Photography Analyses

Here we demonstrate the use of different photography elements and their effectiveness in art.

Depth of Field

Using depth of field, the contrast of clear to blurry highlights the subject. In the first example, the subject’s face and everything behind her is blurred out, highlighting the water in front of her. In my photo, everything behind the flag is blurred, highlighting the flag itself. This is a useful effect for eliminating distractions in your image.

Leading Lines

Both of these photos demonstrate the use of leading lines to draw your eyes to the subject. In the first example, we see the lines in the sidewalk taking us ahead of the subject, to give the illusion of motion. In the picture I took, both the lights and the carpet borders draw your eyes down the hall. This helps the viewer look where you want them to.

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is one of the easiest photography elements to utilize. You can see in the sunset photograph, the ships fall in the leftmost third, and the color transitions in the sunset itself fall generally on the horizontal lines. There are several other parts of this image that fall on or near the third lines. In my own image, it’s not nearly as complex, simply the motorcycle falls on the right lower third marking. Use of this rule makes your photographs much more appealing.