Some thoughts by Genevieve Shiffrar, College of Letters & Science web developer, May 2001
With increasing frequency, web developers are being asked to incorporate photographs into their web sites. Images of people, events, buildings and departmental resources can improve a web site's appeal and help users visualize the department. Optimally, the photographs on your site should be visually strong--strong enough to complement good web design and strong enough to illustrate the importance of your unit.
Web developers are probably the best positioned in their departments to assess what photographs should and shouldn't be incorporated in their websites. Probably, you don't want to be asked by a superior to incorporate into your site a substandard image taken by him or her. Outside of hiring a professional photographer, often times your best bet is to learn ways in which to improve your own photography.
This discussion introduces several techniques to improve your skill at taking a good photograph. The talk will be geared for the novice, and will emphasize what can be done with an automatic ("point-and-shoot") film or digital camera. Please be aware that there are no rules in photography. Every technique has a counter technique; every example has a counter example. Disregarding all the rules to get a good photo is one of life's great pleasure.
Techniques for composition, lighting, and exposure.
A few standards of the Digital Darkroom
Ways in which digital cameras can help anyone take better pictures.
One of the most important features of your camera is the part through which you see the image—the viewfinder of film cameras and the LCD display of digital cameras. Use it to compose the image.
|
| A family photo, Jock the Dog. A great dog, but a crappy photo. |
The first instinct of most people is to place the subject in the dead center of the viewfinder. What happens when instead you begin to explore the different areas in which to place the main subject within the viewfinder's frame?
 |
| Barns and Cows, 1955 Minor White |
The Rule of Thirds is a compositional device to imagine the picture frame cut into thirds both horizontally and vertically, as if you have inscribed the viewfinder with a tic-tack-toe board. Place the main subject in one of the four spots where a horizontal line intersects with a vertical line.
A corrolary of the Rule of Thirds is avoiding placing the horizon line in the dead center.
 |
| Untitled, 1932 James Van Der Zee |
Here, the Rule of Thirds concept extends beyond attention to the four points. Rather, the photographer uses one of the four lines, the bottom horizontal line, to compose the photograph.
 |
| Walapai, Arizona, 1971. Henry Wessel, Jr. |
Subject and horizon line in center. Used here as the equivalenet of dead pan comedy.
 |
| Pepper, 1932 Paul Strand |
Cropping lends to less-busy compositions. Clean, simple compositions are particularly important for images destined for the web.
 |
| Mexico, 1934, 1934 Henri Cartier-Bresson |
Don't worry about not being able to fit the whole of the subject into the viewfinder. Allowing the viewfinder to show only part of the main subject will give you more compositional freedom. In this case, the image becomes to be about the visual relationship between the man and the shoes.
 |
| 34th St.—"Under Arrest" c. 1930 Weegee |
How is your eye moving around this picture? Two or three visually prominent features of the photograph create tension, encouraging viewers' eyes to rove between the points, as if completing a connect-the-dots drawing.
 |
| Sometimes the Electricity Fails, Vesuvias, Virginia, 1956 O. Winston Link |
What path do your eyes take here? Most eyes stay within the picture frame.
 |
| Sharecropper's Daughter, 1935 Arthur Rothstein |
Photographers have many tools to help keep the viewer's eyes within the frame. A tree can frame the main subject as if introducing it with a sweeping welcome of its branched arms. Here, the window frame provides the compositional device for the image. The physical frame is countered by the fact that the girl is looking outside the frame. This creates meaning; what is in her future?
 |
| Blue Ridge Way, North Carolina and Virginia, 1965 Paul Caponigro |
Eyes are led off the plane for drama.
Summary: Dead Center, Horizon line, Rule of Thirds, keeping the eye with the frame.
Be Flexible: To get the most out of these guidelines, you have to be flexible. You may want to lie down on the grass, or if you climb a few stairs of the building next door. We still haven't taken a picture.
Noon time light
 |
| Yucky noontime light |
In general, it is difficult to get a good outdoor photograph of anything when the sun is directly overhead. Morning or late afternoon for objects generally works better. You may have to come back to a building once or twice until the light is favorable.
The Fill Flash
 |
| Example of Fill Flash |
If you have to work in direct light, try the fill flash. It uses the flash in any situation. In outdoors, it will help expose the parts of the image in shadow.
Diffused light
Made in the Shade
 |
| Untitled, 1956 Dan Weiner |
Diffused light allows for more even tones, especially useful for pictures of people.
Lighting for Portraits
 |
| Diffused light example |
Fully diffused or directional diffused light are safe choices for portraits. Easiest to work with is fully diffused light, light that produces little or no shadow like that on a cloudy day. Directional diffused light is diffused light clearly coming from a source, like from a window. A good bet: Photographer with back to window; sitter facing diffused light, which fills in the shadow areas.
Backgrounds
 |
| Simple Background example |
Backgrounds for portraits
Scope out a location. Think about the composition; simpler the better. Are there flagpoles or trees in the background of the location you have scouted out? You don't want to find weird things coming out of the subject's head long after the shoot is over.
Working with the sitter. The subject is often moving, or is nervous or talkative. To help them feel more comfortable, consider the following.
Spot metering. Getting the proper exposure is important, but easy to do. Many point-and-shoot and digital cameras allow users to get a light reading of the subject rather than simply an average reading of the whole composition. You may be able to set your camera to read the light of a specific point in the frame. (Determine how to do get a spot readingwith your camera. If you don't have a camera with spot light metering, but you have to take photographs, consider purchasing a camera with this feature.) This point is generally in the dead center of the viewfinder. After you have determined your composition, place your main subject in the center of the viewfinder, depress the shutter button half way to take the light reading, recompose the picture as you decided without lifting your finger, and then depress the shutter button completely to take the picture. It is easy to get into the habit of this procedure, and we guarantee it will improve your photographs significantly.
Digital Photo Page Photoshop Tips Page
Photo credits: For better or worse, I took the color photos. Most black and white images from the catalogue of the corporate collection of Consolidated Freightways, Inc. (Truckers rule!)