Focus On Composing Photos

Focus on the Fundamentals (Focus On Series)

Peter Ensenberger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138381223
• eBook ISBN: 9781136088933
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Médias numériques

As digital cameras and software packages become more advanced, seemingly by the minute, it has become easier than ever to overlook the basic elements which have always resulted in the best photographs, no matter how fancy (or primitive) the camera itself. Composition is the single most important aspect of creating great images, no matter what level of photographer you happen to be. No amount of digital wizardry can turn a badly composed image into a picture you would want to display. While many books on composition tend to overcomplicate the subject, this book breaks down everything you need to know into small, digestible chunks of information that you will actually remember once you're out and about taking pictures. Instead of plodding through long and complex pages of text, this book supplements the necessary information, such as the basics of the rule of thirds and how to get good highlights and shadows, with tons of gorgeous, full color images that actually show you what to do and how to do it, rather than just telling you what to try. You'll be amazed at the gorgeous images you'll create, whether your passion is for photographing your family, pets, travel adventures, nature, or anything else.

Chapter 1: A Strong Focal Point

What is my subject?

OUR DIVERSE PLANET offers a vast array of subjects to arouse our imaginations. This fascination with the world entices us to explore its creative possibilities through photography, focusing on such themes as landscapes, nature, abstracts, and people. Although the approach to photographing each of these subjects calls for a different strategy, they all require sound techniques to become successful compositions. By learning how, when, and why to apply a few artistic standards, you’ll be able to capture any subject at its best.

Normally, the subject is the impetus for a photograph. Start by asking yourself this simple question: What is my subject? It may be majestic snowcapped mountains dominating the landscape, a hummingbird hovering at a purple flower, or your child blowing out the candles at a birthday celebration. The subject is the central figure around which a photograph’s story revolves. Its striking qualities attract our attention and draw us in for a closer look. But while it may be the subject that first attracts people to stop and look at a photograph, it is the artistry of composition that holds their attention.

Composing an aesthetically pleasing scene around your subject requires a quick but studied assessment of several factors: subject and surroundings, light direction and shadows, viewpoint and perspective. Every situation presents a unique set of variables, and it’s up to the photographer to make sense of it all by combining the elements as artfully as possible so that the resulting photograph communicates a narrative or informs the viewer about the subject.

The importance of a subject’s strong presence in any photograph cannot be overstated. Objects offering interesting textures, colors, shapes, and lines often make the best subjects. The more interesting your subject, the more obviously it becomes the focal point of your composition, so play up those interesting qualities. Boldly featuring the subject in a composition leaves no doubt about the story being told.

Compositional elements may include colors, patterns, textures, leading lines, highlights and shadows, main and subordinate subjects, and even blank or neutral space. These are the building blocks of visual design. The way in which they are arranged within the composition should work together to deliver the viewer’s eye to the subject, the composition’s visual payoff.

In basic terms, composing a photograph is an editing process—deciding which elements to include and which ones to leave out. Look through the camera’s viewfinder. This is the decisive moment. You must account for all of the physical components laid out before you and make critical decisions about them based on the story you’re attempting to tell about your subject. The final image’s success or failure depends on the considered choices you make.

COMPOSITIONAL ELEMENTS

Compositional elements are the building blocks of visual design. They include the following:

• Colors

• Patterns

• Textures

• Leading lines

• Highlights and shadows

• Main and subordinate subjects

• Blank or neutral space

Main subject versus focal point

Fortunately, centuries of artistic expression have given us a few useful rules for good composition to help with those decisions. One of the most important compositional rules to know and understand is this: The viewer’s eye always goes to the brightest part of a scene.

It has to do with genetic information encoded in our DNA that’s been passed down through millennia of human evolution. Like moths to a flame, our eyes are drawn to anything shiny, white, sparkly, or bright, so be certain that the brightest parts of your compositions are worthy of the attention they will receive.

In the grand scheme of a photograph, the brightest object becomes the focal point by default. Watch out for distracting bright spots around your subject. Even a tiny speck of sunlight peeking through tree leaves that goes unnoticed in the viewfinder can have a negative impact on the final image. This results in the unintended consequences of pulling attention away from the main subject and creating a visual conflict in the composition.

A vital distinction must be made here about the difference between a composition’s main subject and its focal point. The main subject is the primary element around which the photograph’s narrative is arranged. The focal point is the precise spot in the composition that draws the attention of the viewer’s eye. The basic objective of good composition is to make sure that your subject and your focal point are one and the same. That way, there is no conflict over where the viewer’s eye should come to rest.

