Photo composition is all about the art of subjective arrangement … what to do with all that stuff. Composition is about choices.

What is your subject? What do you include and what do you leave out? And how do you arrange all the elements that are included?

First, it is important to realize that composition is very subjective. But good composition can be learned by anyone, and there are some guidelines that help you make the right choices.

The choices you make say a lot about you. And if you study any of the great photographers, you can often tell their work at a glance, because they have developed their own unique style. And composition is usually a major part of that style.

Selective Seeing

When something catches our interest, the mind tends to focus on only that which has attracted our attention. The eye may see much more, but the mind discards anything that doesn’t contribute to the main attraction.

Now if only we could get the camera’s mind to do the same, composition would be greatly simplified. When you look through the viewfinder or at your monitor, it is necessary for you to see everything that the lens sees.

And with practice, the decisions of what to include, and what to leave out become much easier.

What’s Your Subject

Every good photo has a subject, and in a great photo the subject is what attracts the viewer immediately.
In some photos, the subject may be quite obvious…an expressive face, a colorful landscape, or some sort of dramatic event.

And in others, the subject may be more subtle…a mood, a mischievous glance, or perhaps just the feeling you have while viewing a photo you like.

Your subject may be a single object, or it may be many things which you arrange to express a single idea. But it’s you that decides what your subject is and what you want to say about it.

To train your eye and mind it will probably be helpful for you to give conscious thought to these questions, but in time this will begin to happen subconsciously.

At first you may want to ask yourself what it is that you are trying to capture in this photo. Usually you will want to do this silently to yourself, but who knows…if you do it out loud you might get some interesting people shots.

Emphasize Your Subject

Once you know what your subject is, the next step is to decide what will help emphasize the subject and what will distract from it. Things that make your message clearer should be included. Anything unnecessary or that makes the message less clear should be excluded.

Whenever possible, shoot the subject from different angles, move around the subject and get closer or farther away. By exploring a variety of possibilities, you increase your chances of getting the best shot.

Often you’ll find that a single scene contains several photos, each with its own message.

This shot of a glassblower has a lot of information. The people looking in the window show the shop is open to view, so visitors can observe the craftsman at work.

The workbench includes other glass items, indicating the variety of objects he has produced. It’s a clever way to draw attention to his shop and probably helps pull folks inside to see and buy his products.

Eliminating some of the outside information has shifted the focus to the glass item. Note how the girl’s gaze leads your eye to the glass. The craftsman’s gaze also points you back to the glass.

Moving in very close, the subject now becomes the art of hand blown glass. By eliminating everthing but the hand, torch and glass item, it is no longer a picture of one individual glassblower. It is now a statement about the craft itself.

The above scene was only one of the dozens of interesting subjects that were available in this one location. In fact, I had taken quite a few shots before I made this one. So after you’ve taken the more obvious shots, look again. You may find even more interesting and unique possibilities to explore.

Some Helpful Hints

Sound advice from one of the masters of photography. Knowing a few simple facts of human habit can be an important tool in guiding you to understanding good photographic composition.

In fact, you probably already know most of these habits, but may not realize how they apply to composing pictures. So let’s take a few common examples and you’ll soon see how you can apply these ideas to your own photos.

Make Your Subject Stand Out

On a stage full of people there is a spotlight on one individual. This immediately draws our attention. We assume this person must be important because the spotlight makes them stand out from the crowd. So a good way of emphasizing your subject is by making it stand out in the picture.

Using light, as in the example above, is one way. You may not have use of spot lights, but you can often use the existing light to separate the subject from its surroundings.

Back light that creates a halo effect, or placing the subject against a darker background. Light streaming in from a window spotlighting the subject in a room may do it.
Always try to explore ways to use the light to help emphasize the important areas of your composition. You might be able to move the subject to a better position. If that’s not posssible, you can try changing your position. This often makes a very significant difference in your results.

Using selective focus is another good way to make your subject stand out. A sharp, detailed area stands out against an out-of-focus or blurred background. Objects in the foreground can also be out of focus and even help frame the main subject.

This not only makes your subject stand out, but can often add depth to a photograph. Nearby objects can also often hide distracting clutter around the outside edges of your composition.

A person or several people all looking in one direction can draw your eye to see what they are staring at. Natural curiosity. We tend to look in the direction that people or animals in a picture are looking, so using this to draw attention to your subject can be very effective.

Size relationships can sometimes call attention to an individual. A 5 foot tall person standing near several 7 foot basketball players would draw attention. Or the figure on stilts in a parade. A single tiny stone among boulders.

Contrasting size differences can lead to some interesting photos, so look for ways to create a unique picture with this approach.

We tend to be curious about the unusual, so sometimes placing an object in uncommon surroundings can call more attention to it. A fine crystal glass sitting in a junkyard would certainly seem unusual. A lone small child in the middle of a mall full of adults could conjure up all sorts of ideas.

Changing your viewpoint can also produce unusal photos. Shooting up from the ground level is a viewpoint rarely seen.

Even everyday items that are all around us can become fascinating when seen from below. These red plastic pop beads, the large brimmed hat, and the bald mannequin in this picture had been laying around the studio forever.

Just putting them together, choosing a low angle and directional side lighting, it became an interesting, almost elegant still life of these otherwise ordinary items.

Shooting down on a subject that is not normally seen from above can also create interesting photos.

Lead The Eye Around

When you read you know to read from left to right, and top to bottom. This training will carry over into viewing images. The eye habitually moves from left to right in the picture. A road that starts on the upper left side of your picture and goes out on the lower right could lead the viewer right out of the frame.

On the other hand, you could use this natural habit to lead the eye to the main subject. Using any sort of lines, especially curving lines to lead the eye about the picture can be very effective. A fence, walkway, wall, shoreline or even lines created by shadows or similiar objects lined up next to each other. Look for these ‘arrows’ to help lead the eye around the picture.

Where To Put What

A favorite ‘rule’ of composition is the “rule of thirds”. Imagine the lines used to play tic tac toe.

In the example to the left you can see how this grid divides the image into thirds, or three horizontal rows and three vertical rows. Where these lines intersect are known as power points, or strong points of interest.

A Sense of Balance

Good composition must also have balance. Something dead center might be balanced geometrically, but is usually boring. But when placed off-center it attracts more attention.

Among pictures hanging on a wall, the one not hanging straight or positioned differently from the others is the one most frequently noticed. Good balance in composition is achieved in many ways.

A large object on one side of your compositon can be balanced with extra space on the opposite side. Placing a horizon line high in your frame focuses attention on the foreground, while a low horizon would place the emphasis on the sky.

A horizon line centered in the image would divide the picture in half, and probably induce a yawn from the viewer. A subject looking into the picture from one side directs the viewer’s eye into the picture. The same subject looking out of the picture could lead the viewer out as well.

A sense of balance is a feeling you get when viewing a picture, sort of a safe, comfortable feeling for example. And deliberately creating an out of balance composition could be useful in creating a feeling of uneasiness in a photo, so, if that is your intention, it could be quite effective.

Learn The Rules…Then Break Them”

All the elements, or the “rules of composition” should be understood for the effects they produce, rather than followed blindly. Knowing the whys behind these rules enables you to knowingly break them when doing so will create more interesting photos.

To help you develop your understanding of composition, look at photos that you really like, and consider how the artist applied the elements of composition, or perhaps seemingly broke the rules.

And with your own photos, try different arrangements, different croppings, and try ways that might not seem correct. This will help you break down any barriers that might be limiting your creative nature, and it will also develop your intuitive skills of knowing when something just seems to work.

Here’s to better photography…

Al Hannigan