Worth a Lot Less Than a Thousand Words

So, I went to the Free Ritz Camera Photo-Taking Class Titled Imaging 101 last night.  What did I learn? Let us recap:

1: Never, ever, no matter what, put your subject in the center of the frame.
2: "Leading lines" are cool. Even if there are a lot of them going in a jillion different directions.
3: Don't shoot photos at noon. And don't center your subject in the frame, even if you HAVE to shoot at noon.
4: Framing your subject! It's fun!  As long as you don't put the frames or the subject in the center of your shot.
5: Tripods are highly recommended, and lenses are expensive. Did we mention you shouldn't center your subjects?

Based on this, every photo I have ever taken pretty much sucks. I'm so demoralized, I'm debating whether to post any from July Fourth.

(OK, that's not really true. I'm actually debating whether to post any because it was dark and the quality is questionable. If I find a couple good ones, I'll indulge myself.)

But apparently, I need to take the Free Ritz Camera Photo-Taking Class Titled Imaging 201 if I want to actually, you know, learn anything about how to use my camera.  This guy's driving motto seemed to be "autofocus! It's your friend! And don't center your photos!" Though I did pick up that I should use a high-number F-stop for landscapes and a low-number F-stop for portraits. Whoo.

Comments

[Stella Chang]

Oh please, you've seen many galleries of my poor phototaking skills. That's what cropping is for! Although I'm afraid to get my current roll developed. I think there are pictures of me telling Screech the Mascot to "blow it out his [expletive deleted]."

[Darren]

I took a photo class in college, and the most helpful thing I learned was to get up as close as you can to your subject. I can't tell you how many times I've seen tourists here in New York taking pictures of each other so that they'll end up a quarter of an inch tall in the finished photo. I'm sure they're probably centered too.

[Maliavale]

I feel like shooting off-center is one of those really basic tips you can then go straight back to ignoring if you're so inclined. Center your subjects if it goes with the mood of the photo! Psssh, I say!

I like low f-numbers for most everything because I'm basic like that, and it gives that great background blur and makes it look arty without much effort.