Photography and it’s Tricks

There are a few interesting principles that I have learned and really enjoyed understanding better with photography in it’s design. I think that the rule of thirds, depth, and leading lines really do make for some amazing pictures, regardless of what they are. So let’s look at some examples.

Picture by Cam Miller


This beautiful picture was taken by photographer Cam Miller and it is a wonderful example of using the principle of depth. Let’s look a little closer.

Picture by Cam Miller

Here we have filled in the focus of the camera, with everything blurred around the it creates a beautiful piece of art. We know exactly where we want our eyes to lay, and the unfocused parts of the picture really help the detail in this single leaf pop in a very vibrant way.

Picture by Katie Millano

Here we have my attempt at achieving this depth perception principle in a photo. This is a little candy toy of Darth Vader, whom I love very much, and it has my living room in the back ground.

Picture by Katie Millano

Here we again have the focal point of the photo shaded in, showing the real difference between the focus and then the rest of the unfocused room. As silly of a picture as this was I really thought that it came out looking really well, and I know it wasn’t my amazing decorative skills, or the beautiful sculpture used to center it, it was the wonderful principle of using depth in a photo!

Leading Lines

Now I know that this picture is small, but I absolutely love it! This was found in an article by Lindsey Lockwood entitled “Lines and Leading Lines” at facingweb.com/lines-and-leading-lines/ 

Leading Lines

Here we can see the beautiful curvature of the railroad tracks that take us on a journey to see that train. Beautiful artwork, and I love how much leading lines just draw you directly into the picture and the subject thereof. This also shows a wonderful example, though I didn’t mark it, of rule of thirds, with the length of the train running through the top third of the photo. All together it really is a wonderful masterpiece.

Leading Lines

Here we have a picture that I took of my husband, who so graciously agreed to help me one night to get a picture of these beautiful leading lines that lead me every day out into the wide world or back into the safety of my home. I really felt like the dark backdrop from night would be a fun cover.

Leading Lines

Here you can see the exact run of the outline of these leading lines that lead right to my husband and to the dark mysterious world. I was actually really impressed with this picture, and felt like it was an excellent start to a fun hobby of photography! But seriously, what do ya’ll think?

Rule of Thirds

This is such a beautiful and mysterious picture to me. I found it in article by Paul Nuttal entitled “Rule of Thirds” found at www.whatdigitalcamera.com/x-archive/techniques/rule-of-thirds-2-14268

Rule of Thirds

Here we can see the same picture as up top with the rule of thirds grid drawn on it. We can see by the green lines how the tree runs along the far right line while the foot of the mountains run across the bottom line, both following the rule of thirds principle in photography. I really feel like the way these items are set out in the photo make for a very interesting and mysterious piece.

Rule of Thirds

So this picture was taken in my bedroom, where my dog, Beau, was convinced that there was a monster in the vent. The heater was starting to turn on and kept making some awful noises and he was very concerned. Like I do with any cute moment with my pooch I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots to document his silly personality.

Rule of Thirds

Funny enough, after I had taken this picture it was a couple days later I was really trying to think of some fun pictures to take for this project, when I realized that this one fit perfectly in for Rule of Thirds! You can see Beau is located right on that top right cross over, which fits in with rule of thirds just as much as a part of the photo following one of the lines does. This was such a fun picture to take, and the story surely makes it a keeper, but a big reason is such a favorite of mine is because of that wonderful rule of thirds!

I really think that you can see some remarkable traits here about how these three photography principles can enhance a photo. I took some pretty silly photos of my own, but a big reason was to show how even photos of silly toys in a thrown together living room can come out looking great just by applying these simple rules. They made a difference in my pictures, now you should go out and see how they can enhance your own!

The Wonderful World of Typography

#KleenexCare

This add by Kleenex can be found at http://gaia.adage.com/images/bin/image/x-large/KLeenex_cares_TV.jpg and was created in reference to a advertising goal that the company had. It’s plan to share acts of people giving a Kleenex in a moment of need and encouraging these people to share them on social media with the #kleenexcare as a way to promote brand and the kindness still very evident in the world.

#KleenexCare

This first font is an example of a sans serif font. You can tell because it very much lacks any kind of serif, the ends of each letter are a round blunt end. You can also see how the sans serif has a very small amount of think/thin transition in the writing. It’s perfectly shaped all the way through, the letters are very separate and obviously their own.

