I decided to start my first post on capturing better photos with what is perhaps my favorite aspect of photography, and truthfully one of my favorite aspects of art in general, and that is the topic of composition. Many instructors write a loose definition of composition as how the photographer frames the subject matter in a photograph. I like to think of it very much like the way you would think of composition in writing. Like composing a story with words, composition in photography is the way one goes about lining up the elements in a photograph to tell a story. While photography like all arts is subjective, I'd argue that there is no set method for telling a story in the best possible manner 100% of the time, but when you look at the body of work from accomplished photographers, one thing comes out time and time again, their is something about the way they shoot that makes you want to look at the photo of photos.
Before going into the ways to use compositional elements to improve your captures I'm just going to touch quickly on a few topics on the camera body itself. First, I would like to explain that the feeling that great photos can only be taken with expensive professional cameras isn't correct. In a world where technology doubles every few years, even the most basic digital camera's of today are highly complex machines, and the truth is, very few people actually get the most out of their camera, assuming because it didn't cost much, it isn't capable of doing much more then pointing at an object and just snapping a picture. The area I want to discuss is a function found on nearly every camera, and most cell phone cameras as well. Most cameras today are fixed with a half shutter mechanism. In basic terms to utilize this function which is an automatic feature, when you line up a picture instead of roughly pushing down hard on the shutter release button, instead push evenly until you reach somewhere around the middle point of a full release. Many people find this frustrating and continue to push harder until the camera takes the picture. By using this function on you're camera, you are all ready on your way to better photos and here is why. The half shutter mechanism is used to LOCK onto the subject you wish to take a picture of. Even the most basic cameras are now equipped with very good light sensors, which in theory is what a camera takes a picture of. The camera is actually in the simplest form just making an imagine of reflected light, and not the actual image itself. The camera despite how far we've come in regard to technology still has a couple flaws, and one is that no matter how good your camera is, it doesn't know what it's taking a photo of. The half shutter in essence gives the camera a moment to lock onto the light source, and in doing so it is able to determine edge surfaces. so that is why by simply giving your camera a second or two to recognize where the edges of all the elements in a picture are, the result will be sharper images. And sharper images are always better images. Every camera is different, but the one thing they all have in common is that they will give you a visual clue such as a red light, others will give a audio clue such as a beep indicating that it's locked on to the scene, and some cameras offer both a visual and audio clue. If you are not aware of this feature, and as a owners manual loather myself, I can understand why some people don't read about this feature, you will assume the camera is just doing some kind of double clutch click thing. And if you continue to try to force the shutter release button down, the person always wins the battle, but what inevitable happens is, in a best case scenario, you get a photo with soft edge lines which are usually usable for home album purposes, but often you'll get photos that are extremely soft and aren't really usable. By being aware of this function and taking a moment to allow the camera to lock down, you will take better photos. That's the first simple method for taking better photos, and will be the last camera tech point of the night.
Returning to composition as a means for better photos we're going to discuss a few rules. Ok, don't click off the page, I don't much like rules either. We'll make a compromise and call them suggestions. The first suggestion I would like to address is the suggestion to to listen to mom. Ok this is just in one area, mom's usually know more then we realize. What I'm referring to here is, and dads, and grandparents are just as guilty of this, is that in general from an early age, we're conditioned to develop bad habits in regard to photography. I don't know how many times I've heard parents moving their kids around, because they were off center. I'm a quiet person in general, but many times when shooting at popular locations, there have been several times where I've wanted to offer a suggestion to these parents realizing they were actually going out of their way to take a photo that wasn't going to have much impact. In general centered photos are the most bland, yet it is something most of us have been taught from a young age is the key to a good photo. Psychologists have done experiments into why the human mind in general finds symmetrical centered photos. There is more to this then just a single centered subject, studies have also shown we react more to objects in odd numbers and for some reason we like items grouped in threes above all else. An example would be a building picture that had two pine trees on one side. If you had the same scene with two pines on one side of the building and a group of three pines on one side and none on the other, even if the scene was exactly the same minus the trees, if polled most people are going to prefer the one that seems unbalanced to the symmetrical one with the two trees on each side. In life symmetry is good, in photography, generally in photography nothing can kill the feel of a photo faster then a photo that is too balanced. Below is an example of a blah photo, where I have purposely focused the fisherman in such a way to illustrate this concept.
