Category Archives: Photo Tips
Thursday Tips, or Photography According To Lauren: Backlighting & Sunstars
It’s been so nice and sunny lately that I thought I might talk a little bit more about light. One way to spice up your pictures and add a bit of drama is to use backlighting. Backlighting is when the your light source is behind your subject rather than in front of it. Backlighting can create a lovely light halo around your subject & it can also make for nice long shadows. More Pictures
2Thursday Tips, or Photography According To Lauren: 35mm f/1.4L (Baby)
f/1.4. The quality and texture of the image is so buttery delicious!
First things first: one of my weddings is on Rock My Wedding today. Did you see? Charlotte always lays my weddings out so beautifully and with such care. I always feel happy that I have put my pictures in her hands. More Pictures
10Tips For The Timid Street Photograher
Street photography is basically what I do for a hobby, and it is something that I deeply enjoy. When I set out on a picture taking adventure I never know what I’m going to find, and it always feels a bit like a treasure hunt, with the next interesting image potentially just around the corner. I’m not exactly sure how I became such a keen street photographer because a few years ago the idea of taking pictures of strangers without their permission terrified me. Perhaps in the end it was the work of other street photographers that I love so well – Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Vivian Maier, (to name a few) – that made me feel lik I HAD to keep trying no matter how awkward I found it. More Pictures
7Thursday Tips, or Photography According To Lauren: Framing
Last time I talked about how to use lines in your compositions, and this time I want to talk about framing. Actually I’m not really sure what it’s called but framing is what I’m going to call it. Good composition is all about simplifying your images down to the barest essentials. You don’t want your image to be too busy, and you don’t want your viewer to have to work to figure out what’s going on. You want the experience of looking at your pictures to be a pleasant one, and you don’t want the subject of your picture to have a bunch of stuff coming out of their heads, or to look as though they’re being decapitated by a misplaced line. You can achieve all of this through framing. When I say framing what I mean is that when you take a picture you want to pay attention to your subject, but it is equally important to pay attention to where your subject stands in relation to everything else in the picture. Is the background of your image working for you to make the picture more interesting, or is it working against you to make your image look like a cluttered mess? More Pictures
8Thursday Tips or Photography According To Lauren: Lines
Like the rule of thirds, lines are another simple compositional element that you can use to activate your images. Lines should draw your eye towards a focal point while also keeping your eye moving across the image. One way of achieving that effect is through corner activation, or by arranging lines so that they are coming out of the corners to lead your eyes towards the center of the picture. Last week Danae requested that I do some kind of fancy roll over thing with each image to illustrate what I’m talking about, but I decided to go for the low-fi version instead as I’m a little intimidated even by simple html, so here you are:
2Thursday Tips, or Photography According To Lauren: Composition & The Rule of Thirds
After spending two weeks wondering how I should do justice to composition in just one post I settled upon the idea of just attacking one rule at a time each week. That way I can do each rule justice, and I don't have to feel pressure to get good pictures of every rule all at the same time. I'm actually rather excited to give this a go, as it will mean that I spend a whole week exercising my eye by trying to take pictures that illustrate just one element of composition.
Thursday Tips, or Photography According To Lauren: #6 Silhouettes
Last week I talked about how to meter for an even exposure in most lighting situations. This week I thought I’d talk about how to create silhouettes. Silhouettes can be great for playing around with shapes, and for showing off details in the sky. If you’ve got a really great sunset, or a deep blue sky, or some scattered clouds – it might be time to whip out the silhouette action. More Pictures
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