We can talk about rules and guidelines, but when it comes to composition I like to talk about ideas. Thoughts on how to interpret a scene to help tell your story about the place. For landscape photographers, composition helps you to create a sense of order out of a chaotic world. Composition is the avenue the viewer uses to access the story you want to tell by identifying the elements of the story - the subject, the scene, and characters - in an easily accessible sequence within the frame of your camera. Ultimately we want viewers to stop and interact with our images, to feel at ease, to want to know more, to find a sense of understanding. The importance of composition can become overwhelming and is one of the concepts many photo students struggle with, but once you are well-acquainted with the ideas, they easier they are to see, work with, and master.
In this 3-part series, I will chat about 9 different ideas of composition. Each of these can stand alone in the image but are often combined. It is up to you as the photographer to figure out how best to use these ideas to convey your story. But play with each, learn how they work, how they interact, and how they look in your viewfinder. Give yourself assignments to look for and compose images using each of these ideas. Today we'll look at Subject Placement, Symmetry & Balance, and Leading Lines.
SUBJECT PLACEMENT or Rule of Thirds:
The Rules of Thirds is the most basic tool of composition. It's the tool that I tell my students to start out with when they see a subject because it breaks you of placing a subject smack dab in the middle of the image and it is a pleasing way for a viewer to read an image. It also adds a sense of motion or vitality even in a stagnant subject. You place the subject in the frame that allows the mind to give your subject room to move.
Think of your viewfinder. Now imagine a tic-tac-toe grid overlaid on it (some cameras actually have a function where you can display this). When you line up your image, place the subject at or near one of the intersecting corners or if you have lines (horizon line or trees), place your dominant line along one of the grid-lines.
In the image above, the woman's glasses/eyes are in one of the grid intersections. Since I am photographing a person, her eyes are the primary point of interest even though you don't really see them here. That is a side note - when photographing humans or animals, their eyes are the most important element of the image - and one I will discuss in another blog. But back to the image above. Her eyes are located near a junction. Now look at her ear and shoulder - they are close to the left vertical grid-line. Her elbow and forearm are along the bottom horizontal line. Even though she is sitting, relaxing in an alpine meadow, she has room to move throughout the image. She looks as if she can get up and move about. The Rule of Thirds helps your mind give her this allowance.
So, when you arrive at a scene and are having trouble figuring out your composition, try the Rule of Thirds. It's a great starting point for both the scene and your mind. Once your brain is in the composition mode, other composition elements will begin to percolate. Maybe the Rule of Thirds is nice, but it just doesn't give you the feel you're experiencing. How about breaking the rule and trying Symmetry & Balance?
SYMMETRY and BALANCE
OK. Now that we have Rule of Thirds tucked away, let's throw it out the window. Not permanently, but Symmetry & Balance doesn't rely on the rule. They do work nicely together though. We all know that symmetry means that something looks the same either top to bottom or side to side. A mirror image so to speak. In fact reflections are great representations of symmetry. You could fold an image down the middle and it will look the same on either side of the fold. Reflections of mountains in lakes are a perfect example of symmetry.
Balance is where one side of the image is not a mirror reflection of the other side but the elements of one side are visually weighted the same as the other side. Think of your laptop - you can fold your laptop in half but one side is not a mirror reflection of the other side. One side is a screen the other side a keyboard, but visually they are the same size. If you are photographing a group of trees and there is one very large tree, try putting the tree in the middle of the frame. Then try putting it nearer one of the edges with a grouping of smaller trees on the other side of the frame. You can do this with any grouping of objects - one of my favorite images showing balance is looking down on a formal Victorian place setting with the plates, cups, and silver lined up. Those Victorians knew all about balance.
In the owl image, the image is mostly symmetrical. You could fold it vertically down the middle and the right side of the image would reflect the left side of the image. It is considered symmetrical in that regard. (Also notice the eyes are located along the upper horizontal line of our Rule of Thirds.) Now technically the left eye is slightly larger than the right but the right is in shadow which adds a visual weight. They look like they're the same size even though they really aren't.
Leading Lines is a favorite composition idea for almost every photographer I've talked to. Give someone a path into your image and they will gladly follow it. Leading lines is just that - a distinct line that leads your viewer into the image and takes them on a journey to the subject and story. Think of a path in the forest and how the curious will wonder where the path goes and what adventures it might hold. I can be as obvious as a roadway to the mountains, or implied by the gaze of a child looking in wonder at a bug on a flower. Our thought, as a viewer, is to follow.
You can find leading lines everywhere: roads, trails, fences, people standing in line, a pointing finger, rows of tulips. The list goes on as does the line in your image. Look around you, are there any lines your eye follows? That, my friend is a leading line. Test it out - how many leading lines can you find in the next couple of minutes?
While walking in the madrone forest of Miller Peninsula State Park property, I was fascinated by how the trees towered over my head. I wanted an image that would help the viewer feel the massive trees as they twisted into the sky. Each trunk, the darkest at the bottom being the most prominent, all lead your eye to the same place - the treetops, their crown shyness, and the sky beyond.
Practice using these three ideas in the coming days, then return to find a few more composition ideas to play with.
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