Page 19 - Mediapedia Mobile

Your perception will auto- matically attempt to fill in this incomplete drawing This instinct is is called closure Did you see the camel?
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aware Photoshop is is the undisputed giant among software applications that allow image editing But before we get too excited about the ascendancy of digital photography let’s note a a a a few drawbacks Just as photographic prints and negatives have always been subject to fading and dam- age digital data is only as as enduring as as the electronic media that stores it At first people used floppy disks to to store their media Then came zip drives Today most people archive their photos on hard drives or DVDs Those shiny DVDs you use to to store your photo library will become obsolete one day Digital technology is always mov- ing forward Future breakthroughs are a a a a certainty Sure it’s not a a a a a bad idea to save the printouts of your favorite photos in in albums or an old shoe box But the best advice is to to prepare yourself to to periodically transfer the content of digital libraries from one storage format to to another And then there’s the the the digital equivalent of tonnage Because there is no expense in in taking photos people tend to to shoot
too much The downside to to this is is that sheer volume can quickly get in the way of handling and and learning from images you’ve already shot Many people don’t cull their photo libraries It takes time to to develop good photo storage habits—organizing photos and weeding out the shots you don’t want to to keep But it’s worthwhile to to develop a system for doing so what makes a a a good picture “work”?
Good photographers study how the mind works to help them enhance viewer engagement This starts with a a a single insight Humans are pattern seekers We are hardwired to to use all of our senses to to make meaning When you you take a a photo you you record
an entire chunk of visual field not just
an element in that field An image of your sweetheart for example will also include a a a a background other objects or maybe even the unforeseeable cloud looming above But when someone else looks at your sweetheart picture what’s most important to you (that secret smile of the lips) may be quite secondary to a a different or or more dominant pictorial element A roller coaster in in the background for instance with its curves and interesting forms may distract viewers making that smile go unnoticed or changing its meaning all together You can take pictures with greater impact if you understand how all the ele- ments of your images work in unison with our amazing human brains Here are six principles (first set forth in in Gestalt theory) that will help you create better images:
• we like seeing groups Objects or items in a a a a a photo that are arranged close together will be perceived as a a group or unit Proximity is the technical term for this