Shoot Better Photos: Basics of Composition

There are a million ways to take a picture, and thousands of different cameras to take it with.  However, regardless of whether you're shooting with an instant polaroid (which they're about to stop making film for by the way) or the newest Nikon D3 DSLR, there are a few basic things to keep in mind that will make for better pictures almost every time.  These certainly are not "rules" that must be followed in order to take professional looking pictures, but can help make good pictures into great pictures.

The main idea is a bit difficult to master, because most people who are best at it were born with it.  Photographers refer to it as having "an eye" for a good looking picture.  That is to say that one person can take a picture of something, and another person with the exact same conditions can take a far superior picture just by thinking outside the norms of photography.  The key to an awesome photograph is to make an interesting one.  If every picture was taken at eye level with the subject in the center, after the first few pics most people would get bored and stop looking.  However, if you can incorporate variety and interesting subjects into your shooting, you'll end up with better pictures.

There are three basic things to help incorporate variety into your photos, and to help develop "an eye" for what a good picture might be.

Framing

The first is to frame your pictures while you're taking them.  If you have picture or painting on the wall and you put a frame on it, it looks more classy - the same thing applies to a picture.

In the picture to the right, instead of zooming in and getting a close up of the subject, I used surrounding bushes to make for a more interesting picture.  This makes the picture more interesting to look at without distracting too much from the main subject.

Thirds

The second concept is called the rule of thirds.  The best thing about this is that it can be implemented into photos you have already taken by cropping.  The idea here is to mentally split your photo into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, and have the subject of your pic at one of the intersections of these thirds.  The reason for this is that the human face is constructed in thirds, with the eyes at the top intersection of the left and right third.  

When you talk with someone, your gaze is generally focused on one eye or the other, which attracts your eyes to the same locations in photos.  This causes a centered subject to be more like the nose of the picture - possibly interesting but not what we naturally look at the most.

This photo uses the rule of thirds in two different areas.  The first is the entire left wall of the museum follows very closely to the split of the left third from the rest of the image.  This makes the viewer's eye follow the wall and with the color differences from bottom to top, the image is given a unique effect.  The second area where the rule of thirds is applied is the text "art museum" which falls into the lower right third of the picture, attracting eyes there as well.

Perspective

The final tip is to have an interesting perspective. If your camera has a macro mode, try it out. If you're shooting at eye level, angle your shot to make something in your picture more interesting. 

 
 If you're in a position to get closer than normal, do it.  If you can get a low angle, go for it!  These types of ideas help to add an immense amount of variety to your photos and can create patterns like in the picture or the right, or something unique such as the lens flare in the image below it.  This is where the most interesting photos can come from, and this is where your "eye" can emerge giving your photography its own style.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional photographer or even pretending to be one - these tips have helped me take better pictures and hopefully can help you do the same.

Advice Whore

As someone who is more tech-savy than not, I seem to be the go-to-guy for most of my friends and family to be whored out for tech advice. Granted - I think about tech stuff most of my day anyways, so I don't really mind, but it's surprising how many of these questions and problems could be avoided by doing two basic things.

First: Get a Mac.
Now I know there's that whole conversation about Mac compatibility with Windows and, more importantly to most people, familiarity with PC's that PC users bring up as reasons not to switch to mac. To this I respond, Macs can run Windows.

Now that a PC has no advantages over a Mac, I should probably try and persuade you with the features Mac OSX has that XP and Vista don't, but more importantly than what the Mac OS has, is what it doesn't have. On a Mac, you never have to worry about viruses, malware, or spyware - oh and you never have to defrag the hard drive either.  The bottom line is that, as it stands right now, Macs require less general maintenance than PCs do.

Second: Backup, backup, backup!
I've been accused of making people cry because I'm the one who has to tell them their hard drive has crashed. To explain how all the pictures, videos, and music that a person has collected over the years has just been blinked out of existence sucks, but this situation is easily avoidable.

You know that Mac I just told you to use? If you plug an external hard drive into it, the computer will ask if you'd like to use the hard drive as a backup. You click yes, and you are forever safe from losing all your data.

Macs are getting more and more affordable. Here is Apple's discount and refurb page.
Cheap External Hard Drives Galore

... and a whole website devoted to affordable hard drives
If you have tech questions (especially Mac ones) feel free to sound off in the comments.

Feeling Lost?

