In our last Photos Matter post, we finished up a series on exposure, which contained a bunch of technical stuff about settings and things (you can find those posts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4). This month, I figured we’d do something a little less technical… something that anyone can do with any camera.

Rules of composition are guidelines for composing a more interesting shot when taking pictures. There are several, but we will talk about three of them today: the rule of thirds, framing, and leading lines.

Rule of Thirds

Most of us have a tendency to center the subject of our images in the frame of our camera, but this leads to a visually boring image. The rule of thirds helps us to avoid falling into this trap. If you were to have two parallel lines drawn vertically on your image (or the screen of your camera) and two parallel lines drawn horizontally, the rule of thirds says that the main focus of your picture should be at one of the four intersections of these lines.

Remember that with people, the focal point is almost always the eyes.

In landscape shots, the horizon should fall along one of the two horizontal lines.

*Tip: If your camera focuses in the middle of the screen (your phone camera, for example), center your subject and then crop it according the the rule of thirds after you’ve taken it.

Framing

This rule is just what it sounds like: something in your image creates a natural frame around your subject. Common examples of this are windows and doors, but it can also be more subtle than that. You might have trees framing the edges of your image, for example.

Whatever your “frame” is, it should serve the purpose of drawing the eye to the focal point of your image.

Leading lines

This might be my favorite rule of composition. When taking a picture, including a linear element that leads your eye to your subject is a really effective way to add interest. Common examples are roads or paths, but the leading lines can also be more subtle than that.

There you have it! A few tips to help make your photos more eye-catching. Remember, these rules of composition aren’t absolute. They are just guidelines to get you thinking outside of the box. They don’t have to be followed every single time, but if you keep them in mind as you’re composing your shot, you will notice your images becoming more interesting!

Frames

By Michelle Bradshaw

Frames are a favorite element of mine. The framing can draw the viewer’s eye right to the  photo make an impact on the page. Sometimes the frame is a perfect fit for the photo and sometimes it’s not.

In Screen Shot 1 there are 4 very different frame. Each is placed in its original size from the kit. Let’s see how they work with the same photo. For the purpose of this tutorial I want to keep as much of the walker and the baby while applying the rule of thirds [as close as I can. ]

The photo has been constrained [keeping its original aspect ratio] ctrl/cmd+t and sized to fit within each frame.

Note what happens- only the top left frame is close to keeping the walker and the baby.

So now what? Do we scrap the idea of keeping both the walker and the baby and go with just the rule of thirds…or perhaps there are creative ways to make the shape of the frame work with the photo.

By placing the photo on top of the frame ctrl/cmd+click the frame for the marching ants. Use the marquee tool [M] crop part of the frame. There is still plenty of ‘frame’ just a larger photo opening.

In this example, there are a couple of options. Added element to accent the frame and photo, or expand the photo to fill the circular frame.

At a glance it does not appear that this frame will work at all with the photo. Here are a couple of ideas. Rotate the frame 90 degrees. Have the photo extend below the frame edge or remove a part of the frame for an over the top look.

What to do with a square frame and a rectangular photo? The size of the photo or the frame could be adjusted to frame the subject and keep the squared shape. Another option is to reshape the square frame into a rectangle.

Move the photo to one of the side edges of the frame. Duplicate the frame [ctrl/cmd + j]. Move this frame layer over so it touches the other side of the photo. Erase or mask away the unneeded frame parts. Merge these two layers [Layer > merge down or ctrl/cmd + e] to create a single rectangular frame.

What you do not want to do is distort the photo or the frame to fit. Yikes!

Happy Scrapping and Creative Framing,

Michelle

Hey hey! It’s the one Monday of the month you can be glad about! We’ve got almost 40 products on sale for 50% off, but only for 24 hours! The sale runs from 12am-11:59pm ET today (Monday) only, so act quickly before these savings are gone!

Cluster Queen Creations

Today I will be spotlighting Melissa of Cluster Queen Creations! She is a ScrapMatters veteran. If you have not had a chance to get to know her yet sit down and reaad all about her. Melissa is also showing us a few of her favorite designs, her own layouts and layouts made with her designs today.

