Composition for Photographers

Starting out as a photographer and artist I could find very little information on photographic or artistic composition. Some fine artists refer to rules of composition as formal structures which is perhaps more appropriate. Were there rules of arranging subjects in my photographs that I should follow or should it be done more creatively, more intuitively? As a former engineer I still need a few rules to work within, although rules are there to be broken. Artistic vision and intuition are more important, however when I am struggling with a composition, then I find some of the rules can help to create a composition that is more in line with my artistic vision.

Detailed references are given at the end. Thank you to all who took the time to produce these sites.

Rule of Thirds

The simplest rule of composition and one that many photographers know. A subset of divine rectangles, placing important subjects on the intersections gives them visual strength and dominance.

Divine Proportions

Divine proportions (also called golden proportions) are the stuff of life. If you’ve read/seen Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code you will have had an introduction to the Fibonacci series and the golden number 1.618. Mathematical hocus pocus? Read the references, look at my examples then take a good look around you, divine proportions are everywhere.

I was amazed when I started applying these compositions to my work. Suddenly compositions that I am struggling with snap into place, or photographs which I liked compositionally, but didn’t know why, made sense.

The principle is that by placing subjects on the intersections and lines achieves a natural sense of harmony.

Borders

Placing your art in a good mat (mount) and frame makes a world of difference to the perception and interpretation of your work, but subjects/objects themselves can be used to frame the main subject in the photograph itself. Sometimes the frame created (or composed) is the subject of the photograph! This photographic frame draws your eye to the main subject or holds the main subject into the photograph. Equally the lack of a frame can imply space outside the photograph.

Personally, I find borders difficult to deal with in landscape work. They are often simply as they are, but the concept and it’s implications are worth bearing in mind. They can be made to work, as in Photograph 3.

The Bottom Border

Simply, this is the objects/subjects that you place along the bottom of the frame. I use the bottom border a lot, to provide a base and stability to my compositions.

Colour

Composing with colour? By understanding the relationships between colours and our perception of colour, it is possible to create relationships within the photographs space. Colour theory is a huge field, more than I can possibly cover here. The references at the end include links to a few very interesting sites.

Analysis of beauty

I’ve not had much of a chance to explore this yet. Use the reference at the bottom of this article to find out more.

WYSIWYG

Simpler can be better. Rules are there to be broken. Spend a while studying the scene in front of you. Maybe, as recommended by John Blakemore, sit down, close your eyes for 10 minutes, then look again - what you see will probably look different. After you have studied your subject, look through the viewfinder and compose with your intuition and instinct - put subjects where you want them. What do you want the photograph you are making to say?

Oh, one final thing. Western viewers will read the photograph left to right, eastern viewers top to bottom, generally speaking! So, the bottom right of the frame has a position of visual strength.

In practice

The only way to understand these concepts and how they apply to your own practice is to try them. To understand colour better, I went and and just took photographs of colours and brightly/attractively coloured subjects, looking for colour relationships between adjacent objects. To understand the formal structures I cut some windows in pieces of mount card. The windows were in the aspect ratios of the common photographic formats (3x2, 5x4, 6x12, 6x6 etc.). I used sheets of clear acetate to produce overlays for each window with the formal structures drawn on the acetate. See photograph 7. By looking at the scene through the window and overlay, I could compose a scene that expressed what I wanted and I then transferred this composition to the camera viewfinder.

Conclusion

Look at other photographers work. Study paintings. Listen to some music. Drape yourself over some sculpture. Look around at the natural and man made world. All these things were composed, all can provide inspiration, and even, enjoyment.

There is no right or wrong way to compose a photograph or other piece of art. There is only your subject and how you want to express it. But express it you must. As Ansel Adams said “There is nothing worse than a sharp photograph of a fuzzy concept.”

References

Divine proportions:

http://goldennumber.net/
http://www.powerretouche.com/Divine_proportion_introduction.htm
http://milan.milanovic.org/math/english/golden/golden1.html

Borders:

http://www.rawworkflow.com/making_pictures/index.html

Colour:

http://www.worqx.com/color/index.htm
http://www.adobe.com and search for ‘color theory’ (they keep moving stuff, but it is worth the time to search)
http://www.colormatters.com
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/colour_theory.shtml

Analysis of beauty:

http://www.cichw.net/pmanalysis.html

Other:

http://photoinf.com/

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