Keynote for PhotoCamp London, Ontario: Sept 11, 2010 Quick tips and example of setting up effective photo composition when traveling with a pocket camera: how to crop, center and frame your shot for great photos on the road.

1. Composition on the
Road

2. Composition on the
Road
how to set up great shots
when you don't have time for setup

3. Your
presenter is
not an expert
@ImpressionOne
impression1.net (subscribe to learn
about my new travel blog)
Browse my original travel blog:
www.impression1.net/
whereisandrewnow

4. Some of my favourite
photos:
my best composition
examples

11. Cardinal Rule:
EDIT EDIT
EDIT
4 days in Las Vegas
500 photos (125 photos/day)
kept 150 photos
= deleted 350 photos that didn’t pass
my standards
*set your bar exceptionally high for
the photos you keep

12. Three
Scenarios
1) Urban settings
2) Crowds
3) People you’re traveling with

13. #1
Urban
Settings
1) Take lots and lots and lots of the
same shots. One will be perfect.
2) Keep a close eye of the edges of
your frame: don’t cut out essential
parts of buildings and backgrounds
3) Look for interesting lines within
buildings/towers/trees/people and
use those to frame the shot
4) Move yourself to position your
subject

14. keep an eye for the edges of photos:
I didn’t cut off the top of this building

15. look for neat angles to frame your shot

16. look for neat angles to frame your shot

17. keep an eye for the edges of photos:
I didn’t cut off the name “Rectory” on
the building

18. position yourself to align your subject:
I couldn’t move the tricycle, so I
moved myself to centre the tricycle in
the window pane

19. look for neat angles to frame your shot:
I walked around to the back of the Capitol building and shot it from the side

20. look for lines in buildings to follow: I
kept the edges of the arches of the Eiffel
tower

21. look for neat angles to frame your shot:
I used this pool to create a foreground for the Louvre Pyramid

22. keep an eye for the edges of photos:
I didn’t cut off the words in the “Moulin
Rouge” sign

23. look for neat angles to frame your shot:
I used the lawn to create a foreground for the lake at Versailles

24. position yourself to align your subject:
I moved around until the “Tate
Modern” sign fit within the bridge
opening

25. look for neat angles to frame your shot:
I used this small park to create a foreground for Buckingham Palace

26. position yourself to align your subject:
I moved around until the statue of
Saint Peter was framed in front of the
Vatican

27. #1
Urban
Settings:
Continued
5) Stand in the middle of urban
scenes:
I love (safely) getting into the middle
of roads
6) Crop out the stuff you don’t want
(roads/people/etc) by cutting out the
bottoms/tops of photos: results are
impressive

28. Crop out stuff you don’t want:
I moved the camera up and cut off the
crowds below the pagoda in Burma

29. Crop out stuff you don’t want:
I moved the camera up and cut off
the street around
Westminster Abbey

30. Crop out stuff you don’t want:
I moved the camera up and cut off the
crowds below Notre Dame

31. Crop out stuff you don’t want:
I moved the camera up and cut off the
streets in Hong Kong to focus on the
living conditions

32. Stand safely in the middle of urban
scenes: traffic islands work great! It
looks amazing when you stand in the
middle of a street

33. Stand safely in the middle of urban
scenes: be very careful taking photos
while crossing on a red light

34. #2
Crowds
1) Stick your hand up and point the
camera down at the crowd
Result: a shot of the top of the crowd
that makes it look like a sea of people
2) Don’t cut off people’s legs. Crowds
look great when you can see them
walking
3) Capture a crowd doing something:
like shopping in a market: get inside
the crowd

35. Don’t cut off people’s legs:
crowds look great when you can see
them walking

36. Step back from crowds to capture
their relation to the scene

37. Don’t cut off people’s legs:
crowds look great when you can see
them walking

38. Stick your hand up and tilt the camera
down to capture the tops of crowds
and make them look like a sea of
people

39. Capture what the crowd is doing

40. Capture what the crowd is doing

41. Don’t cut off people’s legs:
crowds look great when you
can see them walking

42. #2
Crowds
4) If you’re really lucky: get the
crowd to interact with you

45. #3
People you’re
traveling with
1) Walk ahead of behind your friends
so you can place them within a scene.
2) Either frame theme tight
(portrait) or get their whole body:
don’t cut off legs/feet.

46. Walk ahead or behind your friends to
capture them within the context of a
scene

47. Don’t cut off feet/legs: show their
whole body within a scene

48. Walk ahead or behind your friends to
capture them within the context of a
scene

49. If you aren’t capturing their whole
body, crop nice and tight to show
emotion

50. Thank You