English Listening B2 Episode 13 -
Fill in the Blanks Exercise
**Part 1**
Hello everyone and thank you for coming. This evening I'm going to talk to you about how to take great photographs - the five secrets that knows and uses. To be honest, these aren't really secrets, but hopefully, they'll be and you'll find them useful.
OK, let's start with a photograph that includes some of the most that amateurs make... As you can see, this photo is a , the sort where someone got the woman to for the camera. Nothing against posing, though my preference is for more , but in any case there are .
First of all, the picture-taker made sure the sun was , to avoid sun going into the lens and that's good, but this way the subject has the sun on her face, just a flat hard light. It also means that she can't !
Secondly, the subject has been which leaves a lot of space at either side of her and creates a pretty .
This leads me to the third common mistake that people make which . We can see here - the street scene with parked cars is .
Fourthly, overall there's around the subject, the picture taker is either too far away or has used the , or both. Leaving too much space around the subject can make them than you'd like and make objects in the background .
The final thing to check is . Amateur photographers often stand which makes the subject look up-which is not the best angle to see a face, but... actually, in this case, the photographer has and positioned the camera in line with the subject's eyes.
You might think I'm , as this is just a quick snapshot. But I want you to see just how simple it is to make even your family snapshots .
**Part 2**
OK, so here are .
Rule number one: . So if you're outside, notice where the sun is shining from and position yourself so that it's to your as you're facing your subject. If it's to your side, the subject won't have that on them, but much more interesting shadows and shades, which give the image more .
Rule number two is the . When you're framing a shot, divide the screen up into both horizontally and vertically, and think of the four points where the lines intersect . If your subject is a face, position the face at . In other words, place your subject to add interest.
Which brings us to rule number three: think about . Avoid cluttered backgrounds which the main focus of your photograph. This may mean positioning yourself so, for example, there are trees or water or sky behind your subject and not cars. You can then use natural elements in the background to .
Rule number four is related to this: take to your subject. Try to fill the picture with your subject rather than - unless the background or surroundings are important.
And rule number five is to to your subject, so if they're much shorter, for example a child, . The lens and their eyes should be at . You'll be .
So those are the five rules. Let's look at another photo of the same person and see how the rules .
