Composition: The Foundation of a Good Picture
Maybe all you want to do with your photographs is capture the moment, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I still do a lot of that with my photography. But there’s also nothing wrong with learning how to make your capture of those moments more pleasing to look at. I have plenty of images that are just the capture of the situation, a documentation of what was happening in very dry terms. In my posts here, I talk about gear and how it can help improve your products, but there’s one unpleasant truth we all have to live with: the best gear in the world won’t improve a poorly-composed picture. To enjoy the output of your effort, you have to learn the basics, just like you do in everything else. With today’s digital processing tools, you can accommodate a lot of other misfortunes, but you still have to start with something that is composed well. What does that mean?
There are certain things that make an image pleasing to look at, and composition is only one of those things. Composition is how you have the elements of the picture arranged within the shot. There are several methods for placing the elements and I’m going to explain them, with examples from my own collection. That means I’m going to show you examples of good composition and bad composition, both from my own collection. Yeah, it’s been a learning process. Also, these aren’t particularly my best photos, just good examples of the methods. Very often the best photos use several methods, so they don’t always make the best teaching tools.
COMPOSITION METHODS
The most basic and easiest method to learn is the Rule of Thirds. As you look at the display screen or through your viewfinder, imagine the display divided into thirds both horizontally and vertically, and imagine the dividing lines on the display. Most cameras and even smartphone cameras can actually show those lines in certain modes, and there are too many combinations of cameras and modes to explain how to get the displayed. They’re there, though, even for phone cameras. It’s tempting for beginning photographers (yes, it’s acceptable to call yourself a photographer even if you’ve never published an image) to want to put the main subject into the very center of the frame. That may work for some compositions, and if it works, do it. But try placing the main subject on one of the intersecting gridlines and see what happens. Try putting the horizon on one of the horizontal lines. Try putting your subject on one of the vertical gridlines, with any sort of “face” looking into the center of the frame. By taking things off-center, you can add more interest and start to lead your viewer’s eye around the picture. You’ll be combining the Rule of Thirds with other methods as you progress, but it’s usually a good place to start.
If you look at the image below, with the gridlines superimposed over it you can see that it’s just a little bit “off.” With some creative cropping, we could come up with a little better positioning of the subjects.
The image below shows good composition, closely following the rule of thirds. It feels “balanced” both horizontally and vertically
2009_0509, IMG_0795.jpg, good composition
Leading Lines is another composition method you can put to use easily. It’s exactly what it sounds like: you use lines to lead the viewer’s eye where you want it to go. This is one good example, but the second one is probably one of my favorite pictures ever. It shows not only leading lines, but also pattern repetition, you can see the boy almost exactly mimicking the man’s stride.
Framing is another method that is just what it sounds like. You can use elements in nature or architecture to frame a subject. This image shows what might have been a frame, but it turned out pretty badly.
This image was one that I took of my son, positioning his head and shoulders inside one of the diamonds formed by the chain-link fence. Just doing that was still a bad composition, but I knew that zooming into that frame was not going to produce a good image – unless I took it abstract. I applied a black-and-white filter and an artistic filter and cropped it around that one frame. Now it looks like I meant for it to be that way.
COMMON COMPOSITION MISTAKES AND PROBLEMS
You will make these mistakes, and others, and some that you won’t be able to identify but you’ll know they’re mistakes. It’s okay. You’ll take a lot of photos and most of them are going to be okay, or just bad. But you have to take those in order to get that one fabulous print-worthy shot. Just keep trying. Learn how to look at your photos with a critical eye. When you like one, look at it deeply to figure out why you like it.
This is a picture of an osprey’s next in the middle of Lake Eufaula in Alabama. I love ospreys. I think they’re beautiful in flight, and they build really cool nests in really interesting places. So I was thrilled to get this close (with the help of a zoom lens) to this nest – but doggone it, there’s to much stuff in the picture.
We moved the boat around (to find a better fishing spot, but it worked out for me too), and we were able to get a much clearer shot without all that other stuff.
Here’s a shot I was so thrilled, because Mama was feeding the Babies and I got them all! The shot would have been better without the sticks that we see coming up from the left side of the nest, but the nest belongs to the bird, not me.
Sometimes the main subject of the photo just ends up in an unfortunate location within the shot. Maybe the face is too close to the edge, facing the edge; maybe your leading lines are great but you’re two feet to one side so the picture is lopsided (done that). This shot was taken from a boat, bouncing on a lake, on an overcast day. Getting waterfowl pictures from a boat is hard, because you’re above the bird. Now, not all above-the-bird shots are going to turn out bad, but this one did partly due to the lighting. I’ll be talking about light further down the road, because photography is all about light, and getting that right will reduce the amount of editing you’ll have to do. Also, there are some issues with light that you can’t fix with processing and editing, and this image is a good illustration of that. It’s just dull. The duck was pretty. The lake was pretty. The day was not. As a result, the shot was not.
You also have to pay attention to lines in the image that don’t have anything to do with the main subject. Below, we see that the cracks between the pavers don’t contribute to the main subject, the butterfly. The butterfly is gorgeous, and if the image was worth processing, I’d flip it around so the butterfly was upright, but the lines of the sidewalk are just too distracting.
ADVANCED COMPOSITION TECHNIQUES
Once you figure out the basics, you can start playing with some of the more advanced techniques. One of these is negative space, which is just empty space around a subject. This is a good illustration of negative space. Negative space can provide a perspective of what the subject might be doing or planning to do, or it can provide a space for words in an advertisement (called “copy”).
You can use symmetry and patterns to provide an interesting composition, but don’t ignore their placement within the photo. This photo shows coordinating angles and repeating patterns.
This one shows pseudo-symmetry, or “not-quite symmetry.” It’s symmetrical enough that it provides interest to the subject, even though it’s not perfectly symmetrical.
Here I combined a pattern with negative space.
TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR COMPOSITION
The best way to improve the composition of your photos is to intentionally take photos that align with a particular type composition principle. Spend a particular time frame studying only that principle. You’ll eventually get to a point where you look at a scene and instinctively know how you want to compose it. You may want to take two steps to one side or the other. You may need to hold the camera over your head to get the angle you want. You may need to get closer or farther away. These aren’t the only principles of composition for photographers, but master these first, and then, if you need to, move forward into something more complex.
It can be helpful to search out a photography challenge with weekly submissions. You’ll spend a whole week seeking for opportunities to produce a picture that fits the week’s requirement. Most challenges have social media groups where you can get feedback from other photographers to help you improve your eye.
I’d love to see your compositions – post on some social media channel, and drop a link to it in the comments! Tell us what you were going for in the image, and whether or not you think you achieved it.
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