Tips On Photographing Patterns

When you're out on a day trip or on your two week annual holiday and are looking for some photographic inspiration, have a walk around and start shooting patterns, we'll guarantee you'll soon become addicted.

Gear:

Standard lens or something with a slightly more length can make isolating detail easier.
Tripod – a tripod will help you make sure everything is aligned and straight. Something lightweight and portable such as those found in Manfrotto's 390 series don't take up too much room in your bag and it's less likely to give you achy arms after carrying it around all day.

Technique:

What to look for

Patterns are everywhere, you just have to look carefully at what you're photographing. You may find it a little difficult at first but once you've trained your eye, you'll see pattens all over. Try and search for single items that are repetitive such as a row of windows or a more random pattern such as apples in a basket.

Here are just a handful of places to look for patterns:

• Buildings – windows, doors, steps, columns, roof tiles, brickwork, whole buildings if can find a good location to shoot from
• Markets – gift shops, stalls selling fruit, veg etc.
• Beach – stones, patterns in the sand, pebbles, seaweed
• Sky – clouds, flocks of birds flying overhead

Where to stand

If possible, stand straight-on to the surface you're photographing and make sure the patterns straight. This will help turn distant shapes into the patterns you're looking for. If you can, get up high as you'll be able to photograph roof tiles then back on the ground take a look at what's under your feet as floor tiles and bricked pavements will create interesting patterns that are worth photographing. If you can't get straight on to your subject don't worry as shooting from a slight angle gives you the chance to use a little blur to guide the eye to a certain part of the image. You do this by adjusting the aperture, shooting wide open.

Make sure you crop in

The key to a successful pattern shot is to make sure there's nothing around it that would distract the viewer away from it so move your feet to get close or use your zoom to fill the frame. If it's not possible to crop in camera you can always open your images up in the editing software you use and use the crop tool.

Find the tripod to suit your needs at www.manfrotto.co.uk.

See what competitions and other exciting content Manfrotto have on their website:

Manfrotto Imagine More Photo Contest - Win a trip to Venice

Take a look at Manfrotto's Local Heroes

View photographer Pete Bridgwood's latest picture post

Follow Manfrotto on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Vimeo and Flickr