Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-07-12
CAMERA ANGLES
Good Picture Shows
Why Was Taken

increased. Now let's look at
some of the other ways to
take your pictures out of the
ordinary and make them into
prize-winning entries.
What does make a good
picture? Action, as previously
pointed out; good compost
ton. an interesting subject,
good exposure. and a reason,
which becomes Immediately
apparent. why the picture
was taken at all.
There is nothing at all
mysterious about compost
ton. You needn't be an
artist to recognize a good
composition, for actually
good. composition is just an
other way of saying good
taste"
If you look into the view
finder of your camera and
notice that a trash can or a
service pole is sticking up
Immediately behind your
subject or will be included in
the picture you would ma
turally move the subject or
the camera until the Offend
ing object was no longer
showing. This is good COM
position.
If you notice that an arm
or a leg or the top of the
head is cut off in the finder
you will move back a bit be-
fore shooting and make the
necessary adjustment. This,
too, is good composing.
BY the same token, you
may note that the subjects
legs are crossed unbecom-
ingly so that one foot extends
out so far from the rest of
the body as to be all out Of
proportion thereto. Again
you would instinctively
change the pose to correct
for this condition. And again
you would be using good
judgment in your composing
of the picture.
We could go on for several
pages with similar illustra-
tions of our point, but it
should be obvious by now
that a well-composed picture
is one that simply shows
good taste on the part of the
photographer. Sometimes we
shoot in a hurry and notice
in the print that there are
many things that look bad in
the scene that could easily
have been left out had we
taken a good long look
through the finder before
taking the snapshot. So
take your time and keep a
weather eye on the back
ground as we'll as on your
subject.
Good exposure is strictly
up to you unless you own a
camera with built-in auto
nation. To get good quality
negatives you should check
each exposure for accuracy
with an exposure meter. If
your negatives are good your
prints will be likewise,
whether you make them
yourself or if the automatic
printer of the photof1nisher
does it for you.
Let your subject be inter-
esting so that the minute
one of our contest judges
takes a look at it he will be
inclined to take a longer
look. Snapshots that are
made just for the sake of
shooting up film will never
win prizes in any contest.
Pick a subject that de-
mands attention. This can
be in any class of the con-
test. You may spot some
breathtaking view of a noun
tain as you ride along the
highway on a weekend trip.
Then's the time to stop your
car and record the scene on
film, for the chances are that
the same scene will appeal
to others just as it attracted
your attention.
Let every shot have an OBJ
vious reason for its existence.
A snapshot of a ballplayer
standing idly on the sidelines
is one thing but let the pic
ture show one of the Sena-
tors pumping a home run out
of the ballpark, and everyone
will know at a glance why
you took the picture in the