Chapter 3: Deconstructing Design
In This Chapter
Working with foregrounds and backgrounds
Designing with patterns, shapes, and shadows
Using light and color
Developing your timing
I continually ask myself how I can take better photos. The answer almost always comes down to design, combined with the proper framing.
Good design is a fundamentally important aspect of photography. Without it, photos just sort of sit there and do nothing. With good design, something leaps out and grabs your attention. You notice something about photos that are well designed, even if you don’t realize why. Design refers to the elements that are in the photo, not necessarily how they’re arranged. (Their arrangement is what I call framing, or composition, which is in the next chapter.)
I want to show you how the right combination of elements makes a photograph work. In this chapter I explain why each photo is successful from a design standpoint. I also want to move design from out of your subconscious. After you get a sense of how to design a scene by reading this chapter, you can move to framing, which ...
