I've noticed a lot of posts from what seem like relatively new shooters here. I'm a new shooter as well, at least in terms of purposeful landscape photography. But I have the benefit of having been involved in photography in general for a very long time as well as other visual design fields. So I'm not coming to this as a total novice. But in the process of really trying to start taking landscape photography more seriously I've done a fair amount of reading and taking notes from various sources (Youtube is great for this BTW). In the hope that it might help some of the other new shooters understand or be aware of some of the elements of composition they might try while out learning and experimenting I'm posting an image of the composition notes I've compiled for myself. Hope they help someone!
Note that this is not a checklist of things you MUST do to get a good shot, but a set of considerations and starting points to help improve composition. Use them as starting points for understanding at least some of what you can be looking for when setting up a shot. Focus one one composition method at a time or combine a few together. Or ignore them all and create your own method or "rule". Notice BTW that I left off "rule of thirds". I'm assuming even the most green photographer will have heard of that rule, and I'm hoping not to enforce the idea that it's a rule at all!
Please feel free to share any composition tips you follow that I don't have listed. Cheers.
Hi David!
Quite a nice list of guidelines. :)
I would consider adding few things, as far as my experience goes:
corners - check corners... <- I would change "corners" to "borders". Things may creep in the frame from every part, not only corners. I found it a good habit to do so-called "border patrol" (I think I got it from Rick Sammon?) both in the field and during post processing. Just checking if something isn't sticking out/in in a weird way.
balance - it's pretty obvious: the bigger the object is, the stronger it feels. I always tend to think about frame as a rectangular plate balanced on a tip of a spike (perfectly in the center of it). The goal is to add elements to it (subjects) and still make it somewhat balanced, and not to fall off. Different parts of the frame can handle different weight. Some very small rock very close to the edge of the frame can have huge impact on the photo. Even if there's a big rock near the center, it still maybe not enough to counterweight that small rock on the edge.
viewpoint - this point deserves way more space :D Moving up and down, left to right and forward / back is IMO essential in finding good composition. This is also highly connected with:
perspective & lens choice - every lens (or rather it's focal length) covers different area (longer lens = smaller area) of the scene. To me it's vital to understand which focal length should be used for particular scene in terms of: how much of the scene I want to include, and, also, what kind of perspective distortion I want to leverage (flat & compressed telephoto or super stretched corners of a wide-angle)?
light - setting tonal range and contrast aside - look at the distribution of the light within the frame. It's connected with balance, leading lines and negative space from your list. As we tend to look for areas of high contrast and high brightness it's worth taking into consideration - do I have enough light? or maybe too much? is it in the right place in the frame? is it not to contrasty?
I've also found very useful some points from gestalt theory in composition, as well as physiology and psychology of seeing. For instance - there is big difference between perception of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. We also tend to think differently about particular parts of the frame: upper half, lower half, center part, left or right. Placing the subject in any of them will change the way viewer will interact with or perceive the photo.
orientation - you shot it horizontal? great - now flip your camera and try vertical. You never know when Nat Geo will knock at your door wanting to have that for cover of next Traveler magazine. ;) Jokes aside - changing orientation changes everything. It's worth trying, even if the composition looks obviously as horizontal.
separation - try to not overlap main subjects, if you can. Overlapping subject takes space of the overlapped one (thanks, Cpt. Obvious!) but also blends with it as one. If that's what you're going for - great! If not - watch out for it.
common known shapes - triangles! circles! squares! we tend to notice them right away - use them wisely, eg. as anchor points where the eye can rest before it start to scout another part of the frame. (Downside of that is that we also tend to notice letters in an instance. If there's a text in your shot (like a sign) everybody will notice it - guaranteed!)
patterns - we try to make order from chaos. Patterns are the one way to go. It can be strange pattern in the face of the rock, or just repetition of jetty planks. If there are some "dots" to connect - our mind will do it.
Phew... Hope you'll find that small addition valuable to your own list. :)
Thanks for the contributions to the list Andrzej! I tend to leave off things I already understand intuitively and the notes are very brief, but unpack, at least in my mind with lots of known details. For others I suggest adding your own detail to these or if you don't understand the particular tip, do some keyword research.
Not sure why I called it "corners" but yes, the idea is to search the whole frame for distractions. I think the tip for me was that corners are often the easiest to miss.
Orientation is a great one for newer shooters. I almost always shoot in both orientations. And don't forget, off orientation (or slanted) can work too!
Balance is one that I think is really hard for new shooter with no background in visual design or thinking. The plate analogy is great. Balance plays a big role in my other work as a map maker and there we also relate it to the concept of Visual Hierarchy, where some objects in the image have more prominence (weight) that others.
Patterns are also a great tip, I think I left it off because I don't respond to them as much in my own work. There are also composition tips around the idea of odds (odd numbers of subjects versus even numbers) and threes (thee subjects, not 2 or 4 etc). But these were too specific for my beginner notes. There is a ton of other stuff to add I'm sure.
A great list David. With all those considerations it's a good thing our cameras have a "P" setting. P for professional of course.The only other rule I think is sometimes a picture works without rules.
I'd never call these "rules" actually, just guides or best practices (even that's not really true). It's just a quick reference for starting points for purposeful compositions as opposed to shooting without thinking. I think that's only "rule" I'd give a new shooter, think about the picture you are taking and why.
Thanks david. When I used to shoot weddings on film I worked out there were at least 15 decisions and actions I had to make before I pressed the shutter for each shot.Now you need to add that 15 to all the many other considerations when shooting digital. It was a lot simpler in the film era. Hand the film to the lab and post processing was their domain.
I am so chaotic in my shooting this might just be the best idea to get focused. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah that's the idea. It's a starting point or quick reference for composition guidelines. It's the stuff we know, or read about, or see in other images but always forget when actually out taking pics. At least for me anyway!
Excellent Post, David Medeiros thank you very much.
Another important point is always Intent & Story. For what purpose do you take the photo (Internet, Print, Poster) and for whom and what story can you tell with your photo, what feeling do you want the image to convey.
The purpose mainly dictates the subjects and balance, as you will have to think not only about the actual image, but the thumbnail as well.
The story decides how you place your subjects and how you use composition to connect them.
I hope you don't mind, but I took a screenshot of this to help me out!
I don't mind at all, that's why I posted it! I keep updating these notes and may post it again if I feel like I've aded or changed anything important. I don't actually refer to this when shooting at all but I re read it from time to time to remind myself of alternate approaches and considerations. I think just the act of building it has helped be tremendously in thinking about composition.
Thought that hardly anyone knows for blocking elements and the effort to break the horizon, but I made a mistake.
I would just add natural visual flow (how the human eye observing the scene).
Thanks. I have natural visual flow in the doc under "left to right" reading, as that mimics most (western) visual eye tracking across images.