Chapter 19

Ten Ways to Improve Composition

In This Chapter

Developing your photo composition skills

Gaining inspiration for your photography

Even more than natural talent and a good eye, experience is what makes photographers great. Using the information you discover in this book will help you create beautiful and meaningful compositions. And the more time you spend composing images and analyzing your results, the more likely you are to capture amazing images wherever you go. To help you gain the experience and practice you need, I include ten projects in this chapter. They provide a nice overview of the most important photography concepts. So, if you find yourself having a difficult time coming up with ideas or inspiration, refer to this chapter and give yourself some homework.

Reveal Contrast with Complementary Colors

Contrast is important in compositions because it draws a viewer’s eyes to specific areas of a frame. You can use complementary colors (those that are on opposite sides of the color wheel) to create contrast and show viewers exactly where to look in your images. The color wheel in Chapter 6 can help you recognize which colors, when used together, provide the most contrast.

Here are examples of complementary color schemes: yellow and blue, red and cyan, and green and magenta. Allow yourself to concentrate only on these combinations and to seek them out when you’re photographing. Notice the person holding the red balloon that’s floating up in the cyan sky or the magenta flowers in their green bed. Or take a portrait of your blonde friend wearing his blue hat. Spend the day looking for complementary colors to shoot. You can even create a photo essay on complementary colors.

Explore different ways of using contrasting colors in your compositions. Try filling the frame with just two complementary colors, and then try positioning them somewhere specific in your frame to draw the attention of viewers to that area. Make one color more dominant in the frame than the other or split the presence of each in half.

Harmonize with Monochromatic Colors

The subtlest approach to photographic composition (with regard to color) is the monochromatic color scheme — a design that incorporates colors from a single hue, or one area of the color wheel. You can use the various shades of red, green, or yellow, and so on. Each color has specific moods or associations attached to it, so by creating a monochromatic design, you can emphasize those moods or associations in your image. (See Chapter 6 for more details on color and the related terms.)

This color scheme may be challenging to find at first, but with a little practice and creativity you can make it happen. For example, look for a light green plant in a dark green pot in front of an even darker green wall. People often wear monochromatic outfits, and you can sometimes find this color scheme in stacks of fruit or in the décor of people’s homes.

Make a Subtle Statement with Analogous Colors

The analogous color scheme (one made up of colors that exist side by side on the color wheel) is a mixture between high contrast and no contrast in color. The contrast level is somewhat subdued, and the result is a pleasant and comfortable design. Using three colors to create an analogous color composition often is helpful. Doing so provides a wide enough range in color to have some contrast but not enough to be dramatic. Refer to the color wheel in Chapter 6 to see which colors reside next to each other in the spectrum.

Try to create photographs that have a sense of flow by seeking out analogous colors in your scenes. A woman wearing a yellow hat and a cyan dress lying in a green meadow could give the same feeling as a slow love song, while a man in a blue suit with a magenta vest in front of a red brick wall could give the same feeling as modern jazz may provide. Experiment with this type of color design and analyze your results. Mix the color combinations (making sure they exist in a row on the color wheel) to see what moods they create.

Use a Shallow Depth of Field to Tell a Story

Your depth of field controls how much sharp detail is revealed in a scene (see Chapter 7 for more information). A shallow depth of field is a useful tool for blurring out distracting backgrounds and pointing out exactly what you want viewers to see in an image. The key to minimizing your depth of field is using an 85mm or longer lens and using your maximum aperture. For more on lenses and aperture values, head to Chapter 3.

Focus on the element that you feel is most important to your message; it will be the only thing in the image that’s sharp. Try using selective focus to highlight a person’s eyes in a portrait, make one person in a crowd stand out, or give a clearer depiction of a flower in front of a busy background.

This technique is an important one because it helps you emphasize your points and drive home your messages. After you’ve mastered it, you can use it in conjunction with other compositional techniques to create strong conceptual images. For now, concentrate mainly on using the shallow depth of field in ways that seem to have purpose.

Shoot Until You’ve Exhausted the Possibilities

Any scene that you come across has the potential to provide many different beautiful photographs. Each photographer would approach the scene differently, and many of them would achieve good results. So, if you take only one image of a particular scene and feel that you have it covered, you’re probably selling yourself short.

Explore an area and consider the various elements that exist in it. Use different compositional techniques, and take many shots from different perspectives. (For more on perspective, check out Chapter 8.) For example, you may do the following:

Change your depth of field.

Shoot a wide angle of the scene and zoom in for detail shots.

Choose different elements to act as your subject.

Shoot for color and for black and white.

Your first shot of a scene may not turn out to be a keeper, so taking only one isn’t a good idea. You may find that you get the best shots later in the shoot when you really start to get familiar with the scene and its elements. Having options is always better than just having one version of a scene to represent it.

