guidelines. composition.
rule of thirds.
a standard in both photo and film is the rule of thirds. this is a standard because it words so well for creating room, and depth in your photos. and allows for a look of intentionality, professionalism, and can also help to drive emotions.
center compositions.
in contrast to the rule of thirds is using center compositions that allow for massive open spaces around your subject, creating impactful photos. but allow yourself to break the boundaries of both of these types of composition and try things that may or may not work. if it is done well and with intentionality it can be powerful.
framing.
there are so many tricks to capturing powerful moments and eye catching images through your framing. first just the framing of your subject in the image is imperative. always avoid cutting off your subject at any of their joints. it makes the body look odd and weird. where as if you cut off the body in between joints such as the stomach, the chest, upper legs, etc. it allows for the body to appear normal. try to always capture arms/hands/head fully and allowing proper spacing around them.
sub-framing.
a secondary trick is sub-framing in your shots whether that is having something happing in the foreground of your photo in front of your subject or using shapes such as screens, beams of light, or objects in the background to frame your subjects from behind.
focus.
shooting with settings that allow for a sharp photo/focus are imperative. you want to avoid shooting to high of an iso, or too low of a shutter speed because it will cause issues here. but use focus to create levels to your image. such as, maybe you are shooting the lead singer or someone in the crowd. take a moment, step back and allow someone to come into the frame in a way that they are not in focus adding depth to the image, rather than just a straight on photo of a single person.
lighting.
lighting in services is not always ideal, but learn to use that to your advantage. creating unique images that will standout against the sea of images that are out there in our media soaked world. take moments to see what others may not see.
balance.
allow space in your photos. where there is isn’t too much happening or too little. or if part of one section is super crowded and the other section is wide open. it doesn’t have to be symmetrical or assymetrical, it’s all about find the amount that feels right for the image that you are taking.
balance.
allow space in your photos. where there is isn’t too much happening or too little. or if part of one section is super crowded and the other section is wide open. it doesn’t have to be symmetrical or assymetrical, it’s all about find the amount that feels right for the image that you are taking.
guidelines. creative.
feels natural.
when capturing the people in our community avoid capturing images that look/feel staged. candids are the best way to capture conversations and other people around each other. even when capturing the person speaking/teaching, leading worship on stage, worshipping in the room, or any other situation.
respectful of individuals.
one of the most important things to ensure as you are capturing moments of ministry at the refuge, is respecting the privacy of the person being ministered to.
the ways to do it:
give space to people do not get in their faces even those that are just worshipping, having an emotional moment, or anything like that.
when capturing someone receiving prayer, avoid capturing their face, try instead to focus on the person praying.
doing things like this allow for our images to feel personal, and intimate but don’t cause people to not respond to what the Lord is doing out of fear of wanting to be put on display.
guidelines.
on brand.
one of the most important elements to every design that is created is to make sure that it follows the branding guide for all elements. this includes font choice, colours, the use of the icons, and more.
don't break it.
when using any of the icons or logos it is very important not to distort or alter them in any way. make sure not to add anything or take anything away from them. the easiest way to unintentionally distort the images of the icons and logos is when you are scaling them up or down. you always want to insure that you are using a locked bounding box method to scale.
keep it clean.
this can refer to many areas of the design, but keeping the composition of designs clean and simple helps to keep it readable and informative to the people that we want the message to reach. everything that we do, we do with the intention of sharing the heart and the message of the refuge. some of the areas that this can apply to is font choice, colour choice, images, and composition. when it comes to fonts we want to keep the number of fonts down to one or two fonts. keep the primary colours of what you are designing to or near the colours of the branding. keep the composition of how the photos that you have chosen to clean aesthetic.
unique imagery.
when it comes to the choice of the imagery in designs it is important to keep who the target demographic of the refuge is in mind. one of our leadership anchors is that we focus on the young + the creative. some of the ways that we do this is to choose imagery that doesn’t look like stand stock photos. imagery that is creative and unique. to assist in this we have created a library of curated imagery that has been gathered over the last couple of years, and will continue to be updated on an ongoing basis. this library is on our shared google drive and is linked in the resources tab.
little touches.
another way to elevate our designs is to add details in addition to the imagery and the lettering. is utilizing our icons and logos in unique ways, adding textures and tones on top of the images, as well as adding ink and paint mark textures. you can find all of these elements in the shared drive, in the branding folder.