composition guidelines cheat sheet

IT’S  IMPORTANT  TO  LEARN  THE  FRAMEWORK  TO  GET  UHHMAAZZING  

PHOTOS  EVERY  TIME:

1.  FIND  BEAUTIFUL  LIGHT  FOR  YOUR  SUBJECT.

2.  USE  THE  COMPOSITION  GUIDELINES  TO  TELL  A  GREAT  STORY  WITH  YOUR  PHOTOGRAPH.

3.  FINISH  THE  STORY  BY  EDITING  TO  RE-­‐CREATE  THE  FEELING  YOU  FELT  WHEN  YOU  TOOK  THE  PHOTO.

COMPOSITION  GUIDELINES  CHEAT  SHEET:

GUIDELINES  ARE  NOT  RULES

LEARN  THE  GUIDELINES (SO  YOU  DON’T  LOOK  LIKE  AN  IDIOT)

THEN  BREAK  ALL  THE  RULES!

(BUT  MAKE  IT  LOOK  INTENTIONAL)

THE   RULE   OF  

THIRDS

The  Rule  of  Thirds  is  what  happens  when  you  place  your  subject  on  one  of  the  imaginary  lines  that  divide  your  frame  into  three  equal  parts.

SYMMETRY  (AND  THE  AWFULNESS  OF  ALMOST  SYMMETRY)

For  our  purposes,  let’s  define  symmetry  as  centering  our  subject  and  making  sure  the  background  has  an  even  amount  of  interest  on  both  sides.

CROPPINGThe  cropping  of  a  picture  is  important,  because  it  can  set  the  whole  tone  of  a  

photograph.

You  can  always  crop  more  when  you  edit  the  photo,  but  you  can’t  add  any  

extra  to  the  picture  that  you  accidentally  crop  out.

Make  clean  cuts  with  your  cropping.  Don’t  crop  out  hands  and  feet  when  half  of  the  hand  is  sEll  in  the  picture.  The  key  is  to  make  it  feel  intenEonal.

IF  IN  DOUBT,  LEAVE  EXTRA  SPACE  AND  CROP  LATER.

WRONG CORRECT

DEPTH  OF  FIELD

Depth  of  field  is  the  amount  of  space  in  focus.

SHALLOW  DEPTH  OF  FIELD

LARGE  DEPTH  OF  FIELD

DEPTH  OF  FIELD  IS  CONTROLLED  BY  TWO  THINGS:

1. Aperture (the size of the hole in the camera that lets light in).

2. Proximity to your subject.

Since  the  iPhone  has  a  fixed  aperture,  the  only  control  we  have  is  to  physically  

move  closer  or  further  from  our  subject  to  affect  depth  

of  field.

Note:  The  digital  zoom  on  your  iPhone  will  not  affect  depth  of  field,  so  use  your  

feet,  you  lazy  fool!

CLOSER  TO  SUBJECT  =  BLURRY  BACKGROUND

FURTHER  FROM  SUBJECT  =  SHARPER  BACKGROUND

HAVE  FUN.