Choose a Background That Says Something

When composing an image, consider your subject and determine what you want to say about it. Then analyze the scene to figure out which elements in the background work best to relay your message about that subject. Look for supporting and descriptive qualities, and allow your backgrounds to be even more interesting than your subjects.

For example, if you’re shooting an environmental portrait of a college math professor, position her in front of an area of the chalkboard that has a massive equation written on it rather than an area that’s blank. By doing so, you allow viewers to gather that she teaches math.

Similarly, your goal may be to create a certain mood when shooting something like a perfume bottle. In this case, pay attention to the colors in your background, and position your subject in front of an area that matches the mood you’re going for. Flip to Chapter 6 to find out which colors carry which mood associations.

Tackle Transparent and Reflective Elements

One of the biggest challenges for photographers is getting nice images of reflective and transparent surfaces. These elements tend to reveal off-camera details in their reflections, and they don’t follow the same rules as opaque surfaces when it comes to light. The best way to master the art of photographing these elements is to practice, allowing yourself to experience what works and what doesn’t.

To practice, find something that’s transparent and reflective, like a wine glass, and position it next to a window that’s letting in indirect light. Look through your viewfinder and notice how the light affects your subject. Pay attention to how the background is revealed through the transparent surface and how the window and any other elements are reflected in the glass. Change the angle of your camera a few times, paying attention to how everything changes in the scene and in the glass’s reflection.

Also change your camera angle so the window is directly behind your glass. Expose an image and see what happens with the light and reflections. Then get between the window and the glass and see what happens. Find what direction of light works best with which camera angle. Strive to create the best representation of the glass that you can.

Treat Light as the Subject

Don’t pay attention only to the physical elements in your scene; also be aware of what the light is doing. Some of the most interesting images are those that have a significant light situation. When I’m uninspired in a certain location, I pay attention to what the light is doing around me. It can spark some motivation to take a photograph. Light is what makes photography possible, after all. So why not allow it to be your subject?

For example, if direct sunlight is coming in a window and creating unique shapes in your room, take a picture. If the clouds are breaking up the way the sunlight is falling on the mountains, take the picture. The same goes for a situation in which the city buildings are reflecting sunlight onto the people waiting for the bus across the street. Or, if light cuts through some cracks in a wall or a street lamp shines a spotlight on someone, take the shot!

Incorporate a Compositional Frame

Compositional frames are elements that exist at the edges of your photo and keep viewers’ eyes inside the frame. The most basic way to create one is to position your camera so you have some type of foreground element between you and your subject — maybe a window frame, some tree branches, or so on. When you compose the image, include the foreground element in the edges of your viewfinder in a way that surrounds your subject. Doing so creates a frame that persuades viewers to keep looking at the subject.

When you come across something you want to photograph, move about the scene and see whether anything can frame your subject. You’ll likely have to try a few different perspectives in order to line everything up perfectly. Ideally, your compositional frame won’t block the view of your subject.

Framing helps to add depth and visual interest to your images. It also provides information about the environment that your subject is in. Practice this concept a lot and you’ll be very happy with the results.

Create a Composite Image

In some situations, you simply can’t capture the beauty of the scene in just one image. For instance, if you’re looking into the sunset, and a beautifully backlit scene is in front of you, you have to choose whether to expose for the sky details or for the details in your scene. The two are so different in brightness that exposing for one does no justice for the other.

If you come across a situation like this one, take two separate exposures (one for the sky and one for the ground elements) and put them together with photo-editing software to make one image that represents the scene in the way you remember seeing it. (See Chapter 18 for more on postproduction.)

To create a composite image, follow these steps:

1. Set your camera on a tripod and compose your scene.

You’ll be putting together multiple images of the same scene in postproduction, and layering them on top of each other is much easier if the camera doesn’t move during the shooting process. So, that’s why I suggest you use a tripod. Also keep in mind that the more intricate your horizon, the more difficult it is to put the two images together in postproduction. Trees can often be difficult to work with, so you may want to use a scene with a flat, undisturbed horizon line, like the beach, for your first attempt at this.

2. Take the two exposures of your scene.

Make sure that one of the images exposes the ground elements in the best way possible and the other exposes the details in the sky correctly.

3. Open the two images in your editing software, placing them side by side on your desktop.

Using the information on selection tools in Chapter 18, make a selection of the sky in the image that was exposed for the sky. Drag that selection into the other file that has the correct exposure for the ground elements. You now have a file that has detail in the sky and on the ground.

The main goal of this project is to create an image that looks realistic to your viewers. You don’t want them to know that you edited the sky in from a second exposure just by looking at your image. You can apply this technique to all types of photography (not just landscape), but it’s easiest to work with subjects that don’t move.