Composition tips

1. FILL YOUR FRAME

One of the most common mistakes made by budding photographers is that they do not fill the frame with their subject or the major elements of the image. Get in closer and exclude the parts that you don’t want. Open space serves no purpose when the subject is too small or cannot be identified.

2. HORIZONTAL VS VERTICAL

Camera manufacturers are to blame for this dilemma because all cameras are designed to be held in a horizontal format. It shouldn’t be an ‘either or’ situation but rather a ‘both and’. Try to shoot 50% of the time in both formats. There is no rule which is best and the key is to experiment.

3. DRAMATIC ANGLES

Shoot from high up or low down. Use your feet and move around the subject looking for an optimum angle. Don’t be afraid to get down on your stomach or climb a tree. Look for different and dramatic angles that will make your images more striking.

4. DON’T AMPUTATE

This means that you shouldn’t cut off part of your subject unless it is intentional to create an effect. Missing parts of people or objects irritate the viewer and create an incomplete image. It distracts the eye. So watch the edges of your image.

5. THE RULE OF THIRDS

Imagine a tic tac toe grid or noughts and crosses lines running across your image dividing it into thirds horizontally and vertically. Where the lines cross or intersect are the best placement points for your subjects or objects. Never place the horizon of a landscape image in the centre of your image. Always place it on a horizontal two thirds line. Subjects like lighthouses would be placed along one of the vertical two thirds lines.

6. LOOK FOR FRAMES

These come in two types, natural or man-made. Natural would be an opening in trees or a rock formation with a hole in it. Man-made frames are doorways, windows or arches. All of these help contain the subject or scene in a form that is very pleasing to the eye.

7. SIMPLIFY

Trying to include too much in an image often spoils it. An image that is cluttered causes the eye of the viewer to dart around the image trying to make sense of it. Less is more as the old adage goes. Eliminate anything that would distract the eye or is unnecessary to the memory you are attempting to create. 

8. WATCH YOUR BACKGROUND

Make sure that there is nothing there that would detract from your subject. Things like chimneys growing out of heads and other subjects diverting the eye from the main subject. You want balance by not going in too close but including enough of the environment of the subject or object to contextualise it.

9. LINES, PATTERNS AND SHAPES

Look for interesting patterns, lines and shapes. Lines lead the eye to focal points. A river, road, fence or path in a classic ‘s’ shape draws the eye along the route into your image. Strong verticals give height to your image and diagonals add depth. Turn your viewfinder allowing straight lines to travel from corner to corner in the image.

Key to great composing is thought. Think before your press the shutter button and consider all of these points. Create a mental check list to help you add these elements and create that great composition.

Did you Hear ANSI Super 35 , DIN Super 35 what is that?

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international standards so that American products can be used worldwide. For example, standards ensure that people who own cameras can find the film they need for that camera anywhere around the globe.





Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. (DIN; in the German Institute for Standardization) is the Germannational organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association (e.V.) headquartered in Berlin. There are currently around thirty thousand DIN Standards, covering nearly every field of technology.

MPEG vs AVCHD vs H.264

Hi ,Do you know this thing?users of new digital cameras like 5d ,c100,and some other cameras must know this..
avchd-- advanced video coding high definition .everybody know this but the bit rate of avchd is 24mbps that means 3MBps .
some cameras like c100 this camera is high cost but u can consider bit rate also...
in H.264 its a simple mpeg compression  which all digital high end cameras gives.do you know what is bit rate? approximately  50 mbps..compare to 24mbps..
 in my experience i am suggest that use compact flash cards for 5d and other..more bit rate of creates more greadiants that will enhance the picture quality..
in mpeg technology all cameras uses H.264 compression in this there is heavy loss and small loss parts ..and thats why some cameras uses heavy loss compression like avchd,H.264,other uses only h.264......like 5dmark ii and ii..  

A miniature car chase.

STEVEN SASSON DIGITAL CAMERA INVENTOR

Time for some history. Steven J. Sasson is an American electrical engineer and the inventor of the digital camera in 1975. This first digital camera above recorded a black-and-white image on a digital cassette tape! Commodore modified the cassette tape recorder as well and called it the Datasette. Commodore sold them under the model designations C2N or VIC 1530, designed for use with the VIC-20, C64 and PET and CBM 2000/3000/4000/8000/9000 models.
OK, back to the camera … this 8-pound monster captured the black-and-white image at a resolution of .01 megapixels, took 23 seconds to record onto a digital cassette tape and another 23 seconds to read off a playback unit onto a television. Then it popped up on the screen, yeah!
“You could see the silhouette of her hair,” Sasson said. But her face was a blur of static. She was less than happy with the photograph and left, saying “You need work,” he said. But Sasson already knew the solution: reversing a set of wires, the assistant’s face was restored.
Sasson still works at Eastman Kodak Company and now works to protect the intellectual capital of his employer. Wikipedia writes, “On November 17, 2010, US President Barack Obama awarded Sasson the National Medal of Technology and Innovation at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. This is the highest honor awarded by the US government to scientists, engineers, and inventors.”

LOUIS DAGUERRE WHO INVENTED FIRST CAMERA

Louis Daguerre (Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre) was born near Paris, France on November 18, 1789. A professional scene painter for the opera with an interest in lighting effects, Daguerre began experimenting with the effects of light upon translucent paintings in the 1820s.

Louis Daguerre regularly used a camera obscura as an aid to painting in perspective, and this led him think about ways to keep the image still. In 1826, he discovered the work of Joseph Niepce, and in 1829 began a partnership with him.

He formed a partnership with Joseph Niepce to improve upon the photography process Niepce had invented. Niepce, who died in 1833, produced the first photographic image, however, Niepce's photographs quickly faded.

After several years of experimentation, Louis Daguerre developed a more convenient and effective method of photography, naming it after himself - the daguerreotype.

According to writer Robert Leggat,"Louis Daguerre made an important discovery by accident. In 1835, he put an exposed plate in his chemical cupboard, and some days later found, to his surprise, that the latent image had developed. Daguerre eventually concluded that this was due to the presence of mercury vapour from a broken thermometer. This important discovery that a latent image could be developed made it possible to reduce the exposure time from some eight hours to thirty minutes.

Louis Daguerre introduced the daguerreotype process to the public on August 19, 1839 at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris.

In 1839, Louis Daguerre and Niépce's son sold the rights for the daguerreotype to the French government and published a booklet describing the process.

Best cinematography Theory
5 C?s of Cinematography   ...Mascelli
Cinematography, Theory and Practice ..Blain Brown
The Negative.......Ansel Adams
Film Form: Essays in Film Theory.....Sergei Eisenstein

Practice/Field
The ASC Manual   ....ASC (The daddy-o)
The Camera Assistant......Douglas Hart
The Camera Assistant Manual............David Elkins
Cinematographer's Pocket Reference....Blain Brown
Cinematographer's field guide...............Kodak

Lighting
Painting with Light...........John Alton
Matters of Light and Depth...............Ross Lowell
Film Lighting..............Kris Malkiewicz
Motion Picture & Video Lightin........ Blain Brown
Interior Color by Design????????Jonathan Poore

Movement & Blocking
Cinematic Motion..............Steven Katz
Grammar of the Film Language..........Daniel Arijon
Shot by Shot.....................Steven Katz

Gee-whiz-ology(inspiration)
Cinemtography.......................... Peter Ettedgui