Some Basic but Relevant Tips on Photography Composition…

Composition is perhaps the most important aspect of photography for me. I have developed an increasing awareness about it and would like to believe that this awareness has made my photographs look better progressively. Because our eyes tend to explore images both horizontally and vertically rather than to focus on a single central point, arranging the elements of a picture creatively can make a photograph more dynamic and appealing.

However, I don’t consider myself an expert on composition, so, like I said in a previous post, when facing a new adventure, consulting people with previous experience sounds like a good idea. By simply typing “tips photography composition” on Google, I was able to find the following web page some time ago; this link has been very useful since the first time I read it. These 10 tips are pretty basic (rule of thirds, balance, depth, and so on) and you may unconsciously know them already; however, they are quite relevant either if you are beginner or want to continue boosting your photography skills. Read them carefully; I guarantee that after reading them, you’ll feel like grabbing your camera to explore new possibilities.

10 Top Photography Composition Rules

Obviously, these are just tips, recommendations, pieces of advice, and not fixed rules that everybody needs to apply irrationally and all at the same time. Use the ones you consider more relevant regarding the effect you want to create in your photos.

Now, let’s see a concrete example of how some of these tips work. This is a picture of my best friend Teresa when we were in Wilmington, NC, last May filming our most recent short.

I modestly like this photo a lot. As you can see, I employed some of the tips of the webpage: Teresa is more or less aligned on the left third of the frame; I added depth to the picture by placing Teresa in the foreground and the pier behind her in the middle ground (and the perspective gets deeper if we include the ocean, the sky, the coast, and the building in the background); there’s a neat imaginary line crossing the entire frame dynamically dividing the upper third of the photo (the house and the pier) and the other two thirds (Teresa, the columns of the pier, and the sand); finally, if you saw the original, besides editing some of the contrast and highlights, you could see that I actually cropped it a bit.

So… did you learn something new today? I hope so! Next step: grab your camera, begin utilizing these tips, take as many pictures as you can, and share them with the people you love. They will appreciate it immensely. It’s a sure bet!…