Posts Tagged ‘Mike Moats’

Subject Placement in the Frame

Monday, April 12th, 2010
 
Subject placement can be very subjective. It can range from placing a main subject in the center, thirds, corners, and two of the thirds. Positioning the subject will depend on what is around it.
 
Centering the subject is what is called bulls-eyed, and in some cases this works, but you don’t want every one of your images in the center. Having a portfolio of images with varying positions from centered, thirds, and corners will keep your compositions from looking repetitive. 
 

In the image above I placed the yellow contrasting leaf in the bottom third of the frame. Offsetting the main subject in the thirds tends to be most popular way of positioning a single subject.

The dark center of this frosted Black-Eyed Susan flower is the main focal point of the flower, so I placed it in the left third of the frame. When using the thirds rule it has a less composed look and more natural.

 
Check back tomorrow for more info on placement.
 
You can check out Mike's eBook on Macro Composition in the Store here.

New Life for Your Old Light Table

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Dig out and dust off your old light table and put it to use as backlighting for macro subjects.  When I started in photography in 2001 I bought a few nature magazines and noticed all the pros were using Velvia slide film,  so I used slide film which required me to buy a light table to view the slides. 

 I only shot film for three years and then made the change to digital.  The light tables has been dark until I found a use for it.  It works great for backlighting which creates a special look to your images.  You need subjects that are somewhat transparent for the best results.

Above is a group of Beech leaves I arranged on the light table and below is a Turkey feather I found in my local park. I added a drop of water to the feather to add a little interest.