1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,299 Hi there, I'm Jack from Twinkl and today we're going to be learning a little bit about 2 00:00:04,299 --> 00:00:10,439 photography. We'll go over a few basic tips to consider when taking a photograph and then we'll 3 00:00:10,439 --> 00:00:16,679 learn about two simple techniques you can use when photographing something to create an interesting 4 00:00:16,679 --> 00:00:27,160 picture. For today's activity you'll obviously need a camera but you won't need any expensive 5 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:33,780 cameras or equipment. It could be a cheap or old digital camera or maybe the camera on a phone 6 00:00:33,780 --> 00:00:39,960 or tablet. You'll also need an environment to take pictures in. If you're at home you could 7 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:45,000 explore your garden or the rooms around your house. At school you could explore your classroom 8 00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:52,119 or with an adult explore your outdoor learning areas. Or better yet, take your camera outside 9 00:00:52,119 --> 00:00:59,240 to a different area entirely and explore. It could be a park, a farm, a beach, a zoo, 10 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:06,439 your town or just about anywhere. You might also want a pen or pencil and some paper to take notes 11 00:01:06,439 --> 00:01:12,659 of some of the tips and techniques in this video to refer to when you're out and about with your 12 00:01:12,659 --> 00:01:19,159 camera. Watch my examples first and then have a go yourself. Let's begin and the first thing to 13 00:01:19,159 --> 00:01:24,879 think about is, what are you going to take a photograph of? What is the subject of your 14 00:01:24,879 --> 00:01:31,120 picture? Every photo should have a central point of interest, something that your eyes 15 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:37,079 are drawn to when looking at the photo. It could be a person, a place, a building, or 16 00:01:37,079 --> 00:01:43,739 an animal, plant, object, or anything. Whatever you choose as the subject of your photo, this 17 00:01:43,739 --> 00:01:48,560 is what is called the focal point, and there are lots of decisions you can make when 18 00:01:48,560 --> 00:01:55,000 photographing this focal point. The first is perspective. Will you take a picture of your 19 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:01,640 focal point from your eye level or will you try taking a picture from down low or up high? It 20 00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:07,840 could be a photo of a giant tree taken from low to the ground looking up for unusual perspective 21 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:15,520 or a photo of an uphill path taken lying down for unusual perspective of the world around you. 22 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:21,780 perspective could also mean taking a picture of your focal point from different angles not just 23 00:02:21,780 --> 00:02:28,340 from above or from below but perhaps on top of or underneath your focal point like with these 24 00:02:28,340 --> 00:02:34,620 slatted stairs from above it's a fairly normal picture but from underneath creates an unusual 25 00:02:34,620 --> 00:02:42,919 and interesting photo the second aspect to think about is how close or far away your focal point is 26 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:47,960 when you take the photo. Take a look at the difference between these photos of a bench. 27 00:02:48,500 --> 00:02:53,520 Close up puts all the attention on your focal point, but from further away, the viewer gets 28 00:02:53,520 --> 00:03:00,379 extra detail about where the bench is, telling a bit more of a story. The third aspect is lighting. 29 00:03:00,719 --> 00:03:05,780 Where is the light coming from in your picture? If you're outside in the daytime, your photo will 30 00:03:05,780 --> 00:03:12,900 almost certainly be lit by the sun. Think about where your light is when taking a photo. The sun 31 00:03:12,900 --> 00:03:18,560 here is behind these trees, so the light coming through the translucent leaves brings out their 32 00:03:18,560 --> 00:03:26,099 bold green colour. But if the sun is behind you, the photo will look quite different. And if you're 33 00:03:26,099 --> 00:03:32,699 inside, think about natural light coming from windows, or artificial light from lamps, or maybe 34 00:03:32,699 --> 00:03:39,520 the flash on your camera. Also, try taking photographs at different times of day. A