Elements of composition.

Photography composition is not a rocket science. Think about it this way- what would look pleasing to the eye? That’s a subjective question isn’t it? Each subject is different and depending on what message you want to send or how you want the viewer to interact with the photograph, there are certain guidelines that can help you compose your frame. Are you looking for just the rule of thirds before moving to the elements? read here about the golden ratio.

Imagine that you are trying to show the viewer unknown in the known. Never get bogged down by wanting to apply all the possible guidelines to a photograph. Rather than that, build a story which makes the viewer think. Keeping this in mind, let’s take a look at a few pointers which might help you build that solid frame.

First things first – Should your frame be horizontal or Vertical.

Horizontal frames 

Let’s put it this way , when you want to show an expanse or you want to add elements to a frame which interact with the subject a horizontal frame is preferred. So what comes to your mind first? Landscapes, frames where there is a lot of action, wedding photographs with a lot of people, Photographs where you want to show some motion can be some of the examples.

Vertical frames 

Usually when you want the viewer’s attention to stay on one specific subject vertical compositions are preferred. Beauty, portraits, product shots are some of the common examples of vertical frames.

Diagonals in a frame 

May your frame be horizontal or vertical one thing that you should try to do is, frame the subject or some elements within the frame on a diagonal. Why? Simple thing, it allows the viewer’s eye to travel from one corner to the other. That’s the goal right? Make someone look at your photograph for a longer period.

Symmetry 

Symmetrical symmetry

Yes we have talked of all that jazz of placing the subject on the intersection point of the golden mean. But now imagine a subject where you cannot do justice to it without breaking the rule of golden ratio? What do you do? Go ahead and shoot an image which could be a mirror image in two halves. The whole aim is to balance the frame with two equal halves. Believe me, it will do justice to the photograph. Most of the time architectural photography falls in this type of frame.

Asymmetry

If there is symmetry, there  has to be its opposite right? so , when a photograph does not have  two symmetrical halves we can balance it with elements which are not symmetrical.

Radial/Spiral  Symmetry

Pretty self explanatory isn’t it? A subject which leads your eye using the spiral. Imagine a spiral staircase, or seeds of a sunflower or maybe petals of a flower? 

Guiding lines

What’s the main objective of making a photograph? That the attention of the person looking at the frame goes to the main subject. Now if you can use certain elements to guide their gaze to the main subject wouldn’t it be great? That’s where guiding lines come in. Say a road leading you to a house on top of a mountain, or a wide closeup shot of a rope leading you to a boat with a model.

Isolation

Isolation is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to make your subjects and eventually photographs stand out. When you can make your subject stand out it makes an extremely powerful statement and helps you send across a message. There are multiple ways and techniques that one can use to isolate a subject

Use of light

Negative space

Use of perspective to make a subject look larger than life

Motion

Use of depth of field

Dark and light

Chiaroscuro, I am sure you have heard of this term used fashionably by many photographers :). What it simply means is an effective use of contrasting light and shadows. In reality it has a dramatic effect on the photographs. Most commonly applied to silhouettes, you need to choose your subject wisely for the use of this technique.

Pattern

At times something that is repetitive in nature looks pleasing to the eye, and there is an abundance of patterns around us in everyday life. If it looks interesting, shoot it.

Perspective

Perspective and its use can be a whole topic by itself so we are just going to understand its basic implication here. Usually perspective is used to make a subject look larger than life, full or power, intimidating and awe inspiring. What kind of subjects come to your mind for using perspective in your photographs?

Anomaly

Now if patterns repeat things, anomaly tries to break that pattern. Just think about it, everything is looking even and soothing to the eye by things repeating itself and suddenly the repetitiveness is broken? What’s going to happen? Your eye will be attracted to it right?

Scale

The word itself says a lot, It’s all about using one element in the photograph to accentuate the impact of another. Say, you want to give a sense of the size of the current world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa to someone who hasn’t seen it ever. How will you do it? By placing an object that one can relate to in front of the tower. When the person compares it he/she can get an idea of the gargantuan nature of the structure. In the photograph below you get the sense of size of the underground cave because of the two people standing next to the stairs.

Weight balance

Imagine an old weighing scale; when one used to buy something to see you get the right quantity it was balanced with an equal weight on the other side. It’s similar when you are photographing. The “visual weight” of the photograph needs to be balanced. So if your subject is placed in the top right corner of the photograph there has to be an element in the bottom left to balance it off. It makes a photograph visually appealing.

Framing

“A frame within a frame”. You surely have heard this term multiple times. And believe me, at times it can be an excellent way of drawing the attention of the viewer to a photograph. It is simply about using a natural or an artificial frame to capture your main subject in.

Space

I am a big fan of minimalism and hence I use the concept of negative space to draw my viewers attention to my main subject. If you learn to balance the positive and negative space in a photograph effectively your photographs can send across a strong message.

Sense of immediacy

When one looks at your photograph and feels that they are actually a part of the photograph or close to the main subject it gives you a sense of immediacy. This is a slightly difficult trick to master but with practice you can get a hang of it.

As you scrounge the web you might come across a few more theories on photography composition, what’s important to understand is that there is no right or wrong. It’s about what you use at that moment to convey your message. Keep your mind and eyes open, see the unusual in the usual and build your own story. Each one of the elements mentioned is a topic by itself, so if you want to know some of them in detail feel free to drop me a line.

Experience is a great teacher..