Basic Compostion Rules of Photography

As the availability of DSLR grew bigger everyday the number of Photographers or you may say number of quality photographs is still insignificant. To capture a great photographer you have to break the textbook rules, but before breaking the rules you need to know the textbook rules. You can't just "go crazy" with the shutter release button when you get hold of a camera.

Through this post I will try to introduce the basic rules of composition.

Parts of a Photograph:

First of all, if we dissect a photo we will have layers.

a)Fore Ground

b)Mid Ground/Centre

c)Back Ground

To get a better understanding about those layers see the picture below

Now we need to get acquainted with few basic rules of composition which will help us to take better photograph.

Rule of Thirds:

Lets imagine that your image is divided by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines into 9 equal segments.

According to rule of thirds you should position the most important elements in your photograph along these lines, or at the points where they intersect.

If you can manage to do that it will add balance and interest to your photo otherwise the photograph will look dull. Most cameras now have an option of rule of thirds grid over the LCD screen.

In this post we are staying with basics only, but if you need to learn more feel free to "google" golden triangles, golden spiral, golden rectangle or golden ratio.

Balancing Elements:

By following rule of thirds anyone can creates a more interesting photo, but that does not mean you can leave the rest of the photograph void which can make it feel empty. You should fill in the space by including another object of lesser importance.

Here, the empty space was filled by the building on the other side of the shot.

Leading Lines:

When we look at a photo our eye is naturally drawn along lines. By thinking about how you place lines in your composition, you can affect the way we view the image, pulling us into the picture, towards the subject, or on a journey through the scene. There are many different types of line. It could be straight, diagonal, curvy, zigzag etc and each can be used to enhance our photo's composition.

Symmetry and Patterns:

We are surrounded by symmetry and patterns, both natural and man-made., They can make for very eye-catching compositions, particularly in situations where they are not expected. Another great way to use them is to break the symmetry or pattern in some way, introducing tension and a focal point to the scene.

In the picture above there is a visible pattern of windows we can easily detect.

Viewpoint:

Before photographing your subject, take time to think about where you will shoot it from. Our viewpoint has a massive impact on the composition of our photo, and as a result it can greatly affect the message that the shot conveys. In the picture above the photographer can take the picture from another building as a plain frontal view, but he did so it would be just a plain photo, this picture rather tells a story. Rather than just shooting from eye level, consider photographing from high above, down at ground level, from the side, from the back, from a long way away, from very close up, and so on. Sometimes unusual viewpoint creates an intriguing and slightly abstract photo.

Background:

It is very common that we imagine a great photo looking at a scenery but when we take the photo it seems nothing like we saw. The captured image lacks impact because the subject blends into a busy background. The human eye is excellent at distinguishing between different elements in a scene, but camera has a tendency to flatten the foreground and background, and that's why it differs lot than what we have imagined our photo would look like. We can easily overcome this problem while shooting - we just have to look around for a plain and unobtrusive background and compose your shot so that it doesn't distract or detract from the subject.

The plain background in this composition ensures nothing distracts the viewers from the subject.

Depth:

Because photography is a two-dimensional medium, we have to choose our composition carefully to conveys the sense of depth that was present in the actual scene. You can create depth in a photo by including objects in the foreground, middle ground and background. Another useful composition technique is overlapping, where you deliberately partially obscure one object with another. The human eye naturally recognizes these layers and mentally separates them out, creating an image with more depth.

Emphasis your scene's depth by including interesting subjects at varying distances from the camera.

Framing:

The world is full of objects which make perfect natural frames, such as trees, archways and holes. By placing these around the edge of the composition you help to isolate the main subject from the outside world. The result is a more focused image which draws your eye naturally to the main point of interest.

Here, the surrounding hills form a natural frame, and the piece of wood provides a focal point.

Cropping: 

When we take a photo it is possible that distracting objects get photographed with the subject. Through cropping we can get a solution for this problem. By cropping tight around the subject you eliminate the background "noise", ensuring the subject gets the viewer's undivided attention.

You remember the fantastic photo of Che. The original pic was the left one, to help the viewers to not get distracted the unnecessary elements have been removed.

Experimentation:

Until now you read about the very basic rules of composition of photography. Now you need to get the camera and start clicking. With the blessing of digital photography we no longer have to worry about buying films or film processing costs or running out of shots. Which give us a big window of opportunity to experiment with our photos. we can fire off tons of shots and delete the unwanted ones later at absolutely no extra cost. Take advantage of this fact and experiment with your composition - you never know whether an idea will work until you try it.

Digital photography allows us to experiment with different compositions until we find the perfect one. Composition in photography is far from a science, and as a result all of the "rules" above should be taken with a pinch of salt. As I said earlier, rules are meant to be broken. But first get acquainted with the basic rules and after you have a good grip over those you can experiment with your photos.

Good Luck.