Good Composition

Good Composition

 by William Lulow

Photography classes always speak about composition. But what, exactly is it and how do you know when a composition is effective? Basically, a composition is the placement of objects or subjects within the frame. Different compositions can be achieved by:

1. Moving the camera up, down or side to side
2. Tilting the lens up or down
3. Moving closer or further away from the subject(s)
4. Using lenses of different focal lengths
5. Placing the subject in different places within the viewfinder

An effective composition is one that keeps the viewer’s eye attending to the part or parts of the image that the photographer deems most important. If you intend to communicate your feeling about a particular subject, you want to capture your viewers’ attention and hold it.

There are several tried and true methods to achieve this:

1. Create lines that lead the viewer’s eye into the image.
2. Create interesting enough subject material to hold a viewer’s interest.
3. Include a subject that will serve to bounce the eye back to the initial interest lines.
4. Divide your image into thirds, like a grid.
5. In most Western societies, when we read, we scan left to right. We do the same for images. Therefore, if you place an important object on the right side of the image, our eyes will tend to bounce back to the left side after seeing it.
6. Any type of “circular” placement of important parts of an image, will tend to hold the viewer’s attention more.

Here are some examples:

This is a little promotional piece I did a while ago with an interesting lighting, a silhouette.

This was a shot of the island of Manhattan, but from an unusual angle.

Another composition with leading lines to a “vanishing point.”

Here’s one using the sun as an ambient light source but focusing the viewer’s eye where it needs to be.

I used to shoot many of the LPGA players in the 1980s. This shot of Nancy Lopez was taken from the ground angle.

Here, the use of reflections creates a visually interesting composition.

So, with these examples, you should be able to see the effectiveness of many of the compositional elements listed. Try different angles, lightings and backgrounds. But an interesting subject, well composed, will usually hold anyone’s attention.