Do you think you should take night shots when it’s dark? Wrong!
You should take night shots just BEFORE it gets dark while there still is some colors (typically a blueish color) in the sky. Night images taken with a pitch black sky is boring.
The best time for night shots is at dusk and dawn, not at night.
I took this night photograph of the Hong Kong skyline just before it got dark but there are still a hint of color in the sky. I was lucky this time to get the image sharp without a tripod or a Image Stabilization lens but I recommend a tripod with a remote release for best result.
Night Photograph of the Hong kong Skyline
The light is changing fast just before it gets dark so you have to be prepared and ready when it’s time to shoot. I probably waited a few minutes too long when I took the above photo of the Hong Kong skyline
Have you ever seen horns growing from your grandmothers head in a photograph? Don’t worry, it’s just an optical illusion so she’s not gone over to the “dark side”.
But there’s a good reason for the horns. The human brain scans the scene and focus on what it finds interesting and eliminates the rest. This is all done subconsciously so you won’t even notice it. The camera can’t however selectively filter out information like your brain can, so you end up with everything that was in the view finder, not just what you thought you saw.
Your eyes also see the scene in three dimensions but the camera can only render the same scene in two dimensions. The result is that tree branches seems to grow from your grandmothers head and lamp poles from your house. Always look for and try to
this kind of problem, especially in portraits where they can be very distracting and certainly not very pleasing.
Distracting Background
Above is an example of a portrait having this problem. The tree seems to grow from my wife’s head (believe me, it’s just an illusion 
A wide angle lens exaggerates distances between objects and can often create a 3D feeling with lots of drama. A small dog near the lens might look much bigger than a house in the background. Tele lenses does the complete opposite, they compress distances so everything looks like they are close to each other in distance.
You can create great illusions with both tele and wide angle lenses but the wide angle lens is my favorite tool.
Great Wall of China Taken With A wide Angle Lens
I took this image from the Great Wall of China on a miserably cold and windy December day with a 24 mm lens on a full frame DSLR camera with the intention to create a 3D effect. Lenses below 30 mm and especially below 20 mm creates awesome dramatic 3D illusions.
The drama is not as noticeable on a small sized image like in this tutorial as it would be on an enlargement but it should give you an idea on what the effect you can produce with a wide angle lens.
Tip: Changing the camera position even so slightly can make a significant change in perspective and produce very different results. Experiment, experiment, experiment!
Categories: Photo Tips Tags: badaling, chinese wall, composition, great wall of china, guide, photo, photographic, photography, pictures, techniques, tutorial
This is probably the most famous “rule” in photography composition and yet it seems like most photographers are completely oblivious about it. Be honest, how many images have you taken with the subject smack in the center of the frame and then find them boring, lifeless and dull?
There’s luckily an antidote for this problem, imagine your image is divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines. You have now created four intersections called “power points” from these four lines. Placing the subject of interest on the as well as along the imaginary lines creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.
Oxeye Daisy With a Rule of Thirds Grid
Here’s an example where the Oxeye Daisy in focus (subject of interest) is not centered in the frame.
The Daisy is placed more to the left than it should according to the “rule of thirds”
But the key point with this rule is just to help you take more interesting and dynamic photos and not to follow it inflexibly.
If you always place the subject of interest along these lines and points your photos will become predictable and in the end… boring. Exactly what you wanted to avoid in the first place.
Try instead to divide the frame into 16 equal parts or why not 20 equal parts. Never use the “rule of thirds” inflexibly.
