“Yes, sergeant!”
“Today, I expect you photography mama boys and girls to learn how to keep your lines straight as well as to use lines to create better compositions. If you follow my commands, then you just might become lean, routine photographing machines!”
1. “Lock your eyes on the horizon line in your photo and make sure it’s level before you pull the trigger, I mean, push the shutter. Sometimes, you have the actual horizon of the Earth in your photo to use as a guide, or other natural elements, such as a shoreline. Don’t just look at the subject because you can be fooled that he or she is aligned correctly in the photo. Look for a parallel line behind your subject as a more reliable level reference than lines on the subject’s face or body.”
2. “Remember, your camera is your friend! Use the guidelines that are imprinted or superimposed on the camera’s viewfinder screen to keep your lines straight. Change your position, if necessary, until the horizontal guidelines are parallel to the natural or artificial horizon you see through the viewfinder.”
3. “You’ll make your sergeant very happy, recruits, if you acquire a spirit level that is small enough to attach to your camera. It works just like a level a carpenter uses. Frame your shot and then check that the bubble in the level is centered to be absolutely sure your pictures don’t look like they were taken by a drunken sailor.”
4. “If you go strictly by the book, then photos that aren’t straight can be fixed with editing software; but as a tough, old digital drill sergeant, I don’t like it! It makes you soft, sitting on your butt in front of a computer. Learn to keep your lines straight in the field and you can always be a member of my squad.”
5. “Now, we’ll see if you’re ready for some advanced training, so pay attention in the back row because I don’t like to raise my voice!!!!! The straight lines you see through the camera’s viewfinder will help to eliminate any tilt in your photos, but you can also use the vertical and diagonal lines to create better and more interesting images.”
6. “Look for the shapes, patterns and shadows that the combination of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines create. You recruits will need some book-learnin’ to grasp this concept; so your homework is to print a few of your past photos, look for the various lines and highlight them with a color marker. You’ll discover just how often lines appear in your photos that you never knew were there. It’s the difference between coming back from a mission with dead or alive photos.”
7. “Now, this next command will definitely separate the men (and women) from the boys (and girls), and that’s to keep your eyes peeled for converging lines in your photos. These are the lines that appear in the foreground of an image and then begin to become closer toward the back of a photo. You may actually see the point at which they join. Converging lines help to create a three-dimensional perspective in your pictures. The most obvious example is railroad tracks. Positioning yourself and your camera in relation to converging lines can make your photos more dynamic and interesting.”
8. “Now, recruits, I want to see the drops of sweat on your forehead as you concentrate hard on using converging lines with the subject of your photo. You can place the subject between the converging lines, either in the center or to one side or the other. You can also allow the converging lines to lead viewers’ eyes to your subject to emphasize their importance.”
“You’ll make your sergeant proud when I hear the snap of your eyeballs, as they lock on the lines in your photos before you fire that camera, soldier!!”
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Photo by PhotographyTalk Member Martin F