It’s usually best to have one main subject as the focal point because a photograph generally can tell only one story successfully. The main subject can be one object or several, and you may decide to include a secondary subject. But make sure nothing distracts from the main subject. Lacking a strong center of interest forces the viewer to search for something to observe, eyes seeking a resting place.

Harmony and emphasis

Your subject should look perfectly at home within the frame. As a rule, the subject’s surroundings and other subordinate elements that you choose to include should be in harmony with the story or theme of your photograph. Harmony refers to the inner sense of order among all elements in a unified composition so that each contributes to the overall story being communicated. Including elements that are not harmonious leads to chaos that can muddle your message. The goal is to engage viewers with precise control over the sequence in which visual events in the frame are observed. Anything that interrupts this sequence confuses the story, which can lead to premature termination of the viewer’s experience—the viewer looks away.

The subject of a photograph is more than a mere component of the greater whole. It is the star attraction and should be treated to a place of prominence in the composition. There are several ways to give your subject sufficient status so that all other elements are subordinate. Size, color, and placement within the frame play important roles in differentiating between the subject and the supporting elements as they compete for dominance and subordination in the scene.

The most direct approach for conferring emphasis on your subject is through size and proportion within the frame. An obvious association is that larger objects dominate smaller ones. Positioning your camera closest to the intended subject usually accomplishes this effect. But even if your main subject is small, you can give it prominence as the focal point by composing empty space around it. Lens choice and perspective also have a decided effect on the subject’s proportion to other elements in your scene, and we’ll delve deeper into those issues in Chapter 3.

Color itself can set a subject apart from the rest of your compositional elements. Warm-colored objects dominate cool-colored ones, and saturated primary colors tend to predominate paler tones. Complementary colors such as yellow and blue (warm versus cool) work well to establish a composition’s hierarchy, whereas harmonious colors such as blue, green, and purple tend to keep compositional elements on equal footing. Some colors are associated with specific moods or elicit emotional responses. Others appeal to our senses in a purely abstract way. Composing an effective color photograph is more involved than the basic considerations of shape, line, and texture that apply mostly to black-and-white photography. The interplay of color, tone, and hue and their effects on composition get a fuller discussion in Chapter 2.

A third way of bringing emphasis to your subject is through the placement and positioning of elements within the frame. A centrally located object draws more attention than those around the periphery. However, the center is not the best place to position a dominant focal point. It’s often more effective to place it to the left or right of center in an asymmetrical balance of elements. This is part of the theory behind the infamous “rule of thirds” and, as we’ll see in Chapter 4, deserves heavy consideration anytime you’re composing a scene.

HARMONY AND FLOW

The subject should look perfectly at home within its setting. The environment and all subordinate elements should be in harmony with the theme of your photograph. Harmony refers to the sense of order among compositional elements so that each contributes to the message. Including elements that are not harmonious muddles that message. The goal is to engage viewers with precise control over the sequence in which the viewer’s eye explores the image. Anything that interrupts this flow could lose your audience—the viewer looks away.

Keep it simple

When it comes to visual design, a key ingredient is simplicity. Its importance in photographic composition cannot be overstated. Simplicity is an easy concept to grasp but often a difficult result to attain. Influential photographer Pete Turner summed up the dilemma this way: “Ultimately, simplicity is the goal in every art, and achieving simplicity is one of the hardest things to do. Yet it’s easily the most essential.”

As we’ve seen, a single photograph can usually convey only one story at a time. The best way to present a clear message is to keep the composition as clean as possible. The fewer elements you have to deal with, the easier it is to feature your subject, orchestrate viewer eye movement, and inform the viewer. When presented with too many compositional elements, consider splitting them into two or three simpler photographs rather than trying to pack everything into one complex image. The decisions you make here will impact whether your visual message is properly communicated to viewers. Chances are, you won’t always be present to explain it to them, so your composition will have to do the talking for you. To keep your visual message clear, strive for simplicity. If your viewers must work too hard to figure out the story, they will become bored and move on.

Although it is often preferable to keep every element in sharp focus from foreground to infinity, as with landscape subjects, sometimes a shallow depth of field is beneficial in achieving simplicity. A telephoto lens and a large aperture setting can effectively shorten depth of field, isolating the subject from a busy background by defocusing objectionable background clutter. In the right situations, it may even create soft pools of complementary color...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• About the Author
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Contents
• Chapter 1: A Strong Focal Point
• Chapter 2: Light, Shadow, and Color
• Chapter 3: Viewpoint and Perspective
• Chapter 4: Rules of Composition
• Chapter 5: Leading Lines
• Chapter 6: Breaking the Rules
• Epilogue: Where Do You Go from Here?
• Index