So we have our definitions straight, there are two basic orientations: vertical and horizontal.  Yes, there are squares and lots of other shapes, but vertical and horizontal are the ones most frequently used.  If you use their alternate names, portrait and landscape, you can quickly guess their most frequent subject matter.  Usually – nothing is “always” – there is an orientation that works best for certain subjects.

This isn’t complicated, right?  Long and tall subjects are usually put into a vertical format, and wide subjects into horizontal.

You need to look at the scene to determine which orientation will look better.  If you aren’t sure, shoot it in both formats; these are guidelines, not concrete rules.  Sometimes, the same subject can fit in either format.  For example, a horse is wide and made for horizontal.

But if you put the same horse in a different position, it may look better in vertical.

Horizon lines can be found in either format, but the general consensus is you don’t want them in the middle of the photograph.  If you put it in the middle, it is considered less pleasing to the eye.

Yeah, I know, it’s more than the horizon in the middle that makes the above photograph less pleasing.  To make things more confusing, a horizon line doesn’t always have to be an actual horizon; it might just be a prominent division that bisects your photograph.  Here is an example photograph with a little more to look at.  It has the line in the middle.  Some people still like this.

I prefer to move the line so that it is about one third up from the bottom of the image.  This will divide the photo into three areas, each occupying about a third of the space: water; glacier; and clouds.

Let’s combine these two ideas.  In the photo below, I wanted a vertical orientation.  It seems obvious because the bugler is standing; the tombstones are vertical; and the tree is tall.  I put the bugler in the bottom left and created a framing with the tombstones and the tree.  I intentionally made the bugler a small part of the image.  But I should have paid closer attention to the “horizon line” being created by the tree.

The photo loses much of its impact because of the horizon line.  When I shifted to a landscape orientation, with a crop, it was easy to eliminate the distraction of the horizon line.  I kept the bugler one third of the way into the photo, and he is still framed by the tree and tombstones.  He also becomes a larger component of the composition, but it is a better photo.

Composition can be a complicated, esoteric subject, but you shouldn’t avoid learning about it.  Some photographers love to argue and debate for hours about the true meaning of everything they do.  I believe you should understand the basics and use them to improve the quality of your work, but make the photographs you want to make while the pointy heads are having their debates.  The conventions and “rules” of composition shouldn’t intimidate you into putting your camera on shelf.

And with that, I’ll close with a bow and a suggestion to go out and have some fun.

From the Nikonusa.com website

It has a 36MP resolution and will be perfect for my landscape and portrait work.  It’s the equivalent of many medium format cameras like the Mamiya or even the Hasselblad, which cost thousands of dollars more.

Although significantly improved over my reliable D300, its low light potential is nowhere near its new big brother the D4.  The ISO now covers up to ISO 6400 and can go up to 25,600.  That is a long way from the ISO 204,000 advertised for the D4.

It is also going to be slower in burst mode with only a 4 frames per second (fps) rate.  Is that bad?  Well the D300 has an 8 fps rate and I think I’ve needed that only a few times when shooting. 

One of the features that it has over the D4 is the built in flash unit.  Now I never actually use it as a flash, but as the commander for my remote units.  I don’t always need to get out my wireless xmitters for that, so that is a good thing. 

Nikon has been really pushing the video capabilities of their new cameras and this one is no exception.  It can record full 1080p HD video and full stereo sound.  I’ve never really explored video, but I guess I will have the chance to learn.   On the Nikon Website, they have an incredible video move called “Joy Ride” shot entirely with the camera.   http://vimeo.com/36345294

I filed my taxes this last weekend and guess what—Photoshop World is only a month away.  My friends the Applebaums, at Midwest Photo Exchange will probably be seeing me drop by.   That is if I can convince my wife….  

Mark told you that the Nikon D4 was finally announced, but they also announced an 85mm f1.8 lens at $500.  A lens that will give you lots of speed and creamy bokeh for relatively few dollars.

Canon announced their high-end compact, the G1x.  It shoots RAW; 1080p video; and has a 28-112mm zoom.  It will compete with Nikon’s 1 (although the Canon doesn’t have inter-changeable lenses) and the Fuju X100 (also fixed lens).  Go read Google News about all the photo gadgets that are being introduced in Vegas this week.

But the photo world wasn’t just buzzing over the neat new hardware….  Adobe announced the public beta of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.  There are some major changes, including a revamped Develop panel; a Map panel that connects to Google Earth and let’s you geo-tag any image; and a Book panel to create your own Blurb photobooks.  You can download it here; there is no cost to try it.

I’ve been playing with it all week on some recent photos, and I’m already hooked on the improvements.  It is still a Beta, so you only want to use it on copies of your photographs.  You will probably experience some slowness and crashes, but this is normal in a Beta.  They’ll have that taken care of in the final release.  When does the final release come out?   They haven’t announced that, but the Beta expires on 31 March.  (Isn’t that less than a week after Photoshop World?  Hmmmm.)

You can bet we’ll blog about all the features when it comes out, but let me show you a couple of examples of the new Develop panel.  I really love the changes here.

Here is the York Minster.  A blah sky provides enough light to create a common problem – the camera meter averages the scene, and my sky is too bright and the church is too dark.

In Lightroom 3, I would globally lighten the church and then use the adjustment brush to bring down the brightness of the sky.  This isn’t difficult, but it will take a few minutes of brushing to get the sky the way I want it.

