Find a new perspective with 42nd St Photo

What is it that sets professional photographers apart from the rest? While you may immediately think it is all the equipment and accessories they could purchase from 42nd St Photo, there is one piece of photographic equipment that money cannot buy: an “eye” to see the potential picture in what you are looking at.

All that “eye” is, though, is the experience that comes from looking at what you see from the perspective of an artist and imagining the scene with the boundaries of a frame. You can do this right now…form a rectangle with your index fingers and thumbs by sticking them out and turning one palm toward you, then touching finger to thumb. See the frame? Now close one eye and look through it…all around the room, one scene at a time.

If your frame were a camera’s viewfinder, those scenes could be photographs. Notice how the mood of the picture changes when you move the frame just a little bit? Find an object that fits into your frame. Imagine that space in thirds, and place the object in the center portion. That’s the kind of functional picture you would need for selling the object. But if you move the frame to the side, so the object is in one of the side portions of your frame, the two other thirds have either empty space or other things in them and many times a few smaller objects will balance out the larger object and the empty space gives depth…a composition.,,now you have created a picture that is more than function. You have made art.

This is the sort of thing that artists and photographers do so often it is without thought. They will arrange their possessions in small vignettes–little scenes that give them pleasure. Using the viewfinder in your camera instead of your fingers is an easy way to find these small scenes.

You can practice composition with your digital camera by taking several shots of the same arrangement, putting the frame in slightly different places. Most people find the ‘rule of thirds’ to be an easy way to imagine their composition and you can put your main object in each of the thirds side to side or top to bottom and compare those differing shots. What do you like better?

You may notice that you would like to experiment with focus, or lighting, or that your camera does not capture what your eye sees. This is why the professionals at 42nd St Photo carry so many kinds of lenses and equipment: it sometimes requires a special accessory to capture the beauty your eye beholds. Thoughtful composition and the eye to create it comes from you and your practiced placement of the things around you but successfully photographing that beauty will be easier with the tools you can get at 42nd St Photo.

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