It never ceases to amaze me how many “photographers” have appeared since the introduction of digital cameras. Don’t get me wrong, with the advances in camera technology it has enabled more people to take some pretty good photos. However back to my original point this does not necessarily make the person a photographer.
When it comes to the art of photography there are many factors that contribute to creating a high quality photograph. Among these include composition, lighting, exposure and depth of field to name a few. There’s no doubt that the camera plays an important role in capturing a high quality image. When I refer to the “camera” I’m talking about both the body and the lens. Most cameras have a variety of settings that allow even a novice to get a properly exposed image. Probably one of the most under-utilized settings is “Manual” mode. In this setting the photographer has to set both aperture and shutter speed. These two settings along with ISO make up the triad that determines the exposure of the photograph.
Aperture also directly relates to how sharp or conversely out of focus the background is in an image. This is referred to as “depth of field”. The smaller the number of the aperture results in more light that is allowed in as well as more blur in the background or “shallow” depth of field. Going the other way, a higher number aperture results in sharper background referred to as “deep” depth of field. It’s worth mentioning that the focal length of the lens will also have an impact on depth of field. So wide-angle lenses will not provide extreme shallow depth of field as a long telephoto lens does.
So at a high level that covers the camera, but there is also the idea of composition. Wikipedia does a great job of defining composition as it relates to visual arts as “the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art”. There is a general photography rule that helps in composition, this rule is called “The rule of thirds“. The Wikipedia link provides a detailed explanation of this rule, but in short it’s the idea of breaking an image into nine equal parts. With this separation you place important elements on the intersecting lines.
As you browse our gallery, you see how each of these components play into our images. At DS Visual Art we take every step possible to ensure that we capture the best possible image. We start by working with state of the art equipment to create high quality photos for use in a variety of formats. We are pleased to share some of those special moments with the hope that you not only see the image but “feel” the emotion behind the scene captured.
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