The photograph to the right demonstrates the application of the rule of thirds. The horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The tree sits at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point or a crash point. Points of interest in the photo do not have ....count....

What is texture?

Texture is defined as the tactile quality of the surface of an object--how it feels if touched.  But it is so much more than that.

You wake up in the morning, toss back the crisp cotton sheets. Your bare feet move across the polished wood floor. You get into the shower and feel the warm water spalsh against your skin, the soap slide over your arms. You wrap yourself in a soft terry towel. Your clothes provide you with a whole array of textures: silky, starched, velvety, coarse, elastic. Breakfast provides even more: fluffy scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, melted butter dripping off crunchy toast.

You look  out the window, and even though you can't touch it, you can see the layers of texture in the leaves of the old oak tree and its gnarly bark, the multicolored aging brick on the building across the street, the gleaming polished surface of a car.

Imagine the world without texture.

Touch is one of our senses. Our hands and skin are equipped with sensitive nerves that distinguish texture. In addition to giving us information about the world around us, our sense of touch gives us pleasure. We find sensual joy in the tactile experience of different surfaces.  It is an essential aspect of visual art for the same reason.

Visual art can inspire, provoke, make us think, make us laugh, make us cry, make us see things in ways we never would have. Visual art also gives us pleasure. That is part of what makes texture so important in visual art.

Texture, like any of the elements of art, can also enhance and support the artist's concept behind the work. Some artists use texture as a major influence on our response to the work. In any work of art, however, texture can draw us in so we spend more time with the work.

http://www.sophia.org/tutorials/elements-of-art-texture

My friend Matthew Simmons and I did recently did a photo shoot with an amazing little girl named Desi Robinson. After sending Renee, Desi’s mother, the finished images and talking to her a few days after, something really hit me.

Renee thanked me for asking Desi to do a shoot with Matthew and I, because she had “come so far” since having that experience. After hearing this, I wanted to explore this idea a little more.

I had always believed that it was important to have your portrait made at least once, but I didn’t have any solid, real life examples as to ...ادامه مطلب...

2. ISO

ISO is a measure of how sensitive the sensor of your camera is to light.  The term originated in film photography, where film of different sensitivities could be used depending on the shooting conditions, and it is no different in digital photography. The ISO sensitivity is represented numerically from ISO 100 (low sensitivity) up to ISO 6400 (high sensitivity) and beyond, and controls the amount of light required by the sensor to achieve a given exposure

At ‘low’ sensitivities, more light is required to achieve a given exposure compared to high sensitivities where less light is required to achieve the same exposure.  To understand this, let’s look at two different situations:

Low ISO numbers
If shooting outside, on a bright sunny day there is a lot of available light that will hit the sensor during an exposure, meaning that the sensor does not need to be very sensitive in order to achieve a correct exposure.  Therefore, you could use a low ISO number, such as ISO 100 or 200.  This will give you images of the highest quality, with very little grain (or noise).

Taken at ISO 100, the image does not show signs of noise

(even when looking at the 100% crop (right)

High ISO numbers
If shooting in low light ...

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