Have the students review published works of photographers to review their different approaches to composition.

Elements of composition that are important (but limited) to photography include:

Visual Elements:

• Black and white photographs should exhibit tones that range from black through to white.
• Colour photographs reflect all colours and transmit light tones through very dark tones.
• Lines, curved or straight, separate tones.
• Shape is the area enclosed by a line.
• Form is a three dimensional shape often shown through the use of shadows.
• Pattern is a repetition of similar shapes.
• Texture may be represented as similar shapes, lines and tones.

Structural Elements

• Main subject is the centre of attention in the photograph that is emphasized by the visual elements.
• Balance provides a sense of weight to a photograph in terms of symmetry, tone, colour contrast.
• Unity within a photograph is provided when elements demonstrate a relationship to one another.
• Proportion suggests size comparison relationships.
• Linear perspective can be achieved by including shadow detail, haze, or object placement in the photograph.
• Subject placement uses the general Rule of Thirds. The subject is placed at the center of the four intersecting lines created by the dividing the photograph length and width into thirds.

  

• Viewpoint of the camera when not at eye level affects the compositional elements.

Technical Elements

• Lens selection will affect the composition as it alters the perspective of the photograph. Wide angle lenses tend to distort distances by making objects smaller and farther away than they are in reality. Tele-photo lenses tend to compress the elements in a photograph.
• Aperture selection will change the depth of field that may enhance or detract from the central subject in the photograph.
• Film selection, film speed and colour or black and white film considerations can dramatically alter the resulting photograph.

Further information on elements and principles of design is found in the Design Studies 10, 20 Curriculum Guide, Modules 1 and 2.

It is important for students to understand the relationship that exists between shutter speed and aperture.

Shutter speed can be used to stop motion in a photograph or allow motion to blur a subject depending on the desired effect. Have students take a six frame series of photographs (maintaining the same focal point) using a moving subject in the scene and slow the shutter speed to blur the motion to hold the subject. To maintain the correct exposure students will need to stop down the aperture as the shutter speed is lowered.

Changing the lens aperture (f-stop) will alter the depth of field in the photograph.

Handheld light meters read both reflective and incident lighting intensity situations. Handheld meters may include other useful features.

Cameras with built in meters read reflected light intensity and may be fully manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic. Automatic cameras may have reflective light meters that will set aperture or shutter speed or both.

A camera light meter reads average lighting (18% gray). That means anything that the camera light meter is pointed at registers as being middle gray no matter what the true tone of the object might be. (For example, with black and white film in the camera, meter a snow scene, without compensating for the overall brightness. The resulting print would register the snow as middle gray). To avoid this type of situation the lens must be opened up one or two stops. The reverse situation would occur for a dark scene.

This can be a valuable tool to measure light levels for subjects that are predominately dark or light. The gray card is useful for reading reflected light.

Many technical manuals have a gray card included. In the absence of a gray card, the light reflected from the palm of the hand plus one stop down (smaller lens opening) will provide a close approximation of a gray card reading.

This is a common practice used to insure that at least one exposure yields a preferred result. The selected subject may not ever appear the same again so extra care to record the image using bracketing is warranted.

Depending on the lighting situation encountered, three possibilities exist:

• Expose the film as indicated by the meter setting, then expose a second frame overexposed one stop, the third frame one stop underexposed.
• If the lighting conditions are somewhat dark then make a normal exposure then make two additional exposures to overexposure one then two stops by adjusting either the shutter speed or aperture setting.
• If conditions are very bright, make a normal exposure then make two additional exposures to underexpose one then two stops by adjusting either the shutter speed or aperture settings.

Practice will teach the students which bracketing sequence will provide the best results for the photographic situation they are facing.

Meter the darkest area of the selected scene and then expose with two stops less light. This will allow the detail to be recorded on the film but at the same time not over expose the highlight areas of the scene.

Most common light meters will take incident and reflected light readings that will produce the same results.

Have students illustrate the rule for subject placement and the way that one's eyes move across a photograph when it is viewed. As a project idea, use a sheet of transparency film to create a mask that could be placed on a photograph to identify whether the subject placement meets the Rule of Thirds.

The ability of a photographer to visualize or see the completed image in his or her imagination before the exposure is made is a skill that will benefit the photographer's composition skills. This skill is not easily learned but is important to producing photographs that attract attention.

Have students record in a journal or logbook camera settings for shutter speed and aperture as well as the subject matter. This will cause students to become more selective about what they are doing with the camera.

Further, by focusing students' attention to specific topics or ideas, they will produce better photographs and fewer snapshot images that do not reflect care and consideration regarding image selection.

Planning a photograph will also encourage careful composition and avoid pitfalls like trees growing from the top of the subject's head, off-level horizons, etc.

Carefully kept records of camera settings used for different situations will foster a problem-solving approach to recording on film, as close as possible to what the photographer visualized when the film exposure was made.