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Efcubed Photography bio picture

Welcome to the Efcubed Photography Blog!

Roger A. Dallman Jr.    Roger started in photography in 1979, as a secondary job in the Army.  He shot "grip and grins" and Army events.  He began shooting portraits and weddings on the side for extra camera gear money.  He won several photo contests and an Army journalism award.  After career assignment changes, he put the cameras aside and sold his darkroom equipment. In 2006, he bought his first digital camera before a trip to Europe and was hooked again. 

Today he is a dedicated Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop user-advocate and NAPP member.  He is active in photography groups and teaches digital darkroom techniques.  He prefers to shoot portaits away from seamless paper and static lighting.  He is also a photo retoucher and restores old photos - a handy skill when working on his genealogy hobby.

Mark B. Segal.    Mark started shooting when he was 13 and has done it off and on since then.  As a Navy brat and then Naval Officer, I got to go to interesting places.  I wish I had taken my camera more often.  I love the way the camera allows you to dissect the world and shape what people see of it.  Photoshop and Lightroom are great tools to help capture what you thought you saw from behind the lens. 

I love helping people salvage and restore their photographic memories as links to their past.  The patience and dedication needed are usually far beyond what the images are worth, except to the person who owns the picture.  Seeing the smile or tears from when you've brought back an image from the cracked, torn and faded pile is a reward in and of itself. 

The Rhythm’s Gonna Get You

Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 10:04pm Posted in Camera, Tutorial

Mark has more photos and tips coming up from his Greek vacation, but, today, we’re going to get a little artsy-fartsy and discuss some compositional tips to improve your photography.   

Dragon boats on the Potomac River

  

As we’ve both said before, you should understand and adhere to the basic rules of composition.  You don’t have to be a slave to those rules, but they exist for a reason.  They were developed through the years to help you create a composition that is pleasing for your viewers.  

Patterns and rhythms are powerful devices to help make your photographs grab the viewer’s eye.  The combination of similar shapes, lines, and even colors, in regular intervals, creates these patterns.  You’ve seen natural patterns in flowers, water droplets, or rows on an ear of corn.  

     

Man-made patterns are equally easy to find in buildings and the way we organize our lives.  Whether these patterns are natural or man-made, they bring a photo together and impart a harmony of composition (how’s that for artsy-fartsy?).  

Vatican City, Rome, Italy

  

 

When you are composing your photo, look for any patterns available because even the hint of a pattern will catch your viewer’s eye and draw her into the photo.  You can use your lenses to compress or exaggerate the photo’s depth and create an abstract whose sole purpose is to display the patterns and rhythm of your subject.

  

     

If you understand the concept, you can create a violation of the rule and drive your viewer’s focus to an interruption of the pattern.  The window in the shot below disrupts the pattern of the siding of the church.  The leaf on the plums performs the same function.   

     

As with all rules, once you’ve learned how to see and use them, you can try new combinations and have fun with all the possibilities.

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