My friend Tim asked me about composition rules, and the rule of thirds, so I decided to make that topic my next tutorial
Composition is the way you organize the different elements on the scene in front of the camera. It's tempting to imagine that the world is just the way it is, and all you can do is just turn up, point the camera and take the picture but there's a lot more to it than that in the real world it's usually not possible to move objects around your ideas - but you generally don't need to. Just by changing your viewpoint, and sometimes the focal length you're using, you can completely change the appearance of the photo and the objects within it.
Composition in photography is like the rules of grammar in writing. If you don't put what you think in the right order, using the right words, with the right punctuation, no one's going to understand what you're trying to say. It's the same in photography. If you just shoot at random your pictures are going to look visually incoherent with no clear point of focus or meaning. But with a little compositional awareness, it's possible to draw the viewers attention to your subject, create interesting juxtapositions between objects and get them to see and feel exactly what it is you want them to.
Composition isn't just about making the meaning of your pictures clearer, though. Photographs can also be satisfying, challenging or intriguing on a purely graphic level, and this is down to the arrangement of the shapes tones and lines in the picture.
The best known 'rule' for creating graphically pleasing pictures is the 'rule of thirds'. This says that you should never put your subject in the center of the frame, but a third of the way from the top or the bottom, or from the sides. In fact, many cameras can display grid overlays on the LCD or in the viewfinder, which show you exactly where these 'thirds' are. If you were shooting a landscape, for example, you might position horizon on the lower horizontal third and a solitary tree on the left or right vertical 3rd. This is a pretty weak kind of rude though. It's a good fallback if you can't think of a more interesting way of composing the picture, but that's about all. If you see an arrangement which you think looks better you should use it.
There are other rules to follow. For example, you must make sure that your subject is looking into the frame rather than out of it, and you should avoid any composition that leads your viewers eyes out of the frame. But maybe want to emphasize the symmetry between the landscape and the sky, or the central Isolated the position of a lone tree? Maybe you like having your portrait subject looking out of the edge of the picture, because it hints at some unseen event and introduces a note of tension or unease? Rules are there to be broken especially rules of composition, but this only works if you know what they are in the first place, and you break them clearly and deliberately and for a reason.
Top Tip» Focal length and perspective: We normally think of zoom lenses simply as a tool to 'get more in' or bring distant objects closer, but in terms of composition there's a lot more to it than that. Instead of using the zoom to change the size of the object, try moving closer or further away and then adjust the zoom to keep the subject the same size. What you discover then is that the focal length you use has a big impact on the relationship between your subject and its background. A short focal length makes you get closer to the subject and makes the background look smaller and further away. A longer focal length means you move further away, and this makes a background look larger ( it's simple geometry really but the affects become obvious when you try them out). Telephoto lenses effectively enlarge the background, making it easier to find neutral areas to act as a backdrop for your subject, or to emphasize the scale of a landscape. It's often said that wide-angle lenses exaggerate perspective and that telephotos flatten it which is another way of saying the same thing. Stop thinking of your zoom lens as a substitute for walking, and start using it as an aid to composition!
The arrangement of objects and shape affects the meaning and the mood of the picture, and they also affect the sense of 'movement' in the image. The eye doesn't absorb the whole photograph in a single instant as a static image. Your eye moves from one object to another, sometimes in curves, sometimes in zigzags. This movement is a key part of the photographs appeal, or at least the extent to which it holds your attention. It's perhaps why you can quickly get bored with a photo that initially looks great, but become more and more fascinated by one which doesn't have a big initial impact, but does have a lot of compositional complexity.
The most obvious way to create this movement is with lines. These can be very literal, such as railway lines converge in the distance, or 'implied', such as the direction of the subjects gaze in a portrait. Pictures can have a single dominant line or they can have a number of lines which direct your gaze in a certain direction, and cause it to follow a certain route around the picture, or form a more complicated interlocking structure.
Shapes are very important for photography too. They might be easily recognized shapes such as human figures or silhouetted trees, for example, would gain extra power when thry stand out starkly against a contracting background, or they could just be areas of tone rather than specific objects. These are just as important in terms of composition however, because they contribute towards any picture's feeling of 'balance'.
Shapes can be used as natural frames to draw attention to your subject and to prevent the viewer's gaze from wondering out of the picture. Look out for archways, overhanging branches, gates, hedges... you can find natural frames almost anywhere.
Composition is part-science, part-instinct. The science is the way elements of the picture work together and affect the way you see it. The instinct is the way you as a photographer combine those elements in your own unique way.
*picture 3: the bees eye is placed at the right third. Eyes are usually the focal point, so his eye is placed directly on the third point.
*picture 2: the sun is on the left third, while the boat is off center along the horizon. This helps to 'lead' you through the image.
*picture 1: the eye again is the focal point, and thus this image has depth and emotion by having the subject off center as opposed to centered in the photo.
(photo credits: 2 & 3google images, 1 Photographer Adam Paul)
Feel free to comment below with thoughts, ideas and posts of your composition success and failures.
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