Treat photography as visual experimentation. Have fun with it! And be like a visual scientist; never stop experimenting!

1. Color proportions

What are good proportions for colors in photos? In the above picture, I shot a foot selfie of myself (black shark shoes contrasted with the red on bottom of the frame), the splash of color in the center, and more solid color on top.

Drawn in Procreate on iPad:

When using the VSCO “distortia” filter, you can better see the segmentation of the colors:

Note the separation of colors by proportion.

The top color bar and bottom color bar:

With the rule of third lines in red:

Each of the colored blocks are around 16% of the vertical frame:

Now drawing in the cloud in center:

2. Vertical or horizontal?

Whenever I shoot scenes, I will always shoot both a vertical (portrait) orientation photo, and a horizontal (landscape) orientation photo.

Honestly you never know which is better while you’re shooting a scene. Always shoot both orientations (and even shoot some pictures while tilting your camera) to experiment and figure out later which picture you prefer.

For example a picture of some lines I shot (vertical):

The same picture, but horizontal:

Both orientations have different feelings. It’s up to you to choose which you prefer.

3. White borders or no borders?

Note these two photos. One has a white border on top and bottom, and the other doesn’t. Which do you prefer?