Digital Photography Composition For Dummies

When you put a photograph in a picture frame, you send potential viewers a clear message. If a frame could speak, it would say, 'Hey, look in here.' A frame shows viewers exactly where to look and then keeps their eyes inside its borders. You can get that same effect by composing your images so that elements within it surround your subject and ensure that the viewers' eyes go directly where you want them (and then stay there). To make that frame effective, you have to study your scene, determine your subject and which elements successfully frame it, and then compose the image accordingly.

An interesting composition is one that fulfills two jobs: It provides a framed image that's aesthetically pleasing, and it tells a story based on the relationships of the elements included in the frame. Ideally, a composition is interesting enough to keep a viewer's attention for more than just a few seconds. When viewers can explore compositional elements that fit perfectly in your frame and interact with each other in a harmonious way, they're likely to be captivated by your image.

In this chapter, I help you gain and keep your viewers' attention by guiding you in an exploration with compositional framing techniques. I also provide information on determining whether a horizontal or vertical format would best suit your subject and message in a particular scene.

Making the Most of Framing

Your frame is the entire rectangle that contains your scene. Within it you may create an additional compositional frame — certain elements that surround the subject. Serving as the outer rim of your composition, a compositional frame keeps viewers' eyes from leaving the image and directs them to the scene's important components. You can make a compositional frame from almost anything, as I highlight throughout this section.

Photographers commonly use trees to frame a subject. Tree limbs bend and twist into dynamic shapes that seal off the edges of your frame. Often, photographers will pay particular attention to trees when shooting exteriors of buildings and structures. I've seen everything from small cottages to the Eiffel Tower framed by trees. In Figure 11-1,1 used trees in the background as a compositional frame to surround my subject.

50mm, 1/200 sec, f/2.2, 200

Figure 11-1: A basic example of a compositional frame.

A successful compositional frame pulls a lot of weight in an image, working to make it richer, more intriguing, and worth lingering over. It also provides viewers a sense of environment. Here are some things you want to do when creating a compositional frame:

Find the right perspective. Perspective is the most important element when creating a successful compositional frame. Consider a tree in comparison to the Eiffel Tower, for example. If you're far away from the tree itself, the Eiffel Tower dwarfs the tree. From that perspective, the tree serves as a foreground element and can't frame the structure. But if you move your camera very close to the tree, it appears taller than the Eiffel Tower. This perspective enables you to compositionally frame your very large subject; it also gives depth to your composition by highlighting distance between elements within the image. When scanning a scene for the best perspective, move forward and backward to search out elements that you can use to frame it.

Use the appropriate depth of field. Depth of field controls how much of your scene is in focus. If your compositional frame provides information that's essential to your message, you may want to keep it sharp enough to reveal some of its details. If your compositional frame works only to frame the image, you'll likely want to let it go blurry so it doesn't draw any unnecessary attention but provides a realistic sense of depth. Chapter 7 goes into more detail about depth of field.

Avoid merging shapes and lines. Mergers are shapes and lines that intersect in awkward ways. If a compositional frame merges with your image's subject, make sure it doesn't affect the shape or appearance of the subject. For example, you probably don't want to block a person's face with a tree branch when taking her portrait. I discuss mergers further in Chapter 9.

In the following sections, I explain how the compositional frame can provide a sense of three-dimensional space in your images, how to get creative when including compositional frames, and why a viewer will look at an image longer when this technique is used successfully.

Giving your image a sense of depth

Visual depth causes the appearance of three-dimensionality and gives viewers a more enjoyable visual journey through an image. The simplest way to add depth to your composition is to include elements in the foreground.

An object in the foreground appears larger than those things that are farther away. If you position a foreground element in the center or on a third (refer to Chapter 5 for more about thirds) of your frame, the element takes up a great deal of attention, and viewers most likely see it as the subject. On the other hand, positioning foreground elements at the edges of a frame ensures that they work as compositional framing tools instead of stealing the show from your subject.

In Figure 11-2,1 positioned the rocks in the foreground at the front edge and left and right sides of the frame. They don't come into the frame enough to compete with the waterfall, which is the subject. Instead, they work to lead viewers to the waterfall. They serve a double purpose by showing the environment around the waterfall and leading viewers' eyes to the subject.

28mm, 1.3 sec.J/22, 100

Figure 11-2: Foreground elements can be used to lead viewers and keep them from exiting the bottom of the frame.

A shallow depth of field can enhance the sense of distance in your image. (Chapter 7 tells you more about depth of field.) Your eyes can focus on only one distance at a time. The closer two objects are, the more likely you can see them both clearly without switching back and forth between one and the other. So, when you focus on something distant, the object right near you becomes a vague blur in your peripheral vision.

When you compose an image with an element in the foreground as a compositional framing element, make it appear blurry; doing so gives the sense of depth based on how you would see the scene in real life. To cause the blur to happen, shoot with a shallow depth of field, which can be achieved by using a large aperture.

Adding Interest by getting creative With your compositional frame

A compositional frame doesn't have to be as obvious as a tree or rock in the foreground. You can use anything to frame an image — any object, shadow, or reflection — and it can be in front of or behind your subject. Be as creative as you can with your frames. Look for shapes, tones, colors, and forms in a scene that seem to create a border for your subject, and allow them to become part of the scene rather than just existing at the edges. Also try to incorporate a compositional frame into the image subtly.

Sometimes a compositional element that frames an image serves only one purpose — to be a frame. This isn't true in Figure 11-3, which has many compositional ideas happening at once. It has a frame that's also quite possibly the subject of the image. You could say that the birds or the sunrise are the subject, but you could just as easily say that the pier stands as the subject as well. The pier works together with the dark sand in the foreground to frame the image, and it also extends into the stronger areas of the image as if it were the subject. Patterns are created with the pier and its reflection. Where the dried up sand washes the pattern away, the sun is positioned to make that point important in the composition. The existence of the pattern on the right side of the frame is balanced by the absence of it on the left side.