In today’s quick tutorial with our favorite New Yorker – Photographer David Bergman and Adorama TV, we are going to talk about three photographic composition rules that David often likes to break.
Mr. Bergman explains: “You probably learned a lot of these when you were first starting out, but all rules are meant to be broken. The first big one is the rule of thirds! I know you’ve heard about this one before… you take two horizontal lines and two vertical lines and imagine them evenly spaced apart throughout your frame, then what you do is you place your subjects at one of the cross-lines where those lines meet.”
“Well, sometimes I’ll actually put my subjects in the dead center of the frame and I know that breaks the rule, but the key for me is to have a lot of symmetry around. By centering them that way it can sometimes really heighten the drama in the photograph.”
“The second rule is about having a sun at your back. The idea is to have your subjects evenly lit, which makes for simple exposures, even if you’re shooting on some kind of auto mode with your camera. But sometimes, it’s nice to turn around and shoot with the sun shining right into your face.”
“Your subject is going to be a complete silhouette, but if you expose for the background it might make for a nice photograph. You can also put them right in front of the sun, so they block the brightest point, and have a nice halo around them. If you want you can add in a little bit of flash to light them up, and that’s the best way to make a picture of somebody in front of a sunrise, or a sunset.”
“The last rule I like to break is about filling the frame. Usually you want to fill the frame with your subject, so you can eliminate any distracting backgrounds, and don’t waste any space in the image, but sometimes I like to use negative space in my image. By making the subject smaller on the frame, it can make them either look really small, or they could dominate the space. Play around with placement a bit you’ll find what works best for each photo.”
For more information visit AdoramaTV YT page, and of course you can keep up with David on Instagram and Twitter @DavidBergman. LATEST UPDATE: David opened up new IGTV episodes where you can ask him questions live! find out more at http://www.AskDavidBergman.com
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Watch the full episode with David Bergman and Adorama TV: