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2 | P a g e

Leaning the art of Composition, more than anything else will make a huge difference to your photography. What to leave in and what to take out, what your focal point is and how you frame your image could be the difference between and ordinary image or an extraordinary picture.

Composition isnt complicated, and the skills are easy to learn with a few basic rules of thumb you will soon start taking creative imaginative and well composed photos This E-Book gives you all the skills youll need to take you photography to the next level.

CONTENTS The basics Horizontal or Vertical Framing Your Subject Cropping: What to leave In Isolating your Subject Adding dynamism to your images Harmony in an Image Lens Choice Composing in the Field

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The Basics How to build your images from the ground up

To see you image not just as picture but as a series of lines and shapes will mean you well on your way to considering the composition of an image rather than just a snap shot. You can use line within an image to guide the viewer to your focal point or take them on a journey through the photograph

Take this shot of a river and mountain for example. The river leads the viewer in from the bottom right to the centre of the picture then turns to point towards the mountain. The line is picked up in the V-shape of the lower slop which points us

out over the summit of the mountain to the top right hand corner.

There doesnt have to be any physical lines in the image like roads or fences. They can be implied by the physical arrangement of elements within the scene. The river draws you into the picture while the sunlight entering from the left and the trees and hillside softly illuminated helps to give the picture life. Cover the river with your hand and the image loses all its impact

USE LINES TO DIRECT THE VIEWER TO THE FOCAL POINT OF THE IMAGE OR LEAD THEIR EYE AROUND THE COMPOSITION .

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Understanding Line & Shape Lines and shapes have a dramatic effect on your emotional response to a picture. Vertical lines add power and impact to a composition while horizontal line an air of calm. Diagonal lines are dynamic and are particularly appropriate for action or moving shots

Seeing Pattern

Keep is simple has always been a golden rule in photography but breaking these 2 landscape images down into their simplest components it is easy to see the similarity of basic shape of form repeated in both top and bottom of the frame

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6 | P a g e

Horizontal or Vertical? Shoot in both Portrait and landscape Format to maximise compositional possibilities

Photographing the same scene in both portrait and landscape formats will increase your chances of finding the best composition. Deciding which format will suite particular images may not always be that obvious. So getting use to turning you camera from horizontal to vertical will help train your eye.

LANDSCAPES Its all too easy to put you camera on the tripod and fire off a whole load of shots in the horizontal format, but by taking shots in both portrait and landscape format you will sometime find some surprising images which work much better if one orientation than the other.

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TALL SUBJECT Deciding on a horizontal or vertical format could be a matter of a slit second decision before the opportunity passes you by.

Being able to react instinctively could be the difference between a lost opportunity and a prize winning image.

As a general rule tall subjects are made to be taking in portrait mode.

Here the pine trees look lovely with their green foliage topping the image but surprisingly the landscape image of the trunks looks equally good even though it doesnt follow the rules.

SOME TIMES COMPOSEING A WIDE SHOT AND FILLING THE FRAME WILL GIVE A SURPRISINGLT ABSTRACT FEEL

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HOW TO FRAME YOUR SUBJECT The Impact of your image depends on how you choose to frame it. Here are the secrets behind the technique.

Ask 100 photographers what to trickiest part of composition is and most will put framing as one of the most difficult decisions to make. To be a consistently good photographer you must have an eye for framing but in todays world of multi-million pixel cameras, it not as difficult as you might think.

Good framing starts with your subject and an idea of what mood you want to reflect in your finished image. Standing too far back from a small subject will do little to create photographic impact and conversely willing the frame with you subject when you want to give a sense of space is equally ineffective.

The key question when it comes to framing is where do you place your subject? In the centre, off to one side, at the top or near the bottom. While ultimately this boils down to person choice, there is a set of design rules to help you create more professional looking images.

Stick to these rules and you will be well on your way to becoming a better photographer.

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OFF CENTRE Choosing to site your subject off centre will create a more dynamic image and one that feels more professional. The rule of thirds is the photographers most important compositional rule

Use an imaginary grid and divide the frame into equal parts This is a terrific rule of thumb.

RULE OF THIRDS All images can be placed off centre to create a more interesting balanced feel. In this shot of a little girl holding and umbrella; shot by MyPhotoSchool tutor David Handley, he had deliberately placed her one third of the way into the picture on a grid line with the main focal point the umbrella on the top right intersection point.

Using this technique, will immediately improvement to your photography and help create a sense of balance in your images.

The reason David has placed her to the right of the frame, is to show that the wind is coming from the left. This space help the viewer understand this and the dusty, blank background re-enforces the sudden gusty conditions which only adds to the composition.

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18 | P a g e

CHOOSING THE RIGHT FORMAT The shape of your frame can have a dramatic effect on your emotional response to an image. The most common orientations are the landscape and portrait format, but in addition to these, you will also see the square format and panoramic formats used regularly.

Experimenting both in camera and using the cropping tool you can dramatically alter the shape and feel of an image

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Cropping in Computer With camera sensors getting larger and larger every year and file sizing increasing most of us still dont print our image marge larger than A4 or letter size This leave us the option of being able to crop in computer and still be left with files sizes easily big enough to print from.

Post-process cropping is one of the most underused compositional tools we have. You can transform a dull picture into a stunning print by creatively cropping the image to focus of a smaller part of the subject.

SELECTIVE CROPPING This technique works particularly well with portraits

Filling the frame and even rotating the crop can lead to so exciting and much more interesting compositions.

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CLASSIC CROPPING MISTAKES Wonky Horizons

A Sloping horizon line when it should be absolutely straight is one of the most common erors in landscape photography. Cropping in camera to coreect the problem but try and avoid the mistake in the first place by using a tripod with a spirit level.

Too Cramped

Cropping in too tight can spoil a picture particularly when the image needs to be put into context. You either have to go in really tight for a more abstract look or make sure you give your image enough space to properly tell the story.

Too Tight

A common problem particularly with moving images then to crop in too tight and dont allow enough space to one side for the subject to move into

See early chapter on action images

Amputation

Another common problem when composing a photo is to crop off arms and legs. A head and shoulder shot is acceptable but cutting people off blew the knee or cutting off a hand just looks weir and should be avoided.

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