Tips on composition and framing As mentioned in issue No: 9 about composition and framing, there is no general rule about how you would like to compose and frame your pictures. Any method is fine but a well thought-out plan prior to clicking the shutter button will result in a much better composition. Of course, as in any picture, even if the composition is perfect, it can be ruined by incorrect exposure or too many distracting elements so you must take great care in ensuring that these problems are eliminated or minimized. Evaluative metering was used for the top two pictures on this batch shown below. The meter reading was obtained and memorized via AE lock at the 50mm setting and shot at the 28mm focal length. Since it looked more dramatic at the 50mm setting, another shot was recorded on the next frame using the same meter reading as my finger pressure on the shutter button was not released after the first shot, preserving the locked exposure value. The 28mm shot did look a bit darker but this was caused by the inclusion of the building on the right side of the picture, which gave the feeling that the 50mm photo was better. Typical street scene, at 28mm Same scene shot at 50mm Shopping district scene Same scene with more cabs added Hazy highlight due to dirty window Recomposed to exclude the highlight part The next two pictures of the people waiting to cross the street were covered by shadows from the buildings behind me, resulting in the an overall darker rendition, which was basically the way I saw them. The composition seemed a bit loose in the sense that the road in the foreground was almost empty and the pedestrians did not look much like they were waiting to cross the street. The inclusion of two more cabs in the next picture filled up the blank area and acted as the framing method. Again, Evaluative metering was used for both pictures. The final two pictures showing more people crossing the road were shot through the windows of an enclosed overhead bridge. Due to the accumulated dirt on the windows' surface, the highlight area of the first shot became hazy (actually, the sky was also hazy on that day). The solution was simple: just exclude the annoying-looking spot by shifting more towards the right and shoot. << Back to Main . 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 .