Rules 5 and 6.

The fifth rule is to, when appropriate, take a vertical picture. This doesn't mean just to flip your camera whenever you feel like it. This rule is used when taking a picture of something that would simply look better if it was captured in a vertical shot. Doing this is useful especially when taking pictures of things like architecture, and landscape shots. For example, if I had taken this picture of the tree horizontally, you would have been able to see the ugly buildings on either side of it. Since I changed it to be vertical, you can only see the tree, and it looks a lot taller. 

The sixth rule is about changing your focus. To make an object in a picture stand out, hold your shutter button halfway down and move your lens to your main focus of the picture (no pun intended.) When everything is where you want it to be, hold down the shutter button the rest of the way. In the picture I took of my necklace, you can see courtney standing in front of some trees in the background, but it's all blurry so the main point of the picture is the heart charm. 

Flickr Pics.

Today in Photo J, we were assigned to look at flickr and find pictures that we liked that also followed the first four rules that we've learned in class.

This is my first picture I chose. This picture first caught my eye because I love pearls. I really like the contrast between the pureness of the white, shiny pearl to the solid grainy sand. This picture represents the rule to get a plain background. 

This is a "fill the frame" picture. I really like this picture because unlike the typical zoomed in picture, only part of the image is focused. Usually if a picture is this zoomed in, the background is the part that's not perfectly clear, but in this one half of the watch is out of focus. That gives it a really interesting twist. 

 I love this picture. This represents the rule to get down on your subjects level. I love how the photographer decided to make this black and white. It gives the dog more character and a more striking contrast to the crisp white couch. 

This picture most likely used a flash out doors. The flash really picks up the vibrant yellow color of the guys shirt. I really like the angle as well, because you can hardly see the surface he is standing on. It looks like he is holding the entire sky in his hands. 

Rules Three and Four.

The third rule is about using your flash outdoors. It's useful to use this technique when your subject is in a shadow, in front of sunlight, or if your in flash distance (8 or 9 feet.) Doing this can enhance the colors of your picture, or counterbalance with the brightness from the sunlight. It's also cool to use your flash when outside in a dark setting to emphasize and brighten your subject.

The fourth rule is to fill the frame. This is good to use when working with animals, small bugs, flowers, and people. To fill your frame, you must move as close up as possible to your subject and make sure it's in your cameras vision corner to corner. Using this technique can create an interesting picture.