Three-Step Method for setting up every photograph:

Step 1. Know your subject, What is the Subject?
Step 2. Focus attention on your subject, How can the Subject be Emphasized, so nothing distracts the viewer from the subject?
Step 3. Simplify .

Sample photo follows the above rules the subject (mountains) are focused with no distracting elements.

This simple Three-Step Method is the secret of every successful photograph ever taken. We teach our students to consider these three steps every time they look into the viewfinder. To consider them before they press the shutter button.

When our students mail in their photographs for analysis by their instructor, the instructor starts by commenting on what we call the three Guidelines. Of course, the instructor analyzes other elements of the picture too – focus, exposure, filters, etc. But the key to every good photo – and the essential element of every great photo – is adherence to these three Guidelines.

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