AS YOU MIGHT BE AWARE, 123PHOTOGO HAS 2 WEBSITES NOW! THIS ONE HERE IS THE MAIN ONE THAT HAS BEEN USED NOW FOR AROUND 6 YEARS. BUT NOW 123PHOTOGO HAS A NEW “PREMIUM” WEBSITE, ONE THAT REQUIRES A VERY MINIMAL SUBSCRIPTION ($1.00 IS ALL TO SUBSCRIBE TO BASIC TIER). WE WANTED TO GIVE YOU THE OPTION TO UPGRADE YOUR OWN KNOWLEDGE OF PHOTOGRAPHY WITH A DSLR CAMERA AND A CELL PHONE CAMERA. HERE ARE SOME MORE DETAILS:
TODAY, WE ARE GIVING YOU A SNEAK PEAK OF HOW WE DO THE “LEARN BY PICTURES” SESSION, CURRENTLY ONLY AVAILABLE ON THE PREMIUM SITE. WE HAVE ALREADY DONE SEVERAL VERSIONS OF “LEARN BY PICTURES”. TODAY’S “LEARN BY PICTURES” SUBJECT IS “SCENERY” AND HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE BEST SCENERY PHOTOS FOR YOU TO DO. ENJOY!
“LEARN BY PICTURES” – How to take better scenery photos:
We live in a beautiful world. I don’t know how many times I have, or maybe you have said: “oh I wish I had my camera ” to capture this beautiful view. Well there’s number one on the list: HAVE YOUR CAMERA WITH YOU ALL THE TIME. And here is something to think about: will I be alright with my cell phone camera, or should I take my regular DSLR or Mirrorless camera? That choice is yours, but you know which one REALLY takes a better photo. I am going to share just 2 photos that I have taken with my cell phone so you can see it is possible to get great photos from your cell phone.
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As you can see, photos taken with a cell phone don’t turn out too bad. But still the rules of composition should be done at all times. Both of the above photos have “leading lines” which helps you draw your eyes to a certain point in the picture. The trail leads you to look down the trail first thing, and the second photo has clouds that lead your eyes down deep into the picture.
The first thing to decide as you take scenery photos is: should I take it vertically or horizontally. Some of you might be saying: Well it is obvious isn’t it? It is NOT always obvious. But look at your framing of the photos and try to fill the frame with what is most interesting in photos. The above photo is obviously very interesting in a horizontal format because of what is filling the frame. But if you are taking photos of sunsets, sometimes vertical is better, like this:
Notice the clouds in the sky that adds to the vertical picture, and what is located in the foreground. Just take a look at what is of most interest in your frame and then fill it up.
LEADING LINES:
Notice how you can do “leading lines” on either horizontal or vertical photos….. remembering to just fill your frame.
WATCH YOUR HORIZON LINE:
The “Horizon line” is a straight line (generally) that divides the picture. So in this photo above, the water and the background scenery is joined together in the UPPER THIRD part of the photo. Here again, as you take the picture, look and see which would be most interesting in the majority of the photo. In this photo, it was done by putting the horizon line in the UPPER THIRD OF THE FRAME. And look at the great reflections in the water. Absolutely beautiful.
Here’s a big mistake some people make with sunsets:
This is a beautiful sunset photo. But the horizon line is right down the middle. This is natural for us to do that. But there is something more interesting in the sky than what this photo shows. I don’t have a photo of the sky with this one, but watch your sunsets and check out what has more to offer: the water or the sky. Like this:
What a beautiful sky.
Now in this case, there was something in the sand that made this photo special. The sky is pretty, but you have a big interest in the beach carving.
I also love when photographers take a sunset photo and have a subject looking out at the sunset. It’s not leading lines, but it does make you want to look and see what they are seeing.
This type of photo is one that hangs on the wall. Not only is it a beautiful sunset, but it has some stories being told in the photo.
Winter scenery:
Sometimes you get winter to do just a few interesting things for you. Adding a coating to the trees and surroundings. And in this case the river is leading lines through the photo.
A NOTE OF INTEREST WITH WINTER PHOTOS:
I’ll give you a link that talks about the issues with snow photography: https://123photogo.com/2018/12/17/5-tips-for-photographing-in-the-snow/
Sometimes your snow just does not turn out white. Editing may need to be done to bring the snow white like it should be. The above link will explain all the pitfalls in winter. But winter photos can be breathtaking. Try it out so you get good at it. Here are a couple of amazing winter photos:
As you can see, with the above 2 photos, winter is absolutely beautiful.
Rule of thirds in composition is important too:
This is a wonderful example of composition using the rule of thirds. I actually have seen photographers, and me included, try to find something in one section of the frame that we can put a subject of some kind in the quadrant of thirds.
Here is another link to show you how the rule of thirds will work: https://123photogo.com/2021/05/03/day-6-learning-basic-photo-skills-solitude-rule-of-thirds/
The above photo has this beautiful rock in the lower third of the photo, and then to make it even better, that waterfall in the upper third is just a perfect photo.
I tried this myself, trying to break up the picture a bit by looking for these colorful boulders in the photo.
I have done a couple of posts or blogs on this subject before. For more information go to: https://123photogo.com/2022/06/22/in-search-of-great-beauty-in-nature/
And this is interesting learning as well: https://123photogo.com/2021/04/19/day-6-of-10-developing-your-eye-landscapes/
In conclusion: this is how we do the “Learn by Pictures” program on our PREMIUM WEBSITE OF 123PHOTOGO. We have close to 18 photos in this blog alone. I hope you can see how much easier it is to learn photography, when you can see pictures, and lots of them. We have already done several “learn by Pictures” posts already, including how to do portraits of men, children, pets, and more. I really think that if you want the best information on photography you need to go check out the premium website of 123photogo. Here is the link: https://www.patreon.com/join/9714997