photo 35 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:45,919 taken at midday will look quite different to one taken at sunset or at night due to the different 36 00:03:45,919 --> 00:03:52,240 lighting. Lastly think about the colour of your focal point. Does it stand out against its 37 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:57,840 background? Bright and colourful flowers will always stand out but look out for other unusual 38 00:03:57,840 --> 00:04:04,900 colours around you like this red bike that stands out amongst the rest. It's time to go and take 39 00:04:04,900 --> 00:04:10,939 some photographs of some different focal points. I'd like you to find three different focal points 40 00:04:10,939 --> 00:04:17,959 and take a few different photos of each. Remember to think about perspective, be it from above, 41 00:04:18,379 --> 00:04:25,319 underneath, high or low, your distance from the focal point, the lighting or picking a focal 42 00:04:25,319 --> 00:04:31,819 point with a bold colour. Try and take three different photos of all three focal points, 43 00:04:31,819 --> 00:04:38,459 changing one aspect each time. Pause now, experiment with your photos and have fun. 44 00:04:48,399 --> 00:04:54,980 Okay now we've looked at a few of the basics of taking a photograph and choosing the focal point 45 00:04:54,980 --> 00:05:01,360 of your photos so let's learn a few techniques to take some interesting photographs of your 46 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:07,959 focal point and we'll start with the rule of thirds. You might think that putting the focal 47 00:05:07,959 --> 00:05:13,920 point in the centre of your photograph is the best place. After all it's the focus of your photo 48 00:05:13,920 --> 00:05:20,160 so it should be front and centre, right? Well the rule of thirds is a photographic technique 49 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:27,220 that helps to create a more interesting photo and it uses this grid. It's called the rule of thirds 50 00:05:27,220 --> 00:05:32,860 because it literally splits the photo into three blocks of three. The rule is that you should place 51 00:05:32,860 --> 00:05:40,899 your focal points along one of these horizontal or vertical lines or one of these middle points. 52 00:05:41,579 --> 00:05:46,959 Most cameras and camera apps for phones or tablets allow you to bring up this grid whilst 53 00:05:46,959 --> 00:05:53,259 taking a picture to help you take the photo. Let's see some examples of photos taken with 54 00:05:53,259 --> 00:06:00,339 the rule of thirds. Here's a photo of a tree that I took but the tree is right in the centre of the 55 00:06:00,339 --> 00:06:05,899 photo. So let's bring up the grid. We want the tree to be along one of the vertical lines. 56 00:06:06,459 --> 00:06:12,300 Following the rule of thirds I took a second photo. The tree is now along the vertical line. 57 00:06:12,759 --> 00:06:18,240 This creates a more interesting photo where you can see more of the background. Here's another 58 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:22,860 photo this time of the beach and the sea so let's bring up the 3x3 grid again and 59 00:06:22,860 --> 00:06:28,199 as you can see it's a bit wonky and in the middle of the photo. Again we need to 60 00:06:28,199 --> 00:06:32,699 use the rule of thirds to align the horizon properly this time on one of the 61 00:06:32,699 --> 00:06:37,800 horizontal lines so following the rule again I took the photo it looks more 62 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:43,839 interesting as the sky sea and beach are in equal sections of the picture. You can 63 00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:49,399 mix and match horizontal and vertical items with the rule of thirds to create an interesting 64 00:06:49,399 --> 00:06:55,480 contrast. Like in this picture of some beach huts, the sea is on this horizontal line and 65 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:59,420 the central beach hut is on this vertical line. 66 00:06:59,420 --> 00:07:03,899 So we looked at a tree and the sea. These objects are straight lines that we could place 67 00:07:03,899 --> 00:07:10,459 along the lines on the 3x3 grid. But how does the rule work for different objects? 68 00:07:10,459 --> 00:07:15,040 Here are some pictures I took of animals at a zoo. I took this picture of an elephant 69 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:21,399 so its eye was at the point where a horizontal and vertical line meet. You can position your 70 00:07:21,399 --> 00:07:27,480 focal point on any one of these four spots to position that object in an interesting 71 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:34,420 way. Like with these two tigers, a pair of focal points that are on two different spots. 