Photography Article Teaching Kids Photography Part 2: Composition and Design|Photography Artist Statement

Want to take that subsequent step in teaching your child(s) about photography and stoking their life-long ardour? This article is the second one in an occasional collection on coaching children images, based round a series of lessons I designed for an simple and center school Photography Club. The first article coveredTeaching Kids Photography: shooting modes, awareness, and exposure.

Composition and Design

For our second Photography Club meeting, I chose to focus on the twin issues of composition and design, as these techniques and strategies are relevant no matter the type of camera you use. (Club members had access to several varieties and levels of point-and-shoot and phone cameras.)

We began with a quick PowerPoint presentation about a number of the basic principles of composition and design. Students loved looking at the comparative examples, particularly, which sparked some thrilling communication and discussion. Many of the students, as an example, have been to begin with more interested in the symmetrical sunset picture than the 'Rule of Thirds' model, which helped reinforce the factor that composition is clearly a series of pointers and that everyone has special opinions and interpretations. (Curious? Read greater about Composition and the Rule of Thirds here.)

In addition to the Rule of Thirds, we additionally discussed the concept of using main traces as a composition element. Students were generally acquainted with the idea of angle from their Art instructions and loved seeing how they may use ideas from other artwork bureaucracy to inform their images. (Read extra approximately Composition and Leading Lines here.)

Another topic I desired to make sure to emphasize become the importance of being attentive to your background and now not simply your challenge. Like many beginning photographers, I had noticed from our first assembly that scholars have been frequently so absorbed of their important difficulty that they paid little interest to the relaxation of the photo. We shared a few examples wherein the historical past detracted from the overall picture, which include the slide under of an accidentally slanted horizon. (Read more about how toRemember the Background and Move Your Feet.)

Finally, I decided to end with a bit little bit of amusing before we got right down to taking pictures: pressured perspective. Forced attitude takes advantage of the fact that a image is a two-dimensional capture of a 3-dimensional scene. Think: a person near the camera squishing the face of a person farther from the camera or the traditional shot of travelers maintaining up the heritage Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Photo through Flickr person thentoff, used under Creative Commons license

Photography Exploration

After the presentation and discussion, we had about half an hour for hands-on photography. Due to the weather, we had to stay indoors but had access to several areas in the school, including the gym, to spread out to and apply the new compositional learning. (I have deliberately left out identifiable photographs of the students themselves, but many portraits and other 'forced perspective' attempts were also made.)

View outside of the playground the use of the Rule of Thirds

Off-center composition using Rule of Thirds, as well as a decluttered background

Leading lines and perspective on the stairs

Leading lines in the white board marker rail

I am posed by a student with an attempt to make the eagle pose on my shoulder.

(It was Team Spirit Day at school as well.)

Forced perspective, holding up the painted eagle in the gym (cropped)

Conclusion: Teaching Kids Photography Composition

Composition and design is a great place to start when encouraging kids to do more with their photography. Start by exploring just a few basic rules at a time, and see how a little bit of planning can make a big impact. (Plus, don't forget to have a little fun!)

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