What's Wrong With This Picture?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love to take pictures. Sometimes I take decent pictures. And other times, even though I have good intentions, I don't think through the shot and it just turns out all wrong.

Take this picture for example.



My intent was to get a picture of the "W" along with the hitter. I "thought" it was a good picture. Until I started really looking at it.

The eye wants to continue moving with the batter and the ball that he is going to hopefully hit, which unfortunately keeps you moving right out of the picture.

Take this picture for another example.



See how the tractor is closer to the edge of the picture and the tractor appears like it's leaving the picture. I should have moved the tractor to the right in the picture so that your eye doesn't leave the picture.

It's probably easier to position the picture differently than to have the tractor painted facing the other direction! If the tractor were facing the fence, and a little to the left, the picture would have been fine. It's too bad. Because I love the tractor sign. I just don't like how it's positioned in the picture.

In order to have a good picture, your subject should be facing the inside of the picture so that it doesn't make your eye want to leave the picture.

Take this picture for example.



See how the bird is positioned facing the center of the photo? That makes your eye want to stay in the photo. Plus, your eye follows the line of the branch that the bird is standing on. Additionally, the bird is positioned in the center of 1/3 of the picture.

That's where you want your subject to be positioned. Imagine a tic-tac-toe board. You want your subject on the grid of one of the 1/3's. Make sense?

The bird picture would be completely different if the bird were on the right side of the picture. It wouldn't be as pleasing to the eye.

Well, all this is true except when you're taking portraits. Then you want your subject dead center. Because that's what's important.

But, sometimes, a photo's just a photo. And I take lots of those too. That's what's good about a digital camera with a big memory card. Snap, snap, snap and delete, delete, delete. Sometimes you end up with a photo like the batter and others (less times than more), you end up with the bird photo.