Washington Apple Pi

A Community of Apple iPad, iPhone and Mac Users

July 2007 Graphic Arts SIG:

Taking Good Photos, Part I

By Hal Cauthen

At the July 14 meeting of the Graphic Arts SIG, Michael Giagola continued his series on Digital Photography, with a session entitled “Taking Good Pictures”.

The idea, Michael said, was to provide a practical understanding of the basic elements of a “good” picture, and then to learn to apply them to obtain “good” pictures.  Likening Photography to “painting with light,” he observed that each picture has two components: technical and creative. It is the controlled combination of these two components the results in an images that captures the appearance and emotion the photographer is trying to express.

Outlining ten basic fundaments for getting good pictures, Michael then used example images to illustrate each point. A PDF outline of his talk is posted on the GA SIG portion of the Pi Web site,: http://www.wap.org/gasig/

Summing up, he concluded that a technically good, but poorly composed picture is a “bad” image, and that a technically bad, but well composed picture is a “bad” image.  A “good” picture, he said, includes both technical and artistic elements.

This Digital Photography series will conclude August 11, with Digital Camera Picture Taking Part II (More on how to get a good image).

Slides from Michael's talk are available in PDF format. (Note: if you have problems downloading the slides, right-click or Command-click on the link.)