Most people place the person or thing they’re photographing smack bang in the middle of the image. While that looks okay, you don’t need to do that. In fact, placing your subject off-center can make a much more pleasing image.

In today’s tip, a convenient rule to help you place your subjects in the photo. Here it is entilted: Place your subject off-center

Rather than placing your main subject in the middle of the screen, place it to one side and ensure something interesting is in the background that fills the remainder of the image.

This can be especially effective if the background has the same theme. For example, if photographing a child opening a Christmas present, frame them to one side and have the Christmas Tree with unopened presents filling the rest of the image.

There are a few guidelines that can help you place your subject in the frame.

The Rule of Thirds

One of the most popular rules in photography is the “Rule of Thirds”. It is a simple rule that can add dynamism to your photos. Simply, divide the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically. When composing your shot, place important elements either along these lines, or where the lines intersect – NOT at the centre of the frame.

For example, place a subject’s eyes where the top line is, or place your subject on the place in the image where two of these lines intersect.

It’s a very simple rule to follow and will result in a nicely balanced, easy on the eye picture. It also helps get rid of the ‘tiny subject and large amount of space’ tendency because you need to position items relative to the edges of the frame.

Having said this, the Rule of Thirds is also one of the rules you’ll want to break often! This is fine – the Rule of Thirds is more of a guideline and sometimes you will find a better image when you break the rule. by David Peterson

When zooming in with your camera, sometimes the image looks all blurry and grainy.There’s a reason for that, and fortunately an easy way to stop it! Here is the 2nd series of the newsletter I received on  photography tutorial entitled Use Optical rather than Digital Zoom:

Cameras are marketed with both an Optical Zoom and Digital Zoom capability.

If you’ve used a film camera, you’ll be used to optical zoom. Optical zoom uses the lens of the camera (the optics) to bring the subject closer. Digital zoom uses clever software to digitally enlarge a portion of the image – thus simulating optical zoom.

So, which is better? Definitely Optical zoom. Here’s why.

Digital zoom is not really ‘zoom’ in the strictest definition of the term. Digital zoom just enlarges the image. Eg it takes a portion of the image and enlarges it back to full size. You lose quality because of the enlargement process so photos that have been taken with digital zoom won’t look as good as those without.

You can perform the same result using image editing software on your computer. In fact, it can be better to crop and enlarge using your image software in your computer as you can decide exactly what part of the image to enlarge, and how much to enlarge by.

So when taking shots, use optical zoom only. If you need to zoom in further, use your editing software to select the best part of the image to keep. Ensure your camera warns you when it’s switching to digital zoom from optical zoom, or use your settings to disable digital zoom entirely.

Why is clarity important? The more clarity you have in your image, the larger the printed size can be without the image appearing fuzzy, or blocky. If you want to keep clarity in your images, use the optical zoom whenever possible, and avoid the digital zoom.

How do you use Optical Zoom? When you zoom in using your camera, it will use Optical zoom first and then use Digital zoom. You can usually set your camera to notify you when it starts to use the Digital zoom, or tell it to not use digital zoom at all. Consult your manual for details. by David Peterson