3
Understanding Lighting and Composition Techniques
In This Chapter
Understanding the principles and use of lighting
Composing your photos beautifully
Creating powerful images relies heavily on the mastery of lighting and compositional techniques. After I bought my first DLSR (digital single-lens reflex camera) and learned the basics of exposure, I wanted to get my feet wet and start practicing. So I picked a bright and sunny afternoon and took some pictures of a friend. Even though my pictures had the correct exposure, something didn’t look quite right. She had shadows under her eyes, and the photo had a cluttered background that I hadn’t noticed when I snapped the picture. I realized that in order to create images that were visually pleasing, I needed to learn how to manipulate light and to correctly compose a photograph.
The tricky part about lighting and composition is that there is no single right way of controlling light or framing a subject. Photographers use many different methods to achieve a desired effect. In this chapter I narrow down the aspects of lighting and composition that are most relevant to wedding photography and give you tips on how to use these techniques ...
