Some may be thinking, what is composition? Composition is the arrangement of elements within the frame being captured. This may influence how the viewers perceive the message and how they may interact with the image or clip. Having a good composition guides the viewers eyes to create a harmonious visual experience.

Rule of Thirds

This is when the frame is divided into a 3×3 grid when shooting, and then placing the main subject along the lines, and leaving the rest of the frame open. This creates a balanced image and draws the attention to the main subject and makes the shot more dynamic.

Like for this shot at a golf course, it emphasizes the trophy while showcasing the beauty of the golf course.

Leading Lines

This is when you use natural lines in the frame to guide the viewers eyes to the main subject. For example this could include: roads, rivers, buildings, trees, people. This creates a depth in the image and shows a crazy perspective that is very pleasing to the eyes.

Depth and Layers

Creating depth in an image takