At one time or another, most of us have seen a close-up of something that was made to make us think it was actually something else. Why did we not recognize the item for what it truly was? Simply put, you had nothing to compare it to. You had no point of reference.
Take a waterfall, tall and beautiful. Now visualize a small stream trickling over the edge of a few large stones. If you shoot it just right, they could look the same. “Wait a minute,” you're saying, “those are as different as night and day.” That’s a good point, but unless you also include something to compare the water to, you have no point of reference. This concept is generally referred to as opposition. Say you’re hiking in a National Park, and find a really cool waterfall. You get close to capture detail, and shoot against a clear blue sky (so the background won’t distract.) You tell your friends about the adventure, and eagerly await your pictures from the photo lab. When they finally come back, you flip through the shots looking for your master piece. When you finally see it, your heart sinks. It looks OK, but there’s no magic, no majesty. It’s just not the same. What happened? When you saw it live, you were there. You climbed over rocks; you walked through streams, and pushed pine branches out of your way. When you looked through the view finder of your camera, these images were also in the back of your mind. The human mind is a wonderful creation; it takes images, sounds, and smells and blends them all into wonderful memories. The problem lies in the limitations of the medium. A photo tip worth remembering is; we experience in three-dimensions; but we photograph in two-dimensions. Opposition is one of several creative techniques that makes your photo appear more three-dimensional. The more three-dimensional you photo appears the more likely your viewer is to experience at least part of what you did when you took the shot. Size is relative. A small mountain may seem big compared to a boulder. A boulder may seem huge compared to a rock. Even a small rock will seem gigantic compared to a grain of sand. In the world of micro photography, even a grain of sand could look like a vast landscape if there was nothing to compare it to.
Better Photo Tips - Writing a Photo Article
Web pages and articles have several things in common, the most obvious being that both do better when “Key Words” are included. This article covers the importance of Key Words in both the title and body of any article you are writing.Better Photo Tips - New Photo Insights
We all have things we like to photograph the best. To stretch your imagination and creativity sometimes you NEED to shoot different things. Just because you shoot different things, doesn’t mean you have to shoot things . . . different.Better Photo Tips - Photo Filters and More
When it comes to taking your work to the next level, sometimes you need an edge. Often little things make the biggest difference. Like the frosting on the cake; this article covers little things that can dramatically improve your photography.