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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68 Composition, composition, composition. Aside from the one-good-picture-from-a-roll rule (digitals don't use film, but the ratio still applies), a well laid out picture says it all. I've had a number of times when I showed someone a picture and been praised for how great it is. I've shot many of those pictures with my good old Pentax K. Inexpensive, but records a good image of what I shoot. I'm shooting a Sony Mavica most of the time now. Not a top-of-the-line camera, but I still get some great shots. And some really clunky ones (you didn't think otherwise, did you?) My favorite "rule" of composition is the "rule of thirds." (I had to pay to learn this!) Take a picture and divide it in thirds horizontally and veritically. If you can print one out from your computer, it might make this easier to understand, because you can draw lines at the "third" points. Note that the lines cross in four places. One of those should be the focal point of your picture. There will be a horizontal focus in your picture as well, most often the horizon, although it could be a tree line, or even telegraph lines. That horizontal focus should be on one of those lines. Taking a look at macguy's fantastic shot reveals that the headlight is almost exactly at one of the intersections, the ditch lights are on the lower horizontal line, and most of the bulk of the engine is below the upper third line. Further, the engine is coming into the picture in a very powerful position. This technique, as well as the rule of thirds, even works well for "snapshots" taken to document who was "there", like in front of a monument. One of the biggest mistakes people make taking pictures is to center the picture on the focal point. In people pictures, this is usually the face. I certainly don't want to have anyone obsessing about third lines, etc, etc. But, if you take the time to compose shots, and it becomes habit, you will consistantly produce memorable pictures. And it doesn't take an expensive camera to do it. Happy shooting! [/quote] I know what you mean, I learned that lesson via the school of hard knocks. I would take all these pictures of the trains going by, thinking I had it perfect -- I had lined it up in the center of the shot just perfectly....... but wait, whenever I got home and loaded them on the computer they never really looked proper......I would have the loco usually right in the middle, but then all this empty space on one side of the photo. Just had to figure out how to balance the picture out a little better, that rule of "thirds" is a really good one to go by, I'm gonna go focus on that strategy next time I go out there. ......I suppose that 2816 won't be getting up here again anytime soon, I'll have to settle for the widecabs. [:)]
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