COMPOSITION
Prompted by comments made on a forum photograph I hunted out an article I had printed out ages ago.
I have condensed the whole thing and presented it here for interest along with some example illustrations.
No apologies for it's length because even so it only scratches the surface of photography composition.
Hopefully it could well spark off an interesting thread in the forum.
Some questions to ask yourself while viewing a scene that you are about to photograph.
What is the subject and the objective of taking this photograph
What is going on in the background, are there any distractions.
What sort of angle do I want to present.
Are there any natural lines or patterns I can work with.
Is there any movement in the scene.
Generally any photograph with the main subject in the centre tends to be less interesting than
one with the subject placed off centre. Use the rule of thirds as a guide but...only as a guide.
ANGLES
Adopting different positions can make photographs much more appealing. A folded binliner doesn't take
up much room and is very handy for kneeling or lying on. Now I wouldn't expect you to take along rock climbing
equipment but...don't be afraid to search out elevated positions to shoot down onto your scene. It's not just scenes
that look different from unusual angles. A completely different aspect can be given to people and inanimate objects.
Don't be afraid to experiment, if you don't like the results there is always room in the recycle bin and you will have
had fun taking the shots.
Bear in mind that angles don't work for everything. The trick is to experiment but don't be satisfied
with just
the one shot, take several of the same scene/object/person and see the effects for yourself.
Framing
As a rule (note that all rules are made to broken at some time or another) if a person, animal or moving object is facing
in one direction then it should be positioned on the opposite side of the frame.
There will be lots of circumstances when this may not be possible or feasible. Well that's when you break the rule and frame as best you can.
LINES
Learning to use lines to their best advantage takes practice. Some lines may not be obvious
while composing a shot while
others just cannot be missed.
Horizontal lines are best suited to the landscape format while vertical lines can be used effectively
in portrait format.
Turning the camera at an angle, or positioning yourself at an angle to your subject
while composing a shot can also produce some pleasing images.
A word of caution when using vertical lines. Avoid having a vertical line running down the centre
of your shot. This will give the impression of having split your photograph in half.
When taking shots of people check the background carefully. It can be amusing to see a
tree or post sprouting out of someone's head but it's also a photo for the recycle bin
Curved lines can really enhance a photograph. The trick is using the right format.
The photograph below shows the same scene in both modes so you can see the different impact
Lighting
If you really want to understand and apply good composition there are numerous websites
available which offer lots of advice. A couple of these are linked to below.
This one is just a single page but the photographs say a lot.
This is a much larger site but I wasn't impressed with the illustrations.
A quick google search will reveal hundreds of sites relating to composition.
They tend to be repetative in content so when you find one to your liking bookmark
it for future reference and spend short periods of time studying it to avoid boredom.