In Lightroom 4, I moved few sliders to give much better results in seconds.  The corrections were so fast, I used the lens correction to minimize the image distortion and still had a much better image in less than one minute.

The clouds have more definition; you can see details in the towers; and the exposure is fixed.  The transformation is really something to watch as you move the sliders.  Of course, I could do this in Photoshop, but that would take even longer.

I had to try it one more time.

Wow!  I really like the way shadow detail can be revealed.  You should download the program and give it a try.  This new Lightroom is going to be fun.

Are you ready for the winter weather?  This is a great time for photography.  You’ll find lots of interesting scenes for your camera.   The snow covers the ground clutter and simplifies the scene.  On clear days, the sky seems crisp and saturated with color.

You need to take care to cover your camera and lens when the snow is blowing.  A common problem is the fogging of the lens from large temperature differences as you take the camera in and out of the weather.  You should give yourself some extra time to for the camera’s temperature to slowly equalize to the cold outside or the warmth of your home.  If you wrap your camera in a clean towel and insert it into a plastic bag, you can reduce condensation while the camera’s temperature is changing.  When you’re done for the day and the camera has warmed, dry everything.  Your lens will be ruined if you get moisture inside.

With all the light reflecting off the snow, your camera’s meter will react by reducing exposure to average out the scene.  This will give you gray snow, instead of the white you’re seeing.  Adjust your camera by increasing the exposure 1-2 stops.  On an SLR, you can do that in the menus.  If you have a camera with scene settings, be sure to use the snow or beach setting.  You want to keep your whites nice and clean.  Yes, you can do some work in post-processing, but proper exposure is much better than punishing pixels in software.

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This year, I’ve got a special trip planned to guarantee snow.  I’m heading back to Alaska for the snow and, hopefully, clear skies filled with the northern lights.  I’ve seen them many times, but I was in the field with the 6th Infantry Division.  They had other plans for me, and they did not include running around with a camera.  I’ll also get a chance at photographing a newborn grandson.  Guess I better take a flash with me…

There is one last thing to remember when you’re out there in the cold: batteries hate cold weather.  Make sure you keep a couple spares handy in your jacket.  You don’t want to be forced into quitting before you get all that goodness captured.

If you prepare now, you’ll be ready when the first flakes start falling.  Don’t forget to try to shoot from some unconventional angles to make some interesting shots.  It’s more fun that way.

A phone camera discussion on a photoblog?!  Sure; why not?  Phone cameras are ubiquitous.  Everyone has one, and they are using them.  Probably including you.  I was a late-comer to using my camera phone and still don’t use it often.  However, I’d rather use a Droid camera than no camera.

For many folks, phone cameras are their only cameras.  Unfortunately, most of these photos never see the light of day.  People rarely download them and everything is lost the phone is damaged or when it’s time for a new phone.  Don’t let this happen to you – download your photos.  Then, you can put them into a photo-management program like Lightroom, Aperture, or whatever else you prefer.

Today’s phone cameras are actually pretty good.  They sport higher resolution than the first digital cameras of just a decade ago.  Hold them steady, in good light, and you have a camera that doesn’t require a separate bag; keeps you inconspicuous in a crowd; and you can keep in touch with the family at the same time.

Like all tools, you need to understand their limitations.  Their sensors are very small, which means you’re going to have some noise unless there is lots of light.  They have wide lenses, making images with a wide depth of field – not the best for portraits with blurred backgrounds.   Since they have fixed lenses, they can only zoom digitally, which reduces the image data.  And – oh, no! – they produce JPGs.

Experiment to learn your phone camera’s characteristics.  My Droid camera seems to be a little contrasty; noisy in low light; and always has a wide depth of field.  I adjust my shooting to minimize its disadvantages.

Since abstracts are more about shapes and colors, you can shoot without worrying too much about the disadvantages of your phone camera.  In this shot, there are windows from three different eras.  The wide depth of field keeps everything sharp, and the nice light just after sunrise gave me some interesting color.

The distortion of the wide angle lens and the digital noise keep me from shooting many portraits.  There are times, however, when the phone camera is all I have.  You have to take the shot.

I tend to shoot snapshots of things to come back to – you know, when I have a “real” camera.  I don’t have a real good track record, though, of always returning, and, even if you do go back to a previous scene, it will probably look different than what originally caught your eye.  Which means I may work on an image I’ve taken on the Droid to enhance it some.  Camera phone photos deserve post-processing, too, ya know.

Here’s an example of what I mean – this image is right out of the camera.  It’s in Boston, where the modern Hancock Building sits right next to an old church.  I like the way they designed the building.  It reflects the old, and the reflections reduce the impact of its size, so close to the much smaller church.

The wide angle lens distortion is visible in the slanted buildings.  I don’t like the fluorescent signs.  The building is in shadow, so it’s a little dark and a little too blue.

When I took it into Lightroom, I was able to crop out the splotch of light on the sidewalk and one of those signs.  That helps, but I had to lose the edge of the Hancock Building.  I warmed up the color balance and put some more light into the shadows.

In Photoshop, I cloned out the signs, so my new crop gives me back the edge of the building, giving more dimensionality and more reflections.  I adjusted the perspective to reduce the building lean.

I wouldn’t trade my Nikons for the Droid camera, but being caught with only the Droid is not a reason to despair.  You can do just fine with your camera phone.  Your post-processing skills can help enhance the results.  This last photo is a panoramic merge of three photos.  As we always say, learn your tools and go have fun.