5 Simple Techniques for Leading the Viewer’s Eye in Your Images

As photographers, it’s easy for us to make conscious composition choices that allow us to balance our photographs or to create harmony within them. It’s is more difficult however to try and lead viewers through your photographs. We rarely consider how to influence the viewers of our photographs. When composing images, we don’t think about the different elements in our images and the order by which we want viewers to see those elements.

This is a common tactic in classic painting, but not used readily by photographers. The reality is it’s hard to influence viewers and to dictate the ways in which they view our photographs.

The lines of the creek lead the viewer’s eye through and into the image.

5 Composition Tips for Landscape Photography

So what exactly is composition in photography and why is it such a big deal? Composition is the way you intentionally arrange or put together the visual elements in an image, in and around your subject. The goal is to catch the viewer’s interest and keep it wandering around your photo. While some people have an innate ability to “see” and compose great images, it is a skill that can be taught.

Once you have identified your subject, here are a few useful precepts you can use when composing your next great image.

1. Simplicity

Now that you have your subject in mind, the first question is how do you showcase it so there is no doubt of your intent? Keeping it simple is a good approach, as clutter can distract or even make it difficult to identify your focus.

Most times in landscape photography, you have no control over what is around your subject. Here, the use of lighting can reduce clutter, as the brighter areas of your photo will draw the eye to them. You can also find an angle that helps you remove any strong elements that can detract the focus of the object. Thus use only what you consider necessary components.

Good composition is as much about what you leave out as it is what you include.

6 Reasons Why Your Travel Photos Don’t Look the Ones in Magazines

Have you ever looked at your travel photos from somewhere and thought that they didn’t do that place, or your experience there, justice? It’s one of the big frustrations that newbie travel photographers face, that they feel their photos don’t look as good as the ones in travel brochures or magazines. Travel photography is a rewarding hobby or profession but it’s also challenging. Here are six reasons why your travel photos don’t look as good as the pro’s shots.

1. You’re Not Patient Enough
Often one of the biggest differences between professional and amateur photographers is the time spent waiting for the perfect photo. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I have been waiting at a location for the perfect light only to see a host of people turn up with the latest camera equipment, take a couple of photos and then leave.

Top 3 mistakes to avoid as a beginner photographer

Photography is a wonderful hobby (for me it's just a hobby, and I will write here in hobbyist point of view) that is accessible to almost anyone who is interested. The best thing about photography is that anyone can pick up a camera and start taking pictures, share it and get inspiration to shooting more.But there are a few common pitfalls that you may wish to avoid if you’re just getting started.

1. Gear everywhere.
It's a common think that buying a new gear will help to improve photos. So photographer, especially beginners always think of purchasing more gears than enough: tripods, extra lenses, filters, darkroom gear, timers, lights, reflectors – the list is endless.
My recommendation is: start off small with a basic DSLR camera and a kit lens. When you feel like you’ve pushed that as far as you can, then start by answering these 5 questions and looking for some necessary gears.

Too many gears is a bad idea for beginner.

3 Key lessons for beginer

There is so much to learn when it comes to photography but at the heart of it there are some key lessons to get your head around. Here are 3 lessons for new photographers which have been visualised in a handy cheat sheet.

3 Steps to Improving Your Photography Without Buying New Gear

1) Learn the basics about your camera and photography
Start by reading your camera’s user manual. Yes, it’s very basic and should be obvious to everyone, but you would be surprised how often people buy a new camera and start using it right away, thinking that the camera is going to do all the work. Many camera stores also offer beginner courses. Ask your local camera store about this option before deciding to buy from them.

Learn about topics like leading lines, the rule of thirds, exposure compensation, and the relation between aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I will not go into this in more detail as it would merit a whole book, but these topics are available in printed books, e-books.



Using leading lines.

Tips for Photographing Local Parks

Parks are wonderful places to capture fantastic, unique photos. Besides the obvious fauna and flowers, you will often also find people interacting with each other and the environment. All of which can lead to some great photos, to highlight another point of interest at a destination.

