SPACE & SIMPLICITY

LESS IS MORE WHEN YOU WANT TO ADD IMPACT TO YOUR COMPOSITION

You don’t always have to fill the frame with the main subject or include loads of different elements in a scene to produce striking compositions. In fact, it’s often better to isolate a single focal point or leave space around the subject to give it room to ‘breathe’. This approach to composition will help you produce more relaxed, contemplative images, because the extra space helps to give the viewer more time to ‘find’ the subject in the image without the competition of other elements or focal points in the scene. Finding this perfect simplicity isn’t always easy. You will need to identify the dominant subject and then isolate it from any distractions around it to produce a really striking composition. To help you isolate the subject, you can use a couple of techniques that aren’t immediately associated with composition: long shutter speeds and shallow depth of field. These enable you to blur distracting elements around the subject, producing a much stronger and simpler composition than if there were too many other distractions visible in the frame.

LEAVE SOME SPACE

Leaving large areas of blank space or simple patterns around the subject enables the viewer to spend more time contemplating the whole image. The easiest approach to take to achieve this is to shoot the subject against a blank background, such as white, black or a single colour. But a simple pattern or softly varied background can work just as well, on the condition that these areas complement the main subject, rather than overpower it. Then the viewer will feel that looking at these areas adds to the experience, rather than takes away from it.

Outside of the studio or a controlled situation, this balance can be hard to achieve because you will need to work hard to find a background that both adds to the image, but doesn’t distract attention away from the subject.

GO CENTRAL

In the previous pages, we’ve concentrated on placing the subject away from the centre of the frame — but, as with all artistic techniques, this isn’t the only approach. When you are shooting a single dominant subject, placing it in the centre of the image will emphasise its importance in the frame. This technique goes against all of the advice given about adding balance and movement to your shots, as the viewer’s eye isn’t tempted to look around the frame as much as an off-centre subject, but this is what helps to add impact to this composition style. You can add to the effect by cropping to a square format, rather than the normal rectangle, as it places even more emphasis on the central area of the frame.

FINDING THIS PERFECT SIMPLICITY ISN’T ALWAYS EASY. YOU WILL NEED TO IDENTIFY THE DOMINANT SUBJECT AND THEN ISOLATE IT FROM ANY DISTRACTIONS AROUND IT TO PRODUCE A REALLY STRIKING COMPOSITION