9. Creative Compositions

Improve Your Pictures with Sound Compositional Elements

Creating a great photograph takes more than just the right settings on your camera. To take your photography to the next level, you need to gain an understanding of how the elements within the frame come together to create a compositionally pleasing image. Composition is the culmination of light, shape, and, to borrow a word from the iconic photographer Jay Maisel, gesture. Composition is a way for you to pull your viewing audience into your image and guide them through the scene. Let’s examine a few methods you can use to add interest to your photos by utilizing some common compositional elements.

Poring Over the Picture

When looking for the right location to shoot this waterfall, I had to pre-visualize the look I was trying to achieve. I knew that I wanted to photograph the falls, but I also wanted to incorporate the flow of the stream leading from the higher rocks. I decided to walk downstream a bit until I found a location that would let me frame the waterfall near the top of the image as the water flowed to the bottom of the frame.

Poring Over the Picture

While driving through Saguaro National Park in Arizona, I saw some dark storm clouds gathering over the mountains. The late afternoon sun had already begun to blanket the landscape with a warm glow. As I stood, waiting with my camera on my tripod, the clouds started breaking a bit and let the sunlight spill into the valley in front of the mountain. I wasted no time in capturing a few frames.

Depth of Field

Long focal lengths and large apertures will allow you to isolate your subject from the chaos that surrounds it. I utilize the Av mode for the majority of my shooting. I also like to use a longer focal length lens to shrink the depth of field to a very narrow area (Figure 9.1).

Figure 9.1 The combination of a telephoto lens and a large aperture can create a shallow depth of field to isolate the subject.

The blurred background and foreground force the viewer’s eye toward the sharper, in-focus areas, which gives greater emphasis to the subject.

Occasionally a greater depth of field is required to maintain a sharp focus across a greater distance. This might be due to the sheer depth of your subject, where you have objects that are near the camera but sharpness is desired at a greater distance as well (Figure 9.2).

Figure 9.2 The closer you are to your subject, the smaller the aperture you will need to achieve a large depth of field.

Or perhaps you are photographing a reflection in a puddle. With a narrow depth of field, you could only get the reflected object or the puddle in focus. By making the aperture smaller, you will be able to maintain acceptable sharpness in both areas (Figure 9.3).

Figure 9.3 Getting a distant subject in focus in a reflection, along with the reflective surface, requires a small aperture.

Angles

Having strong angular lines in your image can add to the composition, especially when they are juxtaposed to each other (Figure 9.4). This can create a tension that is different from the standard horizontal and vertical lines that we are so accustomed to seeing in photos.

Figure 9.4 The strong angular lines of the building create a dynamic composition.

Point of View

Sometimes the easiest way to influence your photographs is to simply change your perspective. Instead of always shooting from a standing position, try moving your camera to a place where you normally would not see your subject. Try getting down on your knees or even lying on the ground. This low angle can completely change how you view your subject and create a new interest in common subjects (Figure 9.5).

Figure 9.5 Put your camera in a position that presents an unfamiliar view of your subject.

Patterns

Rhythm and balance can be added to your images by finding the patterns in everyday life and concentrating on the elements that rely on geometric influences. Try to find the balance and patterns that often go unnoticed (Figure 9.6).

Figure 9.6 The patterns of these balconies, along with a shallow depth of field, create an almost three-dimensional effect.

Color

Color works well as a tool for composition when you have very saturated colors to work with. Some of the best colors are those within the primary palette. Reds, greens, and blues, along with their complementary colors (cyan, magenta, and yellow), can all be used to create visual tension (Figure 9.7). This tension between bright colors will add visual excitement, drama, and complexity to your images when combined with other compositional elements.

Figure 9.7 I was drawn to this shot by the combination of the great orange of the sun figure with the faded blue paint on the fence.

You can also use a color as a theme for your photography. One of the shots that I am known for is something that I call “The Blue Sky Shot.” If I am out shooting when the skies are blue, I can almost guarantee that I will try to use the sky as part of a background for some element of my image (Figure 9.8). The blue sky can act as a color contrast to my subject, giving a pleasing contrast, visual interest, and isolation to my subject.

Figure 9.8 The deep blue sky greatly contrasts against the sign.

Contrast

We just saw that you can use color as a strong compositional tool. One of the most effective uses of color is to combine two contrasting colors that make the eye move back and forth across the image (Figure 9.9). There is no exact combination that will work best, but consider using dark and light colors, like red and yellow, or blue and yellow, to provide the strongest contrasts.

Figure 9.9 The contrasting colors complement each other and add balance to the scene.

You can also introduce contrast through different geometric shapes that battle (in a good way) for the attention of the viewer. You can combine circles and triangles, ovals and rectangles, curvy and straight, hard and soft, dark and light, and so many more (Figure 9.10). You aren’t limited to just one contrasting element either. Combining more than one element of contrast will add even more interest. Look for these contrasting combinations whenever you are out shooting, and then use them to shake up your compositions.

Figure 9.10 The angular lines of the building play nicely against the round clock face.

Leading Lines

One way to pull a viewer into your image is to incorporate leading lines. These are elements that come from the edge of the frame and then lead into the image toward the main subject (Figure 9.11). This can be the result of vanishing perspective lines, an element such as a river, or some other feature used to move from the outer edge in to the heart of the image.

Figure 9.11 The curving line of the stream leads the eye directly to the waterfall.

Splitting the Frame

Generally speaking, splitting the frame right down the middle is not necessarily your best option. While it may seem more balanced, it can actually be pretty boring. You should utilize the rule of thirds when deciding how to divide your frame (Figure 9.12).

Figure 9.12 This image is a classic example of dividing the frame into thirds.

With horizons, a low horizon will give a sense of stability to the image. Typically, this is done when the sky is more appealing than the landscape below. When the emphasis is to be placed on the landscape, the horizon line should be moved upward in the frame, leaving the bottom two thirds to the subject below (Figure 9.13).

Figure 9.13 The warm glow of the Smithsonian Castle dominates the bottom two thirds of the frame, leaving no doubt as to what the main subject is.

Frames within Frames

The outer edge of your photograph acts as a frame to hold all of the visual elements of the photograph. One way to add emphasis to your subject is through the use of internal frames (Figure 9.14). Depending on how the frame is used, it can create the illusion of a third dimension to your image, giving it a feeling of depth.

Figure 9.14 I used this doorway to create a frame for the carved face on the temple.

Chapter 9 Assignments

Apply the shooting techniques and tools that you have learned in the previous chapters to these assignments, and you’ll improve your ability to incorporate good composition into your photos. Make sure you experiment with all the different elements of composition and see how you can combine them to add interest to your images.

Learning to see lines and patterns

Take your camera for a walk around your neighborhood and look for patterns and angles. Don’t worry so much about getting great shots as much as developing an eye for details.

The ABCs of composition

Here’s a great exercise that was given to me by my friend Vincent Versace: shoot the alphabet. This will be a little more difficult but with practice you will start to see beyond the obvious. Don’t just find letters in street signs and the like. Instead, find objects that aren’t really letters but have the shape of the letters.

Finding the square peg and the round hole

Circles, squares, and triangles. Spend a few sessions concentrating on shooting simple geometric shapes.

Using the aperture to focus attention

Depth of field plays an important role in defining your images and establishing depth and dimension. Practice shooting wide open, using your largest aperture for the narrowest depth of field. Then find a scene that would benefit from extended depth of field, using very small apertures to give sharpness throughout the scene.

Leading them into a frame

Look for scenes where you can use elements as leading lines and then look for framing elements that you can use to isolate your subject and add both depth and dimension to your images.