Workshop 1: camera composition

 Shot composition 

 

 

Rule of thirds 

Common mistakes that are made in shot composition include the subjects head being in the middle of the screen and ignoring everything else around. One technique that ca be used in ‘rule of thirds’, this consists of chopping the shot into 9 squares, three horizontal and another three vertical. This technique is important in order to balance the shot, we can achieve this by lining up the points of interception on the lines and points of interest on shown on the shot. As can be seen below the legs and ground are in one section with the top section bein clear, moreover its important to point out that the subject being on one side adds further depth to the shot in oppose to them being in the middle. 

 

Below you can see my examples of before and after,using rule of thirds to improve the depth and quality of the shot. 

(Before)                                                                         ( After) 

 

 

Change camera hight 

By changing the hight of the camera when taking a shot, for example like matching the hight of the subject it makes for a more interesting and visually interesting shot. In addition also making the shot unequal in some cases can add to the shot depth, by also taking advantage of foreground and background adding depth. There are also other things that add to the shot linking to camra high, other techniques include angle changes as well as changing background so that it is not for example just white walls, potentially adding a painting or lamp to further add depth to the shot, some examples below. 

(Before)                                                                 (after) 

 

Here we can see how I have adjusted the camera high in order to give more depth as the photo on the left looks rather boring and out of frame, whereas the right photo has more going on making it slightly more interesting to look at. 

 

(Before)                                                                            (After) 

 

Here I adjusted camera height as well as adding a slight angle to the shot, focusing on the subject, adding depth the only thing I would add to this shit is lighting and potentially cutting out some of the shot to the right side causing more focus on the subject, but this does add to depth in the background. 

 

Lighting 

Lighting is seen as one of the most important aspects to a shot as it can impact the whole mood and ethos of the scene. Using artificial lights such as fluorescent lighting and blocking out some natural light can dramatically improve a shot. For example even using a tv on a bright picture can provide lighting as expensive equipment Is not essential to using lighting in a shot. As we can see below on the left the shot is quite light and not bale, as well as changing camera height and angle I used a black sheet behind the camera to blood out some of the natural light. This resulted in the light purely coming from the window seen giving a whole different mood to the right photo from the original .