72 00:07:34,420 --> 00:07:38,920 And this giraffe follows the rules too. Its head is on the vertical line, its neck is 73 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:45,139 on the horizontal line and its body runs down the other vertical line. 74 00:07:45,139 --> 00:07:49,980 Access your camera and in its settings look for an option to enable a grid. You might 75 00:07:49,980 --> 00:07:53,879 need to ask for an adult's help if this is tricky. 76 00:07:53,879 --> 00:07:58,819 Then follow the rule of thirds carefully. Have a go at taking photos of a new focal 77 00:07:58,819 --> 00:08:06,019 point but like with my examples try to align your focal point on the 3x3 grid. I'd like 78 00:08:06,019 --> 00:08:11,779 you to find three focal points once more, but this time take a photo of each following 79 00:08:11,779 --> 00:08:28,189 the rule of thirds. Pause now and have a go at taking these three photos. 80 00:08:28,189 --> 00:08:32,450 The second technique we're going to look at today, and an interesting detail you could 81 00:08:32,450 --> 00:08:39,009 include in your photos are something called leading lines. Lines are all 82 00:08:39,009 --> 00:08:43,970 around us in nature, objects, buildings and you can use these in your 83 00:08:43,970 --> 00:08:48,110 photographs to draw the eye of the viewer towards your focal point and 84 00:08:48,110 --> 00:08:54,769 create a more interesting photo. So if we head back to my beach photos, these beach 85 00:08:54,769 --> 00:09:00,490 groins guide the eye from the bottom left of the photo to my focal point, the 86 00:09:00,490 --> 00:09:05,490 the sea. If you use the rule of thirds as well, you can see the groin cuts this section 87 00:09:05,490 --> 00:09:12,649 of the photo exactly in two, and the seashore is on the horizontal line. In the photo of 88 00:09:12,649 --> 00:09:18,889 my elephant from before, this curved line of rocks and the hedge creates movement, movement 89 00:09:18,889 --> 00:09:24,309 that's in the same direction the elephant is moving in. This entrance to a stadium has 90 00:09:24,309 --> 00:09:29,610 lots of leading lines, drawing the eye to the light at the end of the tunnel. The light 91 00:09:29,610 --> 00:09:35,029 and dark contrasting very nicely. Leading lines can also draw the viewer far 92 00:09:35,029 --> 00:09:40,509 into the photo. This river leads off into the distance to a focal point that's very 93 00:09:40,509 --> 00:09:46,769 far away. The leading line is a useful trick for taking an interesting photo of something 94 00:09:46,769 --> 00:09:52,570 at a great distance. But make sure your leading line actually leads 95 00:09:52,570 --> 00:09:58,669 to a focal point. The previous examples all had a focal point at the end of the leading 96 00:09:58,669 --> 00:10:05,789 line. Here are some examples that are just lines as there's nothing for the eye to be drawn to. 97 00:10:06,269 --> 00:10:13,289 These are not leading lines. Okay I'd like you to go and take more photos but this time I'd like 98 00:10:13,289 --> 00:10:21,250 you to go on a hunt for some leading lines around you. It could be plants, trees, walls, stairs or 99 00:10:21,250 --> 00:10:27,370 many more things besides. Look for lines around you, find a focal point nearby to take a photo of 100 00:10:27,370 --> 00:10:31,610 and see if you can create a leading line. Pause now. 101 00:10:41,629 --> 00:10:49,029 Okay, time for your final activity today, a photography scavenger hunt. Using this Twinkle 102 00:10:49,029 --> 00:10:55,269 Outdoor Photography activity, I'd like you to hunt for different things outside and take photos of 103 00:10:55,269 --> 00:11:01,470 them. Remember our tips and techniques. Take photos from different angles, think about how the photo 104 00:11:01,470 --> 00:11:06,509 is lit, use the rule of thirds to create an interesting photo and see if there are any 105 00:11:06,509 --> 00:11:12,929 leading lines around you you can use to draw the eye of the viewer. And finally, make sure to get 106 00:11:12,929 --> 00:11:19,909 an adult's permission or bring an adult with you on the scavenger hunt. Pause now and go on a hunt 107 00:11:19,909 --> 00:11:20,870 for these photos. 108 00:11:25,269 --> 00:11:30,350 Thank you very much for watching. I hope you have lots of fun exploring the world around 109 00:11:30,350 --> 00:11:33,450 you in a very different way. Bye for now!