Understanding Composition in Photography | How to Take Better Photos ~ Photography Blog for Beginners

Today I'm going to discussed composition in photography to get you to take more compelling photos. We also share tips on how to write a picture composition? Are there any key rules for that?

A photograph is a two-dimensional viewing panel showing a 3-dimensional world people tend to look at a photograph and their eyes tend to wander around the image. Now a good photographer will be able to appreciate a well-composed image and know why it's good.

Whereas a beginner or someone who isn't into photography may look at an image and think wow that looks like an amazing image. But probably won't know why and probably won't care about the why but this is usually down to good composition in setting up for composition you can guide the viewer’s eye through the image drawing them to certain points and moving them away from others ultimately telling a story.

So, here are a few guidelines for Understanding Composition in Photography and How to Take Better Photos.

If you take your time to learn these and embed them into your subconscious mind your photography will really start to develop and you'll start seeing a vast improvement in your composition and you will able to take better photos.

Also read: 10 Beginner Photography Mistakes Should Avoid

Rule of Thirds

So, let's just get the most well-known one out of the way straight away and that's the rule of thirds. Beginners tend to put the subject bang in the middle of the shot and although sometimes this can look great more often than not it gives your image a slightly mundane look with the rule of thirds you split the image into nine equal parts when you put your subjects on one of these lines.

If you put a strong focal point on the intersections between these lines it can really make your images stand out.

Suppose if you're photographing a landscape try putting the horizon on the lower upper horizontal line if there are more interesting things in the landscape put it on the top line if there's an interesting sky put it on the bottom line.

Putting the horizon on the lower upper horizontal line

Interesting things in the landscape put it on the top line

Interesting sky put it on the bottom line.

If you have a person riding a bike put them on one of the verticals facing into the photo so they have looking rooming the shot.

Or if you're photographing a skyline of a city try putting the interesting building on one of the intersections it's just a way of starting to build your shot and consciously thinking about what is going where.

Now there are many ways you can break this rule and sometimes shooting the subject bang in the centre can look really good or shooting in a really awkward position in the frame can make the person or the viewer feel a certain way.

But you need to know about this rule and use it regularly to then be able to know when to use it and when not to use it and if you're going to break this rule with the centre position subject make sure it's perfectly in the middle something just off-centre or not, quite sometimes looks a little weird.

Sharpness

The next tool you can use to lead the viewer's eye is sharpness by making a conscious decision as to what part of the image will be in focus and what part will be out of focus this really gives you control over where that viewer looks.

You may want to photograph a landscape where everything is in focus

You might want to get in close to some details and just have one part of those details in focus so by selectively getting the thing you want in focus and pushing other parts slightly out of focus you can really start to build further on your composition.

Just don't shoot every single photo with a wide-open aperture giving you that shallow-focus look take photos with a wide aperture and then take some with a smaller aperture so you have a variety of photos in your collection.

Leading Lines

Sometimes when you're at a location you can see lines in the landscape and other times they're hard to find or just not there I always look for leading lines that can help draw the viewers eye into the shot if you've found a subject start looking for strong around that subject they can be curved they can be straight or even in the s-curve pattern just something that will basically point the viewer in the right direction using leading lines can be a very strong compositional technique.

But are often hard to find and you may have to really explore the subject or the location to find them now you may have heard people talking about adding a foreground element but this is only part of it you want to think of your images as having a foreground mid-ground and a background.

When done right this will tend to give the image a 3-dimensional feel so look for a full ground element but also a mid ground and a background element sometimes you won't get all three and an image can look great just as a background. But it has to be pretty spectacular or you might just get a foreground and a background that look great together so just start thinking about foreground mid-ground and background and after a while, you'll start to see the different elements and you'll be able to put them together in a really creative way.

Brightness (Luminosity)

When we're out or in a new location I'm always looking for shades of light or patches of light where I can get a little bit of contrast in my images. Especially where the subject might move through this light the eye tends to be drawn to the brighter parts of your image so when you start to think of where the light is and how you can get your subject in that light you can really draw the viewers eye right to where you want it to be.

Colours

When using colours in your shot you need to think about how these colours might complement or contrast each other now even though some colours are very different they can still complement each other so if we look at this image

as well as the Jeep not being in the light the colour really blends into the background whereas

with this Jeep, as it's red it really stands out even though it's at the bottom left of the image and again this is a way of directing the viewer's eye to exactly where you want it to be.

Shapes

When photographing both man-made objects as well as natural things start to look for shapes from triangles to circles repeating lines two parallel lines so just start looking for shapes in your images or in potential images that you might want to take you'll probably find that there'll be circles triangles or

shapes are hidden within that landscape or hidden within the photograph. You're taking recomposing the shot might get this shape further in your shot or just slightly out of your shot but it's something to think about and something to become conscious about as long as the shape complements your image you can really use it to your advantage and it can really help make your image become a lot more compelling.

Symmetry

Symmetry can help in a few different ways it can be a mirror image where one side is almost a reflection of the other you could look for repeating patterns or having lines disappearing off to a single point it's quite tricky to lineup properly but you can get some great images by thinking about symmetry.

Now, these aren't all of the aspects of composition but I really just wanted to introduce you to this subject it can be very subjective and one person may love an image whereas another person may hate it but if you think of these things when taking your photographs you should start to get more compelling images.

It may seem a little bit contrived to start with you may even think that you shouldn't use rules just go out with your gut and take nice images however if you're having trouble with your composition start thinking about this list of Understanding Composition in Photography | How to Take Better Photos in different parts of the composition.

Start thinking about how you might be able to use them in your shot after a while you'll start to think of them less and less and you'll start to incorporate them into your images naturally and this is all part of becoming a better photographer and that's about it do you have any other compositional techniques you use on a regular basis or do you just wait for that serendipitous moment to come along to get a great image and what things do you use to improve the composition in your photos.

Thanks for reading...