Composition177 articles

Beyond Thirds: A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition was released today and is an eBook about taking composition past the so-called rules. It’s a thoughtful, practical book about the way we build our photographs within the constraint of the frame. The author moves past the traditional discussion of thirds by showing how a more holistic approach can turn a conventional rule into a powerful tool. The ebook explores important subjects like the creative use of balance and focal points, insights into how to shape a subject, and using aspect ratio to establish an ideal foundation for making photographs. The diagrams and creative exercises will provide you with the ideas and insights you need to compose more engaging photographs.

Many years ago I came across what is probably the best way to learn composition, and also the hardest one to actually use, even though the concept is very simple. You take one camera body, one lens, one roll of film, (or memory card) and you pick one subject to shoot. Then go out about town, or around the countryside, and fill that one roll with that one subject only, but take your time when doing it. Rushing things just leads to even more mistakes that may not have anything to do with composition, but will lead to confusion. You want to learn from “how” you did the shooting, and not because you were rushed to do it.

Composition is the combining of distinct parts or elements to form a whole. In photography that thought is very important in taking good pictures. The following guidelines are just to be thought about though, it is not necessary to try to use them with every picture you take or there wouldn’t be any creativity in your work.

Beautiful subjects and technical ability are not enough to make a good picture. Photographers must properly compose the photo, too. Composition should be pleasing and harmonious; it should help driving the viewer’s eye through our picture as we desire.

Its common problem when we first start learning digital photography. We realize that we must drill the technical stuff into our heads so we can improve, and what tends to happen is that we get caught up for a bit. We can forget that photography is artistic. And the artistic side of your digital photo needs perfect composition.

Composition and cropping are very basic digital photography tools that you can use hand-in-hand to produce stunning results. First you use composition to arrange the main elements of your photo in a pleasing manner. Then you use cropping to fine-tune the image by removing unwanted elements and further adjusting the composition.

When you press your eye to the viewfinder of your camera, a blank canvas is placed before you. Similar to more traditional artists, you can paint a vertical shot or a horizontal shot. That’s your first decision in basic composition.