Kris D'Amico Photography

February 5th, 2010 by Kris

Tip 2. Consciously place your WHAT where you think it most belongs, not where it happens to land in the photo.

When thinking about composition, there’s a huge gray area and there are 500 rules to follow… Let me simplify it for you.

You are trying to achieve balance in your image so try these simple tips and forget about all the rules:

• If you can try keep the horizon level OR your subject squared up.
• Extra elements in the photo can be distracting, think again about the “Why am I taking this photo?” To showcase the chaos of the plaza or to pull out one element of the fountain in the middle.
• Make a conscious effort to place your subject where you think it should go, you are the one with the camera, the director, you move to your subject or have them move to you.
• Perspective lines and patterns are your friend. There’s much more drama if you shoot down the endless line of trees or square up with them, then if you happen to have a few in the shot.
• Think about shapes in the frame, do the three buildings in the center of the frame make a triangle shape? Can you get lower to the ground and make the door a perfect rectangle? Look for that naturally occurring geometry and use it!

Some examples:

So here’s a shot of a plasma cutter that was in a factory we shot this last week.

There are a few things happening here:

1. Horizon line is level
2. There’s not a whole lot in the foreground, I’ve kept only the head of the cutter as the only real element.
3. I made a conscious decision to wait till the sparks started to fly in the background and place that element off to the left of the cutter head.
4. Notice the pattern of horizontal lines, the yellow beam, the lines in the far wall, the edge of the pool, looking for that pattern to help hold elements together.
5. Using the shapes, the circle made by the cutting head, the triangle of sparks in the background, the rectangles on the far wall. I’m looking for geometry to help support the composition.

Here’s another quick example of looking for the right angle, leaning on perspective to make the image work:

There are a lot of line competing here in this scene, so let’s change the angle a little and see what happens:

Better, now there is a strong perspective line that helps showcase the what, BUT what would happen if you get a little closer to get rid of some of the distracting elements?

Just start thinking about how all these angles help you frame up your subject.

Your turn! Post up your success stories here! Link out to your flickr page show us how you think about composition.