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Being a good photographer is not as easy as it may seem at first glance. It’s not enough to catch the right moment because many other points affect the beauty and quality of your photo. Today we’re going to talk about the essential photography effects you need to know. If you’re just learning the art of photography, you’ll find a lot of ways that you can try out right away to improve your technique. We also recommend reading the other tutorials. For example, you can always find information about framing photography on Skylum’s blog.
Contre-Jour
Contre-jour is a popular effect in photography. Let’s take a closer look at it:
- It is the French version of the concept of counter light, with the camera pointing directly at the light source.
- Contre-jour involves talking about silhouette photography. The light source is directly behind the subject.
- This effect creates high-contrast photos between light and shadow. It hides details but emphasizes contours and silhouettes.
- Contre-jour is more popular in nature and landscape photography. The effect is often used to give a more dramatic mood and suspense to a scene.
However, this effect can both improve and degrade the quality of detail in a photo. Some photographers recommend using a lens hood to enhance this effect in a photo by greatly reducing the harsh light entering the lens. If too much light enters the lens, it will cause overexposure, creating a loss of clarity in the photo.
Bokeh
This effect has to do with the aesthetic properties of a spot that is outside the focus area of the image. It is the way light conveys illuminated areas that are out of focus. The difference in lens aberration and aperture shape causes the area to smudge, creating an aesthetically pleasing view. Many photographers deliberately use the shallow focus technique to create images with visible bokeh areas.
There’s good bokeh, but there’s also bad bokeh, where the blur is so distracting or harsh that it takes the focus off the subject. So, good bokeh can enhance an image, while bad bokeh can ruin it. You can create other forms of bokeh, such as hearts or stars. You can achieve this effect by using filters with the right shape.
The Golden Hour
This effect has to do with the first hour of sunrise and the last hour of sunset. It creates a different quality of light and adds interest and drama to the scene. It’s the perfect time of day to create great photos-but you have to be quick because the lighting changes and fades quickly. What happens during the golden hour:
- During sunrise and sunset, the sun is so close to the horizon that daylight is reflected light from the sky, reducing the intensity of the bright sunlight.
- The lighting is softer, the tones are warmer, and the shadows are longer.
At other times of the day, sunlight can be too bright and harsh. Sunlight harshness is especially a problem in portrait photography, where the light can create unwanted strong shadows on the face and body. In landscape photography, photographing landscapes during the golden hours saturates the colors of the scene.
Long Exposure
This is another interesting technique in photography that involves a narrow aperture and a long shutter speed. It is powered by the latest technology ideas. This is done to create obscure landscapes by capturing static elements while the moving details of the image are smeared.
Long exposure can be difficult to do. It should be done when there is little light, most likely the photo will be overexposed because using long exposures on a sunny day can be problematic because too much light will enter the lens. Interesting subjects for this kind of photography are stars, moving cars, and lights. However, there are many great long-exposure photos taken during the daytime under low light. Long-exposure shots of fog and water are very popular in photography.
Fill Flash
This is a technique in photography where the photographer uses the flash to fill in dark areas of the image. It is excellent for backlit ambient backgrounds. The background is usually much brighter than the subject. To create a fill flash, the aperture and shutter speed are adjusted to expose the background, using the flash to illuminate the foreground, but maintaining the quality of the background.
You can use the flash when the subject is in shadow, when there is more light in the background than in the foreground, and when you are close enough to the subject with the flash. Keep in mind that the built-in flash has sufficient output only up to 9 feet away. A fill-in flash can brighten very shaded areas, improving the image without overexposing other areas in the picture.
The Rule of Thirds
This is one of the main basic principles of composition. It has been used for centuries by craftsmen, artists, and today by photographers. According to the rule of thirds, the photographer divides the photograph into thirds, horizontal and vertical, so that you have nine equal parts. The main subject is not in the center of the frame, so it looks dynamic, in motion, and interesting.
When you take a picture, you have to mentally divide the viewfinder or display into three to scale your shot. Keeping the grid in mind, identify the main subjects of interest and the frame. Some photographers do this naturally, but others need practice. Effective use of the rule of thirds creates momentum and interest in any photograph.
Remember the rule of thirds in post-production processing. If you find the composition in an image boring, you can always fix it using the cropping and framing tools in Luminar Neo. Experiment with editing tools to improve your photos. By the way, you can always find information about framing photography on Skylum’s blog.