“My name is Melissa, I am 36 and live on the Texas Gulf Coast with my boyfriend of 7 years, Brent, our chihuahua Zoe, and our cat Morgan. I work full-time as a social worker, which is very demanding and also rewarding. I escape into reading and scrapping/designing for stress relief. I did change positions at work last year, and it changed my life so positively. I see photos of me now and I look so happy! It is wonderful to have a position I love again. Even though I don’t have any children, I have two beautiful nieces, ages 5 and 3, and a “nephew”, who is 6. He is the son of my long-time friend, Chel, who is the blessed soul who introduced me to ScrapMatters and the digi-scrap world, I love her to pieces! <3 I spend weekends working on various scrap related things and visiting family, which includes Chel and her family. My parents live nearby but the rest of the family is in the midwest. I wish I could see them more! I love music and to sing; I also love watching true crime shows on the ID channel, watching the Food Network, and a few reality shows I have been sucked in to I read at least 2-3 hrs. a day, mostly chick-lit mysteries.”

Melissa shared this recent layout of her own that is all about her!

 “I began digi-scrapping in the spring of 2009. At that point I had paper-scrapped for 6 years, but my friend Chel wanted to preserve memories of her son Nikolai without the mess. I told her about digi-scrapping, having seen it in my magazines, but it was not until she had been into it for over a year that I became interested. She kept showing me all these gorgeous kits and I was like hey now, I have to know about this! I totally took over her PSE on the weekend for many months (sorry friend!) before getting my own copy of PSE. She was a wonderful tutor and I would have given up without her, I think! I started out scrapping only with templates. I have always loved paper and elements, but as I found my feet, I discovered I loved my pages created from scratch more than anything, since I had my own unique, layery flair. I decided in early 2011 to begin selling templates, since my style is different from others on the market. After about 6 months I wanted to try kit design as well. I was instantly hooked! In the fall of last year I obtained a copy of Photoshop CS4, which is what I currently design and scrap in. It took my designs to a whole new level and am so grateful I was able to get it! I began doodling in kits fairly quickly, as I wanted to have my own unique flair. My doodles are quirky and imperfect, much like me! I get inspiration all around me, but I do draw a lot on real life experiences for my kits. My templates are almost all created from layouts I have scrapped, I can only think of one or two instances where I created a template from scratch. I love that everything I design is truly a part of me and my creative side.”

We can’t leave out Melissa’s ScrapMatter’s story. She participated in the Queen of Scrap competition in spring of 2009 and made the top 10 and made ScrapMatters her home. She was a member of the store CT for about a year when she started to design. After opening her first shop at another site she was able to open her shop here at ScrapMatters. She said “the warmth of the community, the support of all the staff, and the awesome customers make me so blessed to be part of ScrapMatters. I have met some of my most dear scrapping friends here and I am so happy to call myself part of the team!”

Here is Melissa’s new template set What’s In Your Pocket Vol. 1 which you can get free with a purchase of $10 in the ScrapMatters store.

and 2 of the layouts  by Melissa  that were the inspiration for this set of templates. The first using Juno Design’s Winds of Change. and another she created using Litabells kit Adjust Your Sails.

Stefanie(Eyeore) created this layout with the templates as well

Here are the links you need to find the Cluster Queen and her Creations!

ScrapMatters store

Blog

Newsletter

Facebook

Twitter

Melissa’s favorite kits right now are Coastal Cruisin’

Butterflies in My Stomach

and You Are Perfect

Her favorite template packs are her most current Gimme Layers Vol. 57

and  Gimme Layers Vol. 51

Here are some of Melissa’s favorite layouts made with her favorite kits and templates.

Shelter Cove by Ellen T with Coastal Cruisin’

On the Edge by tammybean using Butterflies in My Stomach

Always Be You by y_baros using You Are Perfect

Hello and welcome to our regularly scheduled Saturday shout-out to some beautiful layouts!  It’s a beautiful summer day where I am.  School is out and it’s time to go out and make some vacation memories so I’ll keep this short and sweet.

Jill shared this first layout by Loni (lingovise) and said, ”I fell in love with this layout!!! I love everything about it … it is so creative!!!  Not to mention I think the shadow work is awesome!!!!”

Debby (debbysrose) spent some time in the gallery and chose these next three layouts.

“This layout by Sandra (sberkan) really caught my eye, it is really beautiful, inspirational and so creative.  Love the journaling across the title.”

“Well I have loved every layout that I have seen with this kit and Dolores does not disappoint. Love, love how she added the report card. This is my favorite kind of layout, truly capturing memories and using the  kit to share it with others.”

“Carol (Iowan) used another favorite kit of mine and some wonderful vintage photos in this layout that preserves this special memory. I love her clusters too!”

Each layout is linked to the gallery for credits and any additional love you’d like to leave.  I’m off to enjoy some warm sunshine with my daughter and hope your day is filled with warmth and memorable moments.  Don’t forget to take photos to share those memories with us!

~Dolores