The days of “Mapquesting” around town may be over. Global Positioning Systems, more commonly known as GPS units, are getting smaller, smarter, and most importantly, more affordable by the day. One of the most simple units on the market, the TomTom One is small enough to fit in a pocket, yet packed with features enough to fill the trunk of a car. The TomTom one is used in the same way one would use Mapquest to get from point A to point B. Give it a destination, the unit pauses for a moment, calculates the fastest route, and within ten seconds begins visual as well as voice guidance to your selected destination. The main difference between using GPS and using Mapquest is that you get live guidance throughout the trip as well as the ability to recalculate your route if you miss a turn or there is a road closed.

The main idea behind the TomTom one was to go back to basics and create a GPS unit that does its one task dutifully and without any extra bells and whistles to deal with. This mindset makes the TomTom one perfect for first-time buyers who need a very user-friendly experience. It does navigation, and that’s it. There are three ways that the TomTom can route the driver: by fastest route, shortest route, or avoiding highways. The unit defaults to the fastest route option which is best for most situations, but if, for example, the traffic report on the radio just said that the interstate is backed up this morning, the option to avoid freeways suddenly comes in very handy. If there’s an accident ahead or a road closed, you can tell the TomTom to avoid that particular street, and within another few seconds you’re on your way with a new route, and that’s just getting around town!

The most efficient use of a GPS unit such as the TomTom One would be getting to areas you’re unfamiliar with. The TomTom One could calculate the fastest route from San Diego, CA to Boston, MA in about 10 seconds and guide the driver turn by turn the entire way there – including navigating to gas stations, rest stops, restaurants, hotels, and anything else one might need on a road trip. The unit comes preloaded with maps of the entire US and Canada, as well as maps of Europe, and other areas of the globe can be added via a PC.

Granted, this convenience doesn’t come for free! This unit sells for an MSRP of $499 – a hefty price for most students. For a much reduced hit to your wallet, check out the Garmin StreetPilot i2 which, while not quite as user friendly, is a very usable solution that can be found online for around $219. And if you happen to have a bit more cash to spend, check out the $599 TomTom Go 700 for added features such as live traffic information which will detect and automatically route you around any a accidents or traffic jams and on to your destination.

Get Away From it All

Sound isolating headphones allow users to block out outside noise and let their music take over their ears for a much more pleasurable and detailed listening experience. If you’re looking to get away from everything and just enjoy your music, the Shure E2C headphones will most certainly get the job done.

Try this – put your fingers in your ears. Let everything else drown out and listen closely. You can hear your own heart beat. You can hear your lungs draw in and release each breath. Now imagine the ends of your fingers have high definition speaker drivers on them; this is the experience you get with Shure headphones – nothing short of incredible. Suddenly, you’ll hear things you’ve never heard before in songs you’ve heard fifty times. The bass is rich and deep – granted, these headphones can’t vibrate your chest like a 12” subwoofer can, but your eardrums can’t tell the difference. The treble is crisp, sharp, and cool; vocals as clear as listening to a live acoustic session. These things are seriously the crème of the crop.

In addition to their noise-canceling qualities, these headphones are much more comfortable than normal headphones and are fit to be worn for many hours at a time without discomfort. Whether you’re walking around, on an airplane, or even – gasp – in class, you’ll be able to leave and get into your own little world with whatever music you choose. Naturally, these aren’t the $15 Philips headphones at Walgreens. The hit to your wallet is a rather hefty MSRP of $99.99 although Amazon carries them for $68. For a slightly lighter wallet you can shoot for Sumajin’s $45 sound isolating SEP-001 headphones, or if money is not an issue, the $220 Shure E4c’s are a very nice upgrade that are much smaller and lighter, but pack the same sound quality.

Techtelic

Hello, and welcome to a blog that will hopefully soon be full of random useful technology reviews, tips, rants, and whatever else I think of.  

The name of the blog took a while for me to come up with, but I think I like it.  Techtelic.  Tech- well tech is an overused word, short for technology.  I don't care much for that part.  Telic, on the other hand, is an obscure but extremely cool  adjective meaning tending toward a goal or expressing purpose.  The goal of this blog is to give me a place to spew out my random thoughts on tech - so the name fits.

A bit about me:

My name is Mark Mitchell and I'm currently a student studying Informatics and Entrepreneurship at Indiana University.  I work at a Mac repair shop and have a passion for anything running at 60Hz (for the less nerdy out there - that's just about anything that runs on electricity).  I'll probably write about audio and video components, software I use, cool things companies are doing, apple, and anything you can plug into a wall that is useful or cool.

That's it for now.