Tips for framing your photos

[gary_hendr]

Here are some good tips on how you can best frame your photos.

First, if your photo is going to include people, take a moment to reflect on what you'd like to have in the photo before you request that your subjects hold still. Once they are standing still and holding a smile you'll be under pressure to get on with it and will likely spend less time thinking about image composition.

Second, look for both natural peripheral (side) borders that might frame your shot nicely and for objects near the sides of your shot that might be distracting. Think of it like this: While fitting the full trunk of a tree into your border might look great, including the public trash can in your shot of a cathedral probably won't.

Finally, with the above in mind, try to ensure that you are getting just the right amount of foreground and background. There is no hard and fast rule for specific amounts as they will change according to what kind of photo you are taking. But here are some general guidelines: The horizon should usually be above the middle of the photo. In people shots, foreground should be minimized, while in landscape shots more foreground can lend better perspective. Likewise, don't allow too much additional space on either side of your subjects in people shots.

These tips should help keep you from having to use your software crop tool too often. Happy snapping!

[RTaylor]

Hi Gary,
I agree with your composition tips
I went to your website and looked over the section on organizing. That is my big delema recently.

I already make folders like you suggest i.e.
Bucks County 2004
......Summer 2004
............Lake Nockamixon 2004-07-22
............Lake Nockamixon 2004-08-30
......Autumn 2004
............Lake Nockamixon 2004-10-15
............Washingtons'sCrossing 2004-10-28

It really helps me in finding them. Each state gets their own folder and each day or photo shoot gets their own folder under the state since we travel for the sake of photography

I used to use Photo Album 1 when I shot jpg with my Oly C750 and it was great, I could find every flower shot I did that was lavender or every flower shot I ever did.. I got it down to a lot of search options.. must be my database brain kicking in lol
My delima is.. when it came time to back them up onto CD, with Photo Album, I found it would take a group that I might have called Bucks County Summer which had many folders under it... it would place every file on the CD but not into the same folders sequence Also I would get errors while burning CD's with PA at the very end.
So I stopped using it for archiving.

Now I thought I might try PA again and notice it does not even recognize my Raw Nikon NEF files
How can I view them to know what I'm backing up and catagorzing?
I'm getting more and more images that get hard to seach out since now all my pics are getting backed up to DVD's from my new D70
Has the new PA2 have features that at least let you view the NEF files? I dont need to edit them, I already have Nikon Capture. Its just the nice PA organizing and cataloging capabilities that I like.

Ruth