Here are some simple tips to try out next time you are heading to a local park:

Check the RulesOften you will find that local parks (e.g. parks in cities) have guidelines regarding photography. The majority of the time if you do not intend to use the photos for commercial purposes (i.e. they are just for yourself) you will be fine and should have no problem. But, be on the lookout for signs in the park which indicate otherwise. However, if you are intending to sell the images you should check the guidelines and rules that apply. For example some of the Royal parks in London allow photography for editorial use but not commercial. This means the photo can be used when in context to a story, or feature about the park or London, but not advertising something – so make sure you check the rules before selling your images.

Be Selective with Your PhotosOne of the great things about parks is the wealth of things you can photograph. Flowers, wildlife, trees, lakes, animals, statues and even people, all offer great opportunities for photos. But instead of trying to photograph everything, think about what the park represents, and is famous for, and focus on a few subjects that will bring it to life. This will mean you end up with a few great photos that really highlight the best attributes rather than a hundred that end up being repetitive.


One of the most iconic things about Hyde Park in London is the Peter Pan statue.

Portraits on an Overcast Day? Use a Reflector

Photographer: Sylvain Latouche. Shot with a Sony A850, 85mm lens and a 105cm silver circular foldable reflector.

As we head into Autumn here in Australia the days are becoming shorter and we’re seeing more and more overcast days. While some might say the weather is poor – this is one of my favourite times to shoot portraits out doors. (source: dPS)

Overcast cloudy days present photographers with some beautiful soft and even light with the loads acting as a big natural diffuser.

Hyperfocal focusing: how to calculate the best distance to focus at

Knowing how to calculate hyperfocal distance isn’t actually as complex as its technical name implies, but mastering this important photography technique can make all the difference to your photography. Here we answer all of the common questions photographers have about hyperfocal focusing

Hyperfocal focusing? Sounds a bit ‘new age‘…

It’s actually an old-school technique that helps you maximise sharpness in a photo. A camera lens can only focus to a single distance at any one time, but there’s an area that extends from that point, both towards the camera and towards the horizon, where things still look sharp. This area is known as the depth of field.

9 Composition tips

Enjoy the tips from Steve McCurry.

How to Improve Your Portrait Photography in Five Minutes

People often ask me for tips on taking better photos of their friends and family.
After much thought on photography tips that can apply to various experience levels and equipment — from DSLRs to smart phones — I present to you a short article with tips you can learn in five minutes to help you improve your portrait photography. If you have more time and would like more specifics, I’ve noted additional articles on each tip that may interest you.


Tips that will instantly improve your portraits:

1. Don’t put everyone in the center

Exposure triangle

The Exposure Triangle is simply the term used for the three fundamental elements of exposure: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. The following diagram will help you understand more about this three elements in just 5 minutes.

Exposure triangle cheat sheet (source: Digitalcameraworld)

You will need more exposure in low-light condition for example: at night, in door... and vice versa. The aperture is the most limited element in those three. It depends on your lens, and the wider the aperture, the more expensive the lens is. But a kit lens with aperture from 3.5 to 5.6 is good enough for beginner.
You rarely need a iso of more than 1600
And the shutter speed for hand held sometime depends on your zoom level, but with lens' vibration reduction system, you can reduce your shutter speed few stop which is good for low light condition.

@Lam Hoang

Rule of thirds - Definition and examples

You can find easily what rule of thirds is by google it. And there are heaps of webpage talking about it, one of them is wiki page because it is, probably, the most well known principle of photographic composition.
But in this post, I want to talk briefly about definition of the rule and giving some examples.

Rule of Thirds Definition

In the rule of thirds, photos are divided into thirds with two imaginary lines vertically and two lines horizontally making three columns, three rows, and nine sections in the images. Important compositional elements and leading lines are placed on or near the imaginary lines and where the lines intersect.

Grids make you easier to compose your image (Source: Wiki)