10 tips for better photos

Did you get a new camera for Christmas? For amateurs aiming to improve their photo technique, Times picture editor Barbara Kinney offers these tips:

1. Rule of Thirds: Divide your scene horizontally and vertically by thirds, visualizing where the planes intersect. That's where the viewer's eye will be drawn. Put your subject there.

2. In, not out: Place your subject coming into or looking into the photo rather than out, so the viewer's eye is drawn into the photo.

3. Frame your subject. Use elements such as trees, buildings or mountains as framing elements.

4. Experiment with perspective. Look up, kneel down, get up high.

5. Move in. If you don't have a long lens, get closer to your subject.

6. Watch the time and weather. Shoot outside in mornings or late afternoons, when sunlight is softer and the sky more colorful. Avoid high noon. Seattle's overcast days offer nice, even light.

7. Watch backgrounds. Clutter can ruin a photo.

8. Straighten up. Avoid slanting horizons.

9. Populate your shots. Mountains are beautiful, but a person or dog adds scale and interest.

10. The final rule: All these rules can be broken.