Tuesday Tips

I’ve been wanting to do a regular “before & after” series on my blog for some time now, so I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with a clever title for these posts. Finally I think I’ve decided on “Tuesday Tips”. Is it too cheesy? Tuesday is a good day for me to consistently post (I think), and why not throw in a tip while I’m at it? I know, I know, the whole “first letter of the day with a coordinating word” thing is not my idea, I’m just jumping on the band wagon! There’s Tuesday Teasers, Thrifty Thursdays, and Fix-it-Fridays, so why not a Tuesday Tips? I thought about calling it “Manic Mondays”, but somehow it didn’t convey the message I was aiming for. Hehehe.

Today’s tip is about using the “rule of thirds” in photography. Wikipedia says it better than I can, but basically you want your subject to fall somewhere in the intersecting lines.

Here’s my before, straight-out-of-camera (or s.o.o.c.) with a grid:

And here’s my after! (With a grid for instructional purposes.)

Obviously I did more to this picture than just crop it, but cropping by itself can add so much more interest and “energy flow” to your photograph. Your eyes need a place to “rest” visually, and with a subject smack in the center, there’s not much flow or rest area for your eye balls. I tend to forget this when I pull out the camera and start clicking away, but luckily my camera has a “viewfinder grid” I can turn on and off which helps me remember to place my subject in the rule of thirds area. Even if I still forget with the grid on, cropping in any photo-editing software can help alleviate this error until I can fix my habit. Another bonus to cropping is being able to remove distracting elements, like the sunglasses this cutie is holding. Happy shooting!