NZPhotographer Issue 19, May 2019

My belief is that an image being
‘Instagram-worthy’ takes away the
pure enjoyment of photography as
people follow popular and modern
trends in order to get likes rather
than taking photos to capture
moments, record history, and
express their views.
It is great to be inspired by other
photographers or artists work that
we admire and try to achieve
the same level in our own work,
but there is something wrong with
replicating someone’s work or style
just for the sake of it getting lots of
attention on social media.
Since I’m a huge fan of breaking
the rules (from a creative point
of view obviously!) I always try
to consciously do something
“wrong” when taking a photo
whilst still making it look good.
Subconsciously it is quite hard to
do since (no matter whether you
are a self-taught photographer or
have a degree in photography)
your mind knows you have
some general rules to follow in
photography e.g. the rule of thirds.
Even our team of photo reviewers
at Excio recommend following the
rules in most cases as you can read
on our blog but I decided to look
at suggestions of when and how
it’s ok to break the rules, being the
creative rebel that I am!
THE RULE OF THIRDS
We’re told to have 1/3 sky and
2/3 land or 2/3 sky and 1/3 land
and to position the subject on
the intersection of “invisible lines”
horizontally and vertically not
in the centre. Breaking the rule
means capturing the moment,
capturing emotions, experimenting
with composition, and putting the
subject in the centre of the frame
when it feels right.
THE HISTOGRAM
We’re told to check the histogram
so as to check the light and
exposure before taking the photo.
We’re told to bracket so as to
get all the lights and all the darks
perfectly captured. Breaking the
rule means trying purposefully
to overexpose/underexpose to
create a fine art piece. Experiment
with the light, shoot against the
light, challenge yourself to shoot
at the brightest time of day with
direct sunlight and see how you
can break the rules whilst creating
an image that works.
THE HORIZON LINE
This is the first thing we get told to
fix on an image when our horizon
is tilting to one side but it is possible
to break the rule and create your
own horizons on purpose. I recently
learned about the ‘Dutch Angle’
thanks to our photo reviews on
the blog and is something I’m now
trying to experiment with.
USE A TRIPOD – AVOID
CAMERA SHAKE
Sure, most of the time we want
sharp images, but what about
breaking the rule and jumping up
and down or spinning around with
the shutter open to purposefully
create blurred, out of focus
photos? This is how we create art!
As long as they captured what you
wanted to tell and they tell your
story as you see it, go for it!
FILL THE FRAME – FOCUS ON
THE CENTRE OF INTEREST
Here comes a great piece of
advice from Abraham Maslow on
how to break this rule... “Enlarge
the object. Or, squint at it so you
see only general outlines. Or, gaze
at it from unexpected angles,
such as upside down. Look at the
object reflected in a mirror. Put
it in unexpected backgrounds…
or through unusual colour filters.
Gaze at it for a very long time.
Gaze while free-associating or
daydreaming.” His main theory is
that by framing the object, you
cut it away from its surroundings
and, thereby, from common
“perceptions, expectations and
theories of how it should look.”
So, next time you go out with your
camera with the main goal of
taking that perfect shot to post
on social media for everyone’s
approval, stop!
You put a lot of stress on yourself
by wanting the ‘perfect’ shot and
if (when) something doesn’t go
as planned or as good as you’d
hoped you can quickly lose your
motivation for taking photos.
If you just go out for a walk without
planning or expecting anything,
but have your camera ready to
capture whatever is awaiting
you in the big world, you will see
that the magic starts to happen!
Let your passion and creativity
shine through without following
the crowd of ‘Instagram-worthy’
photographers.
May 2019
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