Knowing when, how and where to use images in your work is an essential tool all aspiring designers need to master. While many designers commission photographers to take the images they need for any given project, on occasions a client budgets simply don't stretch to allow for this additional expense. This is when having the ability to take your own photographs can become a big asset. Not only can you charge for the service, it can give you the edge over other designers who do not have these skills.

TECHNIQUES

There are numerous excellent sites dedicated to teaching different photographic techniques with Pictorious being one of the most useful to those new to photography.

So, rather than go into lengthy detail I will run through a few of the basics you need to consider when taking photographs.

The Rule of Thirds

One of the best known principles of photography has to be the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography and other visual arts such as painting and design. Click on the image below to see how the rule of thirds is applied.

The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph.

Keep your horizontals, horizontal

If you're shooting a horizon or anything that shows horizontal lines make sure you keep the lines horizontal or the image won't look right. This image, Endless Sea #2 by Patrick Smith on Flickr illustrates this point perfectly.

Look for fresh angles

Rather that photographing your subject straight on try photographing it from a different angle. Try lying on the ground and shooting up or alternatively try shooting from above to make the subject more interesting. This image of stone angels was taken from below giving the impression that they are watching over us.

Fill the frame

Try filling the frame of your photograph with the subject matter to make for a more interesting image. This shot, See You In My Shades not only uses an extreme close up of the subject matter to fill the frame but takes advantage of the reflection on the sunglasses to shoot scene in front.

This obviously doesn't cover everything you need to know to take a good photograph. Looking through some the links to the right such as Pictorious and Photo.net will provide you with a lot of the essential information needed to develop your skills in this area.

Rules are meant to be broken and ignoring them doesn’t mean your images are necessarily unbalanced or uninteresting. However, if you intend to break the rules you should always learn them first to make sure your breaking of them is all the more effective! Darren Rowse's excellent post Break the ‘Rules’ of Photography and Take Stunning Images covers a number of ways to break out of the box

Photographers

To give yourself the best chance of understanding how to take the best images, as with many things in life it is always good to get a sense of where it all started and get to know some of the key figures from the past and present. Following are a small selection examples of some of the masters in the field past and present.

Of course these are only few of many great masters of photography, for a more comprehensive view of some of the greats go to Photography Now. This excellent site covers a multitude of photographers from past and present.

Photography like many other areas of the creative industries covers a multitude of different genres. The following photographers illustrate a range of these.

Photojournalism

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed..

Photography Now photography-now.net.com

Landscape Photography

At one with the power of the American landscape, and renowned for the patient skill and timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been a visionary in his efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans.

President James E. Carter. anseladams.com

Art Photography

Gina Glover was born in London, England. She trained in Fine Art at Chelsea School of Art, later obtaining a photography degree at the University of Westminster. She is a co-founder and Director of the Photofusion Photography Centre, London and a freelance photographic artist and lecturer.

Collaboration is a key element of Gina's practice, which often represents a synthesis of ideas and imagery from many different sources. She makes site specific artwork for hospitals and lectures on themes such as 'Creativity, Photography and the Mind'. At present Gina is artist in residence at the University of Oxford, Institute of Reproductive Sciences.

Much of Gina's personal work involves stories, symbols and time. She explores sensual and emotional responses to the world, using both black and white lens based and colour pinhole photography.

Gina Glover. 2010. Gina Glover. ginaglover.com

Other fine art photographers worth mentioning include Chris Jordan who is probably best known for his large scale pieces depicting mass consumption. His Intolerable Beauty series illustrated the waste created by American society, which is reflected throughout the world. Runnning the Numbers II looked at mass phenomena on a global scale. These huge images comments on mans destruction his environment from the over fishing of tuna to plastic pollution in our oceans.

Commercial Photography

I haven't swashbuckled with pirates, nor have I swam the English Channel. I haven't even been to Antarctica. But I have traveled to many far away places, created a lot of still and moving pictures for myself and others. And I've made it my life's goal to be as creative as possible toward everything I endeavor. Outside of my morning cereal, that is.

I don't always make my bed, but lazy I'm not. On a deserted island, I'd go insane without photography, film, music, my wife Kate and our family pets. Storytelling, creative innovation, and visual voodoo–no matter the medium—make my heart go thump thump; and sharing all this online with the world, plus as much of my professional experience as I can muster, makes my soul sing. I'm fond of crows, and love that they'll fly toward anything shiny. I feel like a crow on most days. I can find humor in anything. I'm still working on that.

I've won a boatload of awards for my work, and I'm grateful for every single one of them, but I've always been unsure of whether I earned them or whether somebody I knew, or somebody who knew somebody I knew, rigged the jury. I was transparent long before it was hip to be so, and I believe deeply in teamwork, community, and collaboration. Let's be friends. Better yet, let's swim the English Channel.

Chase Jarvis. 2010. Chase Jarvis. chasejarvis.com

Jarvis has also embraced the iPhone as a means to record how he sees the world so much so that he has dedicated a section of his website labelled iPhone as Art and created an iPhone App to help other would–be photographers emulate his style.

Other notable commercial photographers include Dan Tobin Smith who has been taking photographs from the age of 13. He is probably best known for his still life work for the likes of Jay Z, Orange and Sony.