Composition can make an interesting subject bland or make an ordinary subject appear beautiful. In this course, photographer and author Ben Long explores the concepts of composition, from basics such as the rule of thirds to more advanced topics such as the way the eye travels through a photo.
The course addresses how the camera differs from the eye and introduces composition fundamentals, such as balance and point of view. Ben also examines the importance of geometry, light, and color in composition, and looks at how composition can be improved with a variety of post-production techniques. Interspersed throughout the course are workshop sessions that capture the creative energy of a group of photography students; shooting assignments and exercises; and analyses of the work of photographers Paul Taggart and Connie Imboden.
Topics include:
Looking versus seeing
Understanding when and why to use black and white
Analyzing lines
Arranging the elements into lines and shapes
Working with perspective and symmetry
Changing focal length, camera position, and depth
Dividing rectangular frames into thirds
Weighting the corners in square pictures
Composing photographs of people
Composing landscape photos
Working with light: direction, texture, and negative space
Ben Long is a San Francisco-based photographer, writer, and teacher. The author of over two dozen books on digital photography and digital video, he is also a senior contributing editor to Macworld magazine, and a senior editor at CreativePro.com. His photography clients have included 20th Century Fox, Blue Note Records, Global Business Network, the San Francisco Jazz Festival, the Pickle Family Circus, and Grammy-nominated jazz musicians Don Byron and Dafnis Prieto. He has taught and lectured on photography around the world, including workshops at the Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence and a class for imaging engineers at Apple, Inc. He occasionally dabbles in computer programming, and has written image editing utilities that are used by National Geographic, the British Museum, and the White House.
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