Foundations of Photographic Art: the main building blocks that permit an ordinary picture to become artistic. Mastery of each foundation will help to create photography which is aesthetically beautiful.

1. Lines—leading lines and using triangles, squares, circles which are made up of lines

2. Texture—It is that quality that makes something visual seem like it could be experienced through senses other than sight: touch, or taste, or sound, or smell

3. Rhythm—the repetition or alternating of elements, often with defined intervals that creates a sense of movement, and can establish a flow or harmony

4. Color—hue (tint) and saturation (amount) and luminosity (brightness)

5. Tone—the contrast between light and dark, the luminosity of the subject...the “pop” of an image, this can also be used to create a “mood” in an image

6. Space—effective use of positive vs negative space

7. Balance—the way all the elements are arranged in an image, rule of odds, centered, off-center (rule of thirds), circular

8. Depth of Field—amount of the picture which is in sharp focus

9. Perspective—way an image creates a sensation of volume, space, depth, distance, and scale

10. Point of View—the point of view for your photo: up close, far away, from above, ground level, eye level, mirror/reflection, distorted

11. Framing—what to include and what not to include in an image to help bring focus to the subject so that it stands out more