Tips on Composing a Photograph
Photo composition is important because it not only makes your art interesting, but it also keeps the viewer engaged. These tips are meant to help you improve your composition. If you are a beginning photographer, it will take a little bit of time to get an ?eye? for composition, but you will continue to get better.
1. Make sure that you always keep composition in mind. Try not to rely on cropping your photos later. While you can crop your photos later, you will waste a lot of time cropping all of them in order to get an interesting image.
2. You will want to first consider the placement of your subject. You generally want to avoid putting your subject in the middle. Place your subject in a “sweet spot.”
To get an idea about where these sweet spots are located, imagine a rectangular, blank photo. Envision 2 vertical lines dividing the frame into 3 equal sections. Now imagine 2 horizontal lines breaking the frame into 3 equal sections. Where these lines intersect at 4 spots are the sweet spots. For a great photo, experiment placing your subject in these imaginary sweet spots.
3. Lines and texture can be used to draw your view in. Lines will allow the viewer to be guided around the photograph.
If you have a spiral staircase spiraling inward, the viewer will continue to follow that spiral around. If you have blades of grass and rays of sun, the viewer will most likely follow the blades of grass to the top of the photo, and the rays of sun to the bottom of the photo; they will continue this cycle.
If you have horizon lines, try placing them higher or lower in the frame. You can use strong lines with subjects such as buildings, railroad tracks, ladders, or trees.