With the fisherman in the exact middle of the photo, you see a symmetrical photo. Now compare it to the one below and see if you don't find that the second photo keeps your attention longer. In the first photo you see the fisherman and water fall, but nothing about the photo draws your eye to want to more then briefly scan the image,
Now I've changed my point of view here. Here are a few reasons this photo makes for a better imagine then the first. Firstly, by moving in closer, I've reduced some distracting elements on the left side. I was going to call it clutter, but you can take captures of beautiful vistas, and have distracting elements that are beautiful in their own right, but often when you try to include to much in a photo even if it's a beautiful scene, you can easily distract the views. Secondly, you'll notice I've moved the fisherman slightly left of center. Now imagine him placed directly in the center and you can easily imagine the image being balanced, but losing impact. Now I'll ask you to look at all the photos I've featured here, except the one, I've deemed the bad one and see if you see a common bond between all of them. I've also added a photo of my son below that I've been having some painting fun with that illustrates the same concept.
Have you found a common bond between all the photos, but the designated "bad" one. Here we will go back to a set of rules, though because they can be and in many occasions should be overlooked, we'll continue to call them suggestions. Photo instructors refer to this as the rule of thirds, for the rest of is we'll call them the suggestion of thirds. The rule of thirds, is a simplified version of an ancient Greek concept known as the golden mean. Mathematicians in Greece's golden era devised a method for painting that was revised from the conquering Romans throughout history. The Golden Mean is a complex thing to describe and luckily we won't need to delve into it right now, because over time, it has been simplified into a concept that even the smallest of children can comprehend. So instead of getting out the scientific calculators, and slide rules, and much of the Golden Mean almost resembles origami, we'll omit any complex paper folding. Instead, imagine the simple tic-tack-toe diagram and mentally impose it over the pictures. Now imagine the four intersections that occur on each picture. So what we get is nine boxes with lines intersecting in the upper right and left corners, and the lower right corners. Now imagine drawing a circle where the lines intersect. What we have basically done in come up with 4 corners that whenever I'm working with someone new to photography I refer to as hot spots. Now we'll go through each of the photos. The first photo of the silhouetted cow is roughly in the left top hot spot. You don't have to be on the spot exactly, these are just guide lines. In the second photo of Elephant Rock State Park in the evening, the photo is meant to focus on the entire forrest, but by simply aiming and shooting you wind up with a photo that doesn't keep attention on the picture. To remedy this, I have chosen the boulder located in what would be the right lower inter section or our tic-tack-toe grid to ANCHOR the viewers eyes in the photo. What happens here is that the viewers, eye will focus on the rock in the hot spot and the continue to look deeper into the photo. In art terms whether painting, drawing, or photography, the goal is to "draw the viewer through the scene". Without an anchor point or defined subject even if it's a secondary part of the overall photo, what happens is the viewers eyes quickly scan the photo but with nothing to lock on to quickly lose interest in the photo. The photo of the boaters is very similar to that of elephant rocks. Since this is a composition lesson, this photo tells a story. In this case the fisherman are just part of the over-all scene, and despite being an important part, the photo is less about the men themselves as the hobby in which they are participating. By this I mean this isn't a portrait of Al and Fred, actually I have no idea their real names, but a story of two men out in a brisk misty morning pursuing a hobby. The sample photos, we've already covered so I'll move onto the photo of my son, which as you can see has been tweaked just a tad. A tad is a lot right??? In this photo you'll see that my son Robert's face isn't exactly on the upper right hand hot spot, but a little higher, none-the-less it is close enough to still be compelling. I've also included this because of the low view point. Choice of viewpoint in a photo is another compositional device that can greatly change the feel of a capture. That's why it's important to move around, bend down at times, climb up a hill to look down. I'll explore this more in a future article on composition, as well as some other concepts. For the purpose of this post, I've used all horizontal format photos. You'll often hear horizontal photos referred to as landscape configurations, and verticals as portrait mode shots. I prefer horizontal and vertical, because by moving the camera around you can often make a better landscape photo in what is loosely referred to as portrait mode and sometimes a portrait looks better in a horizontal format. So to begin to start taking better photos today get in the habit of metally superimposing the tick-tack-toe grid when you look through your view finder or lcd screen. Also the same rule applies when shooting vertical format. That is why I explain to newer photographers that whenever you approach a scene you automatically have 8 possible ways of framing a shot. Some you can see right away will not work, others will. In this digital age, you don't have to develop everything so take shots from all the angles, then compare them, and in no time you'll find yourself becoming more comfortable with the rule of thirds and before you know it all the things we learned while we were young about how things need to be dead center for a good photo will be easier to forget about. From time to time however, everyone needs to take a step back, because it's very easy to fall back into the snap shot days of old. There is so much more to discuss concerning composition and I'm looking forward to sharing, until then, with the simple concepts offered above, anyone wishing to immediately improve the photos they are taking can do so starting today. Until next time. Happy shooting.
© Tommy Burgess
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