Gardens Gardens are ready-made objects of beauty, but photographing gardens takes some careful crafting. Find something significant to catch the eye—a figure, a prominent physical feature, a pond, or a splash of color (as in the photos opposite and above). Remember the rule of thirds as you frame your composition and make your choices. Draw the eye to your chosen point of interest by using leading lines.
Choose lenses carefully for garden photography. It’s tempting to use a wide-angle lens to take in a wide swath of the scene, but the disadvantage of that choice is that everything within a wide shot is usually in focus, so the images can be flat unless composed dynamically.
—Telephoto lenses isolate the details of nature. Often something small says as much or more about a place than a wide view.
—Find an element that interrupts a pattern. It might be one tree trunk of a different color or a protruding rock that breaks the symmetry of concentric circles in the water.
—Patterns can be less obvious, too. Blocks of color, either the same hue or different ones of about equal tonal value, can lend depth.
Food When shooting food, what matters most is that it should look fresh. The easiest photos are often the ones you get at outdoor markets, where street vendors may be cooking up sizzling local delicacies with ample sunshine to light your composition. To photograph food indoors, you’ll need to plan ahead and be ready to shoot quickly once the food is ready.
—Plan the entire composition. A simple background and just a few props, if any, make the food stand out the best
—Photograph food near a window, if possible, where the soft, indirect light makes it look the most natural.
—Try brushing a little vegetable oil on any dull-looking food surface to add shine—a trick of the trade from professional food photographers.
—Select colorful food items, and avoid whites and browns if you can.
Life at Home Being in the right place at the right time and having close-up, intimate access to your family is what home photography is all about. To get started, think carefully about what each member of your family likes to do. Does your daughter obsess over puzzles? Does your son do his homework at the kitchen table? Those moments don’t last forever. Seize the opportunities.
Look for the places in your house with the best light. Keep your camera set on auto-exposure and autofocus. Then when someone does something interesting, you’ll be ready.
—Avoid flash indoors. Nothing wrecks a subtly lit scene like the harsh, direct light of a flash. To compensate, set a high ISO and keep a steady hand for the lower shutter speed.
—When you can, shoot outdoors when the sun is close to the horizon or the sky is hazy or cloudy. Harsh midday sun makes people squint.
—Find the best background. When you see a good subject, turn in a complete circle and look for the best direction from which to shoot.
Copyright © 2011 by National Geographic; Contributions by James P. Blair and Priit Vesilind; Introduction by Scott Stuckey. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
