- Avoid putting your subject dead center
in the frame. Often these "bulls-eye" images reflect your
brain's subconscious efforts to properly focus. If your subject is
looking to the right of the frame or moving to the right, try to leave
a little more room on the right side of the frame than on the left
side. This gives room to your subject's direction of travel or view.
- Avoid 50/50 compositions with reflections.
Many times the 50/50 will work but the image may be improved by lengthening
either the sky, the reflection or adding some foreground element to
the composition.
- Avoid putting your subject in the
very center of the frame. Consider the Rule of Thirds (which is more
of a guideline than a Rule). Put your subject in one of the corners
for the frame 1/3 from the edge of each corner.
- Avoid an overlap of your subjects
with similarly color backgrounds or other objects in the back ground
(or foreground). These are often referred to as "merges".
- Keep the camera level by careful
observation, using a grid screen and or using a bubble level.
- Have some place in your image for
the viewer's eye to rest.
- Simplify. Photography is more of
a Subtractive art than an Additive art like painting. Painters can
add elements which they choose. Photographers need to take out distracting
elements. Try to capture the essence of your image without including
extraneous / distracting elements.
- Try using curves, diagonals, s-curves
or leading lines to provide a path for your viewers' eye to follow.
"Story book" compositions also invite your viewer's eye
to move through the frame in an orderly manner. A story book composition
is when you have an interesting foreground element, a main subject
and a nice background. For example if you are shooting some mountains,
get low and place some flowers in the bottom (front) of the frame,
then place the mountains in the middle area and try to get some nice
clouds into the sky / background.
- Be aware that if you position an
element very close to the edge of the frame or if you have two elements
which are very close together, your image will evoke tension caused
by the close proximity. This is not bad if you deliberately intended
to create tension, but quite often you should leave room for the elements
of your image to breath.
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- Try to avoid large dark or light
colored areas within your image. Quite often, these "voids"
disrupt your composition and detract from the overall flow of your
viewer's eye within the frame.Try
to avoid large dark or light colored areas within your image. Just
before you click the shutter, run your eyes all around the perimeter
of the frame and see if there are any distracting things poking into
your frame.
- Try to avoid large areas of little
interest between the main elements within your image. For example
if you have some interesting rocks in the foreground then 1/3 or more
of the frame above the rocks is flat or lacking detail before getting
to the next element in your image, you could try to get lower. This
will compress the dull area into a smaller space within your image.
- Try to vary your perspective. If
all your images are shot at head height they may become dull and repetitive.
Try getting higher or lower than your normal standing height.
- Avoid white skies or minimize the
amount of white sky in your image.
- Try to capture images at times of
dramatic and or warm light but avoid shooting directly away from the
light source (the sun) unless you want a flat image devoid of shadow
or depth.
- When photographing images with foreground
and background elements which both need to be sharp (e.g. a landscape)
make sure you use a large depth of field by using a small aperture
(f/16 or f/22). You can also check the focus of elements by using
the depth of field preview button (assuming your camera has one).
- If there is a large difference in
the exposure values of foreground and background elements you might
want to consider using a split neutral density filter to decrease
the amount of light from the bright area within your image. (They
look like the filter graphic at the top of the "Favorite
Filters" article.)
- From a compositional point of view,
polarizing filters can enhance your composition by reducing reflections
or enhancing contrast between image elements e.g. clouds and sky.
- The background in your composition
should either add interest e.g. clouds, or simply add a homogeneous
non distracting area against which your main subject is displayed.
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