Telling the Story in Composition

Composition is a wondrous thing, filled with rules, guidelines and mystery. A good composition can make the boring scene exciting. On the flip side, a bad composition can destroy a beautiful scene. Composition can draw the viewer into your story but can also send them running in the other direction. We can talk for hours, and I have, on the rules of composition. (You can check out part 1, part 2, and part 3 of composition on my blog.)  We can analyze the interactions of leading lines and the Rule of Thirds. We can measure distances of the Golden Mean. We can judge an image on the photographer’s use of foreground, middle ground, and background. We can weigh the virtues of symmetry, balance, and minimalism. These are all concepts that a photographer needs to know, understand, implement, and toss aside when needed. Yet, if you follow these rules and guidelines, you could still produce an image that is lifeless and will remain on your computer and never get elevated to your wall, where good photos are meant to be.

Let’s chat a bit about going beyond the basics of composition. When you arrive on scene with beauty surrounding you and all these composition concepts in your head, do you freeze? Do you find it difficult to find a compelling composition? Do you just start pointing our camera in whatever direction and hope something will stick? Do you understand the guidelines of composition but have difficulty recording them on your sensor? Do you ever review your images after a trip and wonder what happened to the grandeur you experienced?

If you have answered Yes to any of these questions, allow me to help. As Erin Babnik explains, as landscape photographers it’s our job to organize nature. Composition guidelines help us to organize nature in an even more eye-pleasing quality that our brains can understand and latch onto. Look at the image above – the actual scene is one of chaos as forests in the Pacific Northwest are and the viewpoint is a bit disconcerting. Yet with the leading line of the waterfall through the mossy rocks, your brain knows what it is supposed to look at and finds peace in that implicit knowledge. That’s what composition is meant to do.

As you arrive on the scene, ask yourself these questions:

What attracts me to this scene? What do you like about the scene? What made you stop your walk or the car and take a longer look? Is it how the light plays across the scene? Do you find a pattern that is appealing? Analyze why – even before taking out the camera. I will often stand on a viewpoint and soak in the landscape before me without raising the camera to my eye. I am looking for those elements of the scene that attract me – and there is no right or wrong answer. Take 10 photographers to the same location and they will create 10 different images. Your vision is your own and if you like that rock, then include that in your photo or make it the subject. It’s answering the question “what about that rock do you like?” And you photograph should answer that question because you are now telling the story of that rock.

I was reminded of this basic concept of composition in a book about writing, because creativity is creativity no matter the medium. In her book “Bird by Bird”, Anne Lamont describes a scene from Mel Brooks’ movie “The 2,000-Year-Old Man” (a movie I have yet to see, but now thinking it needs to go on my list) where a psychiatrist gives advice to his patient about letting the broccoli tell him how to eat it. Sounds weird, right? But not. The subject, the scene you want to photograph has a way of talking to you; telling you how best to photograph it at that time with those conditions. What made you stop and look at the scene in the first place is a whisper. Each photographer will hear a different whisper and will photograph to tell a different story. No not a different story, just a different version of the same story, to contribute to a greater understanding of the subject.

Not every photographer will be compelled to tell the same story and that is what makes photography such a rich and creative endeavor. British landscape photographer and YouTuber, Thomas Heaton describes this concept further in his video about photographing one of the most iconic landscapes of the Southwest United States – Mesa Arch. Photographers were lined up to photograph the arch as the sun rose which makes the underside of the arch glow. However, because of the overcast sky on that day, the scene required a different telling. Thomas and a few of his fellow photographers followed the whispers and found scenes that created beautiful images of the same landscape. They were able to add to the story that is Mesa Arch by not photographing the arch itself but the landscape around the arch.

Now this is where the going gets tough – set up your camera and start removing everything in the frame that doesn’t help tell your story. A common thread to photography is that while painters start with a blank canvas; the writer begins with a blank page - our canvas, our page comes pre-filled with extraneous bits and pieces and it is up to us edit out elements to create a compelling image – an image that narrates the story of this place. It’s tough. I know when I get to a beautiful alpine meadow and flowers paint the landscape in a rainbow of hues, I want to photograph all the pretties. I want to include EVERYTHING. And I bet you also have that same impulse. You get to the viewpoint and want to get it all in the frame of your camera, but then seem unsatisfied that you couldn’t record the grandeur of the view.

Have you ever uttered this statement? “The camera didn’t do the view justice.” That’s because you’re not being choosey about what to include and what to exclude. Going back to writing, there’s a saying in editing that you have to kill the darlings. You might have a phrase, a sentence, or even a character that you love – that makes you feel good about yourself and your abilities. But sadly, this element doesn’t work in the grand scheme of the story. It’s one of the hardest things for a writer to remove that piece. It can be that way with photography too. We love that little element off to the side, but it becomes distracting to the rest of the image. Crop it out. It helps to stop and listen to the scene, breath and watch, then start looking through the viewfinder without the tripod if you’re using one. Find the view and composition where that whisper you heard turns into a yelp of joy.

Say you’re at an overlook at the Grand Canyon. Of course, you want an image of the canyon with all the layers and textures of the earth. You frame up an image that encompasses as much as you can to show the grandeur. While you’re at it, you try to include a little promontory closer to you, but then something just doesn’t look right. At this point try one of two things. Crop the promontory out of the frame, then reposition yourself, investigate the promontory and create another image. Or ditch the first composition, move yourself and reframe an image that features both the promontory and the grandeur. That little promontory is trying to tell you something about the story of the place. Listen to it. I think you’ll be happy that you did.

