Compelling compositions
However strong your subject, your images stand or fall by the quality of the compositions. Ian Plant shares some tips for framing with impact
Images stand or fall by the quality of their compositions. Ian Plant shares tips for framing with impact
What makes a great photograph? Many candidates immediately spring to mind, such as subject matter, light, mood and moment. In my opinion, however, one aspect clearly rises above the rest, and that is composition: the visual design of your photograph. Composition is your way of communicating your artistic vision to others, commanding the viewer’s eye and directing it to what is important. A snapshot shows the world what your camera sees, but when you create a composition, you show the world what you see. In this article, I will explain how to make compelling visual designs that get noticed.
Learn to think in the abstract
The key to successful composition is abstract thinking, which involves learning to see everyday elements not for what they are (i.e. trees, clouds, mountains, etc.) but for what else they are – shapes and colours and visual energy. In particular, you must learn to recognise and establish dynamic visual relationships between shapes (also known as forms). Shapes fill the space within the image frame, and are the building blocks of image design, the foundation upon which a composition is built. Our world contains a seemingly never-ending array of shapes, such as lines, curves, triangles, squares, spirals, rectangles, and circles. Training yourself to notice these shapes around you – and, more critically, finding ways to make shapes work together – is fundamentally important to mastering composition.
Pick great subjects
I don’t mean that you should only shoot subjects that are beautiful, majestic or aweinspiring, but look for subjects that are meaningful and unique. Try to tell your subject’s story by including visual elements that reveal something special. Critical to picking the best subjects are research and scouting. Before every shoot, I spend time researching my subject, and when in the field, I don’t just wait for something good to fall from the sky into my lap; instead, I get out and
explore, looking for amazing compositions. Only then can you really see what the world has to offer.
Move your feet
Ansel Adams once said, ‘A good photograph is knowing where to stand.’ Good advice. If you want to make compelling compositions, you need to get your feet moving and to experiment with different angles, focal lengths, and positions. Picking great subjects is only the beginning; your next job is to find the best position for your camera to allow you to make the most of your chosen subject. One thing to remember as you assess various angles is that, unlike human vision, which sees the world in three dimensions, a photograph is only twodimensional. This means that you should seek out a position that allows the objects in your composition to have visual separation. If objects are bunched up they will appear to merge, in a two-dimensional photograph, so diminishing the impact of your composition.
Think about visual mass
The ability of an object to attract attention – its ‘eyecatchingness’, if you will – is known as visual mass. Something big within the image frame will likely attract more attention than something small, but keep in mind that visual mass is not simply dictated by the relative size of an object; colour, brightness, shape and other things can give an object visual mass out of proportion to its physical size. Also, visual mass is not static; rather, the photographer can manipulate the visual mass of an object through lens choice, camera position and the use of light. For example, by getting closer to an object, the photographer can increase its apparent size relative to other objects within the scene (or, by using a wideangle lens, the photographer can make background objects look smaller). Visual mass is critical to understand because it can be used to focus the viewer’s attention on specific parts of your composition, so learning how to manipulate visual mass allows you to emphasise those objects that are most important to your visual design.
Entice the viewer into the scene
Good compositions enthral the viewer and hold their interest. I call this effect ‘visual flow’, and it is helpful to think of it this way: imagine you are standing in the middle of a river, looking downstream. The water flows around, beneath and past you on its journey into the distant landscape beyond. The flow of the river is irresistible – anything caught in its path is swept along, following every twist and turn, inevitably transported into the distance. This effect – this irresistible pull – is precisely what you want to accomplish visually with your images. Your goal as a photographer is to engage the viewer’s eye and command their attention, leading them deeper into the scene. By doing so, you transform the viewer from a passive observer into an
active participant, giving them a sense of being there, of being immersed within the scene. This helps to establish an emotional connection between the viewer and the photo and ensures that they will keep coming back to look time and time again.
Strive to achieve ‘dynamic balance’
A good composition has a mix of energy and harmony, known as dynamic balance. If a composition is too symmetrical and balanced, it will be boring, while a composition with too much visual energy will be chaotic. Somewhere between the two extremes is usually best. I typically strive to have some amount of symmetry for the general structure, while including anomalous visual elements that break up the symmetry and add visual energy to the composition. The ultimate goal is to create a balanced and pleasing composition, that nonetheless maintains a sense of vibrancy and motion.