exactly nor too much to one side.

Here are two photographs taken in the same field and of the same view,
with the camera pointed in the same direction in both. One shows the
lack of saliency, although the tree is there. In the other the camera
was simply carried forward a hundred yards or so, until the tree
became large enough to be of importance in the composition. The
placing is simply a better position with reference to the tree in this
case.

=Centralize.=--Now, as you go about looking for things to sketch,
look always for some central object or effect. If you find that
what seems very beautiful will not give you anything definite
and graspable,--some contrast of form, or light and shade, or
color,--don't attempt it. The thing is beautiful, and has doubtless a
picture in it, but not for you. You are learning how to look for and
to find a subject, and you must begin with what is readily sketched,
without too much subtlety either of form or color or value.

=Placing.=--Having found your subject with something definite in it,
you must place it on your canvas so that it "tells." It will not do to
put it in haphazard, letting any part of it come anywhere as it
happens. You will not be satisfied with the effect of this. The object
of a picture is to make visible something which you wish to call
attention to; to show something that seems to you worth looking at.
Then you must arrange it so that that particular something is sure to
be seen whether anything else is seen or not. This is the first thing
to be thought of in placing your subject. _Where_ is it to come on
the canvas? How much room is it to take up? If it is too large, there
is not enough surrounding it to make an interesting whole. If it is to
be emphasized, it must have something to be emphasized with reference
to. On the other hand, if it is too small, its very size makes it
insignificant.

[Illustration: =Landscape Photo. No. 1.=]

If it is a landscape, decide first the proportions of land and
sky,--where your horizon line will come. Then, having drawn that line,
make three or four lines which will give the mass of the main effect
or object--a barn, a tree, a slope of hill, or whatever it be, get
merely its simplest suggestion of outline. These two things will show
you, on considering their relation to each other and to the rest of
the canvas, about what its emphasis will be. If it isn't right, rub it
out and do it again, a little larger or smaller, a l