What are the pillars to take a good photo?

What Should I Consider to shoot a good photo?

Keeping in mind what you want to portray helps in composition. The following elements consider them even war correspondent photojournalists.

Composition of a photo:

The way you prioritize and order the presence of different elements within the frame.

The reading order has a lot to do with it. Something like two-thirds of the world tends to 'read' a photo spontaneously from left to right and top to bottom.

Framing a photo:

Cool + photos that maintain an affinity with the so-called rule of thirds (Two-thirds of heaven and one of earth, please)

It helps to consider all the elements within the frame as 'inhabitants' of the photo and then 'distribute' them within the thirds looking for a certain symmetry.

Angle/perspective of a good photo

the angle or perspective greatly influences the impression that the photo makes. What would you feel seeing the Doge meme if the photo had been taken from a super contra P angle?

The types of angles in photographs

Certain angles and frames can convey feelings such as confusion, instability, vertigo.

Symmetry and sobriety in the composition can convey security, peace and stability.

Rhythm of a good photo: 

For example, especially in urban landscapes, it is necessary to consider how to frame series of the same objects such as bars of a fence or windows of a building. Photos with serial elements are said to have a lot of 'rhythm'. Rhythm can become the theme of the composition.

The rhythm in photography

Lighting for a good photo capture: 

You can define the tone of the photo, it can vary greatly depending on the intentionality. It is natural and artificial.

The natural one works by regulating shutter speed and sensitivity to light (ISO). It may involve the use of flash and diffusers to compensate for the lack of light on the subject without appearing to use artificial light.

The artificial one involves the use of additional equipment like flash, lamps and diffusers. For the use of artificial light there are basic lighting rules.

Light is the essential raw material for photography. As we saw in the previous chapter, photography cannot exist without light since it uses it to be created.

Photographic lighting

We can take photos without lenses and even without cameras, but we could never do it without having lighting on the scene or on the object. It is for this reason that control and knowledge of photographic lighting become essential if we want to improve our images.

In this chapter, we will learn more about the basic elements of photographic lighting to artificially light a scene. We will see what a flash is and how it works.

Studio flashes for taking a good photo

We will dedicate ourselves to both studio flashes and external ones or those that the camera has incorporated. We will also focus on the rest of the fundamental elements to get the most out of the flashes in the studio. These elements are the snoot, the honeycombs, the diffusers or the reflectors among many others.

Important Lighting to capture a good photo

To make good use of these lighting elements it is essential to know some basic concepts of professional photographic lighting, for example, the main light, the fill light or the background light. Once we know this we can master the concept of contrast ratio and make creative use of light and shadow in our photos.

When we have mastered all this we will be ready to know what the high key and the low key are in lighting and their relationship with the Ansel Adams zone system.