We can know the rules or guidelines front to back and create technically correct images that never spark life in our audience. To take that extra step to listen to the needs of the scene and find the telling of the story of the time and place and only telling one story at a time, eliminating all of the extraneous side stories, you will be well on your way to creating an image that calls to your audience to stop and listen to the story you’re retelling.

Ideas of Composition: Part 3

Welcome back to my blog series on composition. We are now on Part 3. Part 1 explored Rule of Thirds, Symmetry and Balance, and Leading Lines. Part 2 explored Curves, Rhythm and Pattern, and Framing. So many ideas to help make your images better. But wait! There's more! In Part 3 we will explore the ideas of  Foreground, Midground and Background, Shapes, and Filling the Frame.

Again, these are ideas to build upon. The ideas in the previous blogs work well in exploring these ideas

FOREGROUND, MIDGROUND, and BACKGROUND

Photographs are two-dimensional representations of our three-dimensional world. How do we compose images that help translate that three-dimensionality onto a two-dimension medium? Through our compositions, we create the illusion that the two-dimensional image is three dimensions with the use of foreground, midground, and background. Adding these elements helps to create the appearance  of depth by giving the viewer elements through the image to focus on - just as we would have elements close to us, between us and the distance and into the horizon in the world around us. Let's look at these one by one.

Foreground brings the viewer into the image and creates interest to investigate further. This is usually a detail closer to the photographer that is interesting and will make the viewer pause to admire it's interesting lines and details. It often helps set the stage for the rest of the image. A colorful bush in the fall or a patch of flowers in the spring tell the viewer the season. A country road leading the eye further or a ramshackle fence tell the viewer we are no longer in the city. Take your time in finding an interesting foreground - your midground might change but your background will likely be far enough away to change hardly at all. A viewer can tell whether or not you took your time here - throwing in a foreground just because you want a foreground will do the exact opposite of what you want. It could look haphazard and the viewer will walk away. Foreground can be the base of the rest of your image and when done right will direct the viewer to the rest of the image.

Midground helps draw the viewer in further, and is often a resting place for the viewer's eyes. The midground should be free of distractions or elements that either block the viewer from continuing on into the image or distractions that draw them away from the image such as a fence that reaches from edge to edge where a viewer feels blocked out of the image or a road that continues out of the frame and the viewer's eye goes with it. Sometimes this is where we find our subject. Think of an environmental portrait where your subject has an interesting foreground that possibly frames you subject and the subject with a background as a backdrop. Often your midground is your most versatile area in your photograph and should never be neglected.

Background is often the culmination of the journey in the photograph - the fulfillment of the viewer's interest. It can be the subject such as a magnificent mountain in grand landscapes where the viewer feels as if they have been on a grand adventure. Most often though, as the name implies, it becomes the backdrop to what is in the midground or foreground. When used as a backdrop, you'll need to take care of not including distracting elements such as a branch impaling your subject's head or bright highlights that lead the eye away from your subject. A good background keeps your viewer's attention in your photo for as long as possible.

Can you create interesting and compelling images without all three of these? Of course you can. This is another way to create compelling images that draw your viewer into the story your trying to tell.

SHAPES

We're going back to geometry class here for a minute and combining it with a bit of psychology. Sounds fun doesn't it?

Our brains need to organize the world in categories to help it make sense of the world. It becomes a sort of shorthand for the mind. We see a door and we know two things immediately - it is an egress and it is a rectangle. From there we build on the style of door, where it is located, and all sorts of things. But our immediate lizard-brain response is rectangle and escape.

Using shape is one of many ways we organize the world to help our lizard-brains understand what is going on around us. We see parallel lines on the ground and without having to think much we know that it is a pathway - the beginning of a journey (probably why I love leading lines so much in my images). We can strip our images down to the most elemental and create images based on shapes. We can look for triangles and curves/circles to add a sense of motion for our lizard-brains. Rectangles and squares add stability and safety.

How does this apply to composition? Well, think of the base elements of the story you're trying to tell. Is it a story of action? Then you will want to avoid creating and photographing squares and rectangles, instead you'll want to look for rectangles and curves in your elements. Do you want to tell the story of safety and security? Now would be the time to look for rectangles and squares.

So what's up with the image above that includes curves and squares? Let me explain it this way - our history is who we are, it is the foundation of our present, but time forever moves and builds upon our foundation.

FILL THE FRAME

Filling the Frame is a concept I heard often in my college days of studying photography. Back then, we used a substance called film and often could not crop our images especially if we were using transparency or slide film. So we needed to find the essential elements withing our composition and fill the frame with those elements and only those elements. We needed to conduct "border patrol" - checking the edges of your images to make sure you weren't cutting off anything essential and/or allowing anything distracting to encroach on your image. If there was, you'd need to re-compose. It is still a very good idea to conduct "border patrol" before releasing the shutter so that you aren't including distractions or excluding storytelling elements. Using film required us to analyze our composition and the story we were trying to tell and not include anything that was extraneous.

Filling the Frame was usually where I had the most difficulty in school. I often took the idea too literally and would fill my frame with the subject and only the subject often leaving out the most important element of the image - the storytelling quality that brilliant photographers understand. It about what story there is to be told and how you tell the story. So, filling the frame does not necessarily mean to fill the frame with your subject, but to fill it with the story, the feeling, the idea.

In the image of the ballerina, I was looking at a contemplative moment of the dancer resting between moves and poses. A quiet moment with her in her thoughts and studio. If I had moved closer to her, to fill my frame with the ballerina, it would not convey the same story - a story of quiet respite.

As you compose your images, think about the story to be told. Once you understand the story, fill your frame with only the elements that tell the story - nothing more and nothing less.