Jerry Held, Silicon Valley pioneer, entrepreneur, engineer,investor, consultant,
and photographer says of his SizzlPix!, “Stunning.”

THE RULE OF THIRDS AND THE RULE OF THREE

Photographers, you know the “Rule Of Thirds,” a guide for composition in which the image frame is trisected, horizontally and vertically, creating an imaginary tic-tac-toe pattern. The goal is to place your picture’s center of interest and any visible horizon over one of the four lines or their intersections, never in or over the center square.

This “rule” is thought to have been propagated in the late 1700s as a guide to proper proportions in scenic paintings and for the most attractive placement of a portrait subject’s eyes and body lines.

Do you know the “Rule Of Three?” This is a rule for security and insurance to markedly reduce the chances of your losing your precious images. Return to your computer with a card from your camera. Using your favorite photography program, import the images to your computer hard drive. Now, you have two copies of each. Don’t erase your camera storage card until you have made at least two backups of the computer files to external hard drives, off-site storage over the internet or CD/DVD’s. This way the “Rule Of Three” assures you of having at least three copies of each image.

We know a lot of great photographers are visiting this new site, curious about SizzlPix!. Come on … share some of your own great tips. We’ll feature them here, and give you credit.

I’m asked what I did before SizzlPix!. Over a 15-year run I wrote and produced 1,000 tv commercials, employing techniques I’d copied from Hollywood and employed for over a decade of commercial and personal photography.

Here they are: 1. Try to never shoot from eye level. The view from below (lie on the ground if necessary), or above (we had a platform built atop a truck for location shoots) is almost always more interesting and less routine.

2. Wherever possible, arrange lighting and in sunlight position your subject, so that the main light is behind or to the side. Fill the front with flash or reflectors, at a level about 50%, so the subject has that pleasing natural halo from keylighting, preferably behind and above.

We know a lot of great photographers are visiting this new site, curious about SizzlPix!. Come on … share some of your own great tips. We’ll feature them here, and give you credit.