mind that many of the examples I will show you are components of composition, and some of them on their own may not seem “amazing” but when you add them to your tool kit and put them to work you’ll find they become very handy in developing your eye.

Going back to the kitchen, when learning to cook you take up each part of a meal up separately. For example: when learning to make a basic omelet, it might not be much to sing about by itself, but it then becomes “amazing” when you add the other ingredients (cheese, onions, sauces, etc.) when chosen well.

But let’s begin by learning each on its own.

I’m going to take these tools up, set by step, beginning with the simplest first, building as we go. If you’ve been photographing for some time you will be familiar with many of these tools. But please keep your mind open to reinforce or learn new aspects of each. The biggest mistake one can make is to see a familiar tool and then assume that there’s nothing more to learn. I have found the reverse is true: the more I study a subject the more I appreciate and can learn from its basics; after all, “basic” means the foundation, which, like a house, must be strong to build upon.

1. Framing: Put an Edge around It

There are many ways to frame your photo. The simplest is to look for trees, or a branch, walls, window frames, etc. that can form an edge around your image, as you can see in the example above; you’ll see many others in the book as you read through it.

Putting an edge or frame around your composition serves many purposes: First, it highlights what you want the viewer to focus on. A frame adds order to the composition and leads your eye to the subject. It also adds depth by giving the image at least one more layer, which also adds contrast. This kind of frame adds a finished look, too. It’s like you’re saying, “Here is my photo—it’s wrapped up and ready for you to look at!”

There is another definition of “framing” that means to deliberately place your subject within the rectangle of your camera. When you do this you are looking closely for what you want in the image and also what you don’t want: for example, look at what is behind your subject—you don’t want a plant or tree growing out of his or her head. Or there may be a splotch of light next to them that pulls the viewer’s eye off course. In these cases, move your subject or move yourself to properly frame your subject with no such distractions.

An additional ...