Composition is the art of arranging elements of a photograph to direct the viewer’s eye to where you want their eyes to go.
Learning the following terms to help your photography. They are more like guidelines as opposed to rules.
Here are nine basic terms:
1 Rule of thirds – Imagine a game of X and Os, where the photo is divided into 9 equal portions. Where the lines intersect is the sweet spot. These are where you place important elements of your photo. Like eyes of a person.
2 Leading Lines – Any kind of visual line like a road, fence, train track, river that guides your eye to the main subject of the photo.
3 Diagonals – these lines are on an angle neither completely vertical nor horizontal. The emotional meaning is uncertainty, change and speed.
4 S Curves – Lines that are in the shape of an S or even a C. The emotional meaning is to slow down and relax.
5 Framing – a natural or human made object that frames and/or isolates the main subject of your photo.
6 Horizon – is where the earth meets the sky. In photography the main thing to remember is where you place the horizon. NEVER in the middle, but in the bottom third or the top third. Remember the rule of thirds. Always remember to keep the horizon level.
7 Simplicity – is where the background is empty and perhaps out of focus, so the eye is focuses on the main subject. If you can clearly see details in the background, then this technique is not simplicity. It is a mistake.
The following two techniques you should not use, except for this assignment.
8 Bald Sky – a clear blue sky or an overcast sky where the clouds are all the same colour. It is considered boring. Note a sunset or sunrise that is all red or a similar colour is not a bald sky.
9 Mergers – when two objects merge or blend into one. The most common are branches or light poles growing out of people’s heads. Most times they are accidents. Others are by choice and are often funny. So take a funny and a deliberate merger.
For you merger photos, hand in 2 photos, the mistake merger and your funny deliberate merger.
Here is a link from Canadian photographer, Darlene Hildebrandt. She runs a web site called Digital Photo Mentor. This link is Illustrates basic composition techniques. which are slightly different from some of the ones I have listed above.
This link below is from my grade 11 Com Tech composition assignment:
https://petapixel.com/2016/09/14/20-composition-techniques-will-improve-photos/
1. For each composition technique, take 5 or 6 photos.
2. Create a 5 column table in Google Docs or you favourite word processor.
In column one, name the composition technique,
In column 2 paste an Internet example of the composition.
In columns 3 and 4 select your two best photos of each technique and paste them into the last 2 columns
In column 5 write teh emotional meaning
You will have 18 of your own photos in total
3. Edit your best 3 photos in your favourite editing app. Hand in both your edited and unedited photos with your assignment.
If you have any questions, please come see me.