Photography 101: Shot Composition

Ok, so now you’ve thought about lighting. What’s next? Well, you have to figure out where you want your subject in the picture. We’ve all seen photos where the person is in the dead center of the shot, surrounded by giant swathes of unused, meaningless space. So, first thing’s first –

Think about EVERYTHING in your picture

Really spend some time thinking about where you want to take your shots. Is there something interesting or unique about the place you’ve chosen to shoot? Is there a reason to include lots of background behind, or around, your subject? Is there an interesting pattern in the picture (repetition in shapes, figures, etc)? Is some random guy’s foot sticking into the bottom right corner of your frame?

There are a lot of elements in this shot, but they come together in a unified way.

Avoid the Center 

Our instinct when we take a photograph is to shoot the subject right in the middle. If the subject is the most important thing, why shouldn’t it be in the middle? That’s how we know what to look at, right? 

Wrong. Luckily, we have developed the capacity to infer the importance of objects in ways other than calculating how close to the center of a picture they appear. It looks pretty uninteresting and uninspired, doesn’t it? Instead of doing this, experiment with angles and perspective. Remember the “Rule of Thirds”: Every picture can be divided into nine segments in three sections. Your subject should never be right in the middle section. Instead, try moving it (or at least part of it) into the left or right sections.

Experiment! 

Now that most casual photographers have moved into digital and away from film, you have lots of chances to take that perfect photograph, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Sometimes breaking all the rules can result in something you never expected. [insert final photo…of something] For more information and tutorials, go here and here.

This shot is interesting because of the unconventional angle.