#KleenexCare

Here we have a beautiful script font. You can tell by how connected and curly each of the letters are, there is never a single break in the strokes. The Kleenex brand uses this font only on the brand name, Kleenex. Scripts are very beautiful but often difficult to read and understand, I rarely see them on any advertisements and I believe their difficult to read is the reason. However, because this specific font, is the font for Kleenex’s name, it is very important that it is included in the advertisement. We don’t really even need to read it, we already know from the shape that it is the name brand tissue, Kleenex.

#KleenexCare

You can see the major contrasting differences is in the lack of connecting that the sans serif font has compared to the script font. “share” and “care” are very much clearly contain individual letters, but when we look at “Kleenex” we see the softer and more graceful look of the script as it connects and softly loops around to connect again. It makes the name brand the first thing we see, and as the signature font for the brands name, we know immediately what it says. Our eyes naturally and easily read “share” and “care” because of their simple and easily recognizable letters due to the lack of connecting.

Overall I think that work very well together, Kleenex, being the brand that it is, is nearly required by the general public to contain the font that is Kleenex’s font. Avoiding the script is impossible, for the company, but using script does make it difficult to find a good font that is going to contrast in a beautiful way. I really feel, despite the difficulty, that Kleenex has done a wonderful job in finding a good contrasting font. They work well because the sans serif is clear and easy to read and understand, they have dropped the thickness of the sans serif to help with the contrast between the two fonts. Over all, the Kleenex brand script is curly, and flowing, while the sans serif is blunt and obvious individual letters.

Coca-Cola, a look into Ad Designs

Coca-Cola – open a Coke, open happiness

This ad for Coca-Cola was searched for through yahoo images, the link for the picture is https://www.designyourway.net/drb/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Coca-Cola-open-happiness1.j.jpg Which takes you to a post about the differences between the Coca Cola and Pepsi Ads. The article is written by Bogdan Sandu a designer and editor at DesignYourWay.


Coca-Cola – open a Coke, open happiness

Here we see the design principle of proximity. We can see proximity because of how close two lines are, they clearly go together. With having “open happiness” under “open a Coke” it also really emphasizes the comma for a new phrase. This technique has to do with proximity and the alignment of two lines.


Coca-Cola – open a Coke, open happiness

This shows the design principle of alignment. The phrase is left aligned on the right side of the page, perfectly aligned with the Coca Cola bottle. This gives a very clean and organized look. Especially with the other images in, it helps focus us on Coca-Cola and the “open a Coke, open happiness”.


Coca-Cola – open a Coke, open happiness

We have quite a bit of repetition in this add with the beads of sweat on the Coca-Cola bottle, which match the small bubbles shown on the inside of the bottle. You also see the sun rays dancing through the words for both “Coca-Cola” and “open a Coke, open happiness. That helps put a natural spotlight on these words and makes them pop just a tad. There is also repetition shown in the font color through out the whole ad.


Coca-Cola – open a Coke, open happiness

We have a lot of contrast that just really brings this ad together, in my opinion. I love the color scheme with the red and green and how beautifully they compliment each other with their strong difference. I also love the small lady bug which is the same color as the red Coca-Cola bottle, but has wandered a bit into the green white space making the color contrast pop even more. The font type with the text between “Coca-Cola” and the rest of it really helps us to focus in on the main point of the ad. The drink, Coca-Cola. It also brings us back to Coke with the contrast in the text “open a Coke, open happiness,” all of the words in this phrase is lowercase, except for again our main point, the drink “Coke,” which we can see is clearly capitalized, making it once again really pop straight at us.

I really feel like the overall design is astounding, that Coca-Cola did a wonderful job with this. I was mostly had my breath stolen by the contrast in the ad, and how much it helped make the focus of the ad, their signature drink, Coca-Cola. There were so many other examples of repetition and contrast which I felt were very key in circling the whole ad around to Coke and what a wonderful drink it is to have. The bright sunny day with the limbs of a possible couple really bounce back to happiness and help a person feel a sense of joy as they are looking directly at the Coke bottle with those large, curly letters, and that I feel is the main purpose of an ad. To make sure that the product being sold is the focus, and what stays with the viewer.