Composition

David Prakel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000212877
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

Strong images only come about through a combination of technical excellence and thorough composition. While there is plenty of technical advice, photographers often turn to fine-art sources for the so-called 'rules of composition'. This book, however, acknowledges photography's quite different dynamic and offers a contemporary approach to composition more suited to the medium. The second edition of Basics Photography 01: Composition offers a contemporary approach to composition. Its six core chapters cover historical background and personal motivation, formal elements, space and time within the photographic frame and composition in real-world situations. The Basics Photography series, originally published by AVA Publishing, comprises a collection of titles including: Lighting, Composition, Capturing Colour, Post-Production Black & White, Post-Production Colour, Working in Black & White and Exposure. Easily accessible and highly readable, the books clearly explain and explore fundamental photographic concepts; they are fully indexed and illustrated with clear diagrams and inspiring imagery, building to provide an essential introduction to the subject.

Formal elements

Line can either be actual marks on the paper or a boundary suggested by shapes in the image.

Shape is an area that is defined by one of the other elements, usually line, though it can also be composed of light, texture or colour. Shape has mass.

Space is two- or three-dimensional, but most often refers to the representation of the third dimension in an image. Negative space is the absence of volume and the areas between the positive shapes.

Photographers refer to the comparative light or dark of a grey or colour as ‘tone’. Artists refer to this as ‘value’. In photography, changes in light levels over the surface of a three-dimensional object give the illusion of form. Form depicts volume.

Texture is a characteristic of surface revealed by the interaction of light and the surface, for example: polished metal and glass reflect brilliantly, while velvety cloth appears dull and soft.

Colour can be identified as the response of the human eye and brain to different wavelengths of light – it affects our moods and emotions.

It is unusual to find an image that exclusively uses one of the formal elements of composition. The best images are a remarkable combination of ingredients. Looking in turn at how each of the elements can be incorporated into images will help you to understand the process of composition.

From the world of art and the compositional analysis of paintings, the formal elements are; line, shape, tone and form, texture, space and colour. The formal elements are qualities – characteristics of the subject being photographed – they are not processes. An important part of photographic composition is recognizing the formal elements and organizing them to produce a final image. The processes used to work on and combine the formal elements are often described as the ‘principles of design’, which – depending on your field of work (graphic arts, fine art or photography) – can be called different things. For photographers, they would include; variety, pattern, emphasis (the plane of focus within the image), symmetrical or asymmetrical balance, movement and contrast. Photographic composition may involve the manipulation of light and the subject, but more often it concerns selection and emphasis.

‘A photographer must be prepared to catch and hold on to those elements which give distinction to the subject or lend it atmosphere.’ Bill Brandt (British photographer)

Point

In its purest photographic form, a point is the first and only place the photosensitive material changes when it reacts with light – this becomes a tiny pinpoint of light on a uniform background.

Small objects can also be points. An image of a pebble on a beach is a point rather than a small area of tone. The simple point will draw attention to itself by being the only concentration of detail in an otherwise empty image. The message conveyed by the image of a single point is usually one of overwhelming isolation.

Larger areas can have a central point that functions much in the same way as a simple point. This is the virtual point at the optical ‘centre of gravity’ of the area of tone – much easier to visualize than to describe. The visual centre of an evenly toned area is easy to determine, but if there is an increase in tonal or textural density, the virtual centre point will shift towards that concentration.

The placement of the point in an image can have a big impact on the way it is read by the viewer. The direction of a shadow can determine ‘ownership of space’. The point may appear closer or seem to be static if moved near to the bottom edge of the frame.

Images are rarely composed around a single point on an otherwise uniform background. Composing with a true single point is an absurdity. Expand the definition of point to mean a small area of concentrated detail, and you could say that some of the most dramatic compositions use a point to convey information about the whole.

Ouch

The subject is the pebble trapped in a crevice. The greater area of simply toned rock above the pebble seems to weigh down on the pebble, which introduces a new dynamic into an otherwise sparse image.

Photographer: David Präkel.

Technical summary: Nikon D100 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro, 1/80 at f/11, ISO 200.

‘The spot is the outcome of the first contact of the tool with the material, with the basic surface.’ Wassily Kandinsky (Russian artist)

Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London

The single point of concentrated detail is revealed as the isolated form of a man in the vast exhibition space of the Tate Modern art gallery.

Photographer: Paul Stefan.

Technical summary: Canon EOS 20D Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM zoom, 1/60 at f/6.3, ISO 800, some local exposure control in Photoshop.

Points and optical lines

As soon as a second point is introduced into an image, a relationship is established between it and the existing point. It now becomes impossible to treat the two in isolation as individual points. They are connected by a virtual line, often called an ‘optical’ line. In compositional terms, virtual lines are as important as actual lines.

The quality of the optical line, its direction and angle, will be read as though it were a real line. This will have a bearing on the relationship between the two points. In fact, in some images, it may introduce an unintentional relationship. The optical line is the compositional equivalent of putting a set of weighing scales beneath any two objects – the gaze will move between the two, making comparisons. This tendency will intensify if the two points are in any way similar – in colour or texture for example. It may be preferable to exclude a second object from your composition precisely to avoid such a possibility. Cropping the finished image or reframing the image in-camera would then be necessary.

Depending how closely associated or widely separated the two points are within the frame, the viewer is forced to make assumptions about their relationship. This will be affected by the positioning of the virtual line between them. If two points are situated at a great distance apart in either f the top corners of the frame, the image will be read in a different way than if the same two points were positioned close together in either bottom corner.

The strongest virtual line in any image is the human gaze. We all look to see where others are looking – this is a response to both our instinct for survival and to satisfy a sense of curiosity. In portraits of two people, the relationship between the two individuals is rather like that between simple points and if there is a shared gaze the implied relationship is strengthened further.

Mooh!

An optical line joins the cows diagonally across the field. The tree on the horizon acts like a full stop to their ‘sentence’ and is given scale by the diminishing row of animals. The bulk and tone of its canopy balances the cow in the foreground.

Photographer: Jorge Coimbra.

Technical summary: Canon Powershot G3, 1/1250 at f/4.5, ISO 50.

Southern wind

An optical line joins the centre of the heads of the two women. Their gaze also produces a set of optical lines to a point outside the frame. Their closeness and posture says there is something shared, but that they are for a moment distracted.

Photographer: Karl Fakhreddine.

Technical summary: Canon D60 Canon 35mm f/1.4 L, 1/90 at f/2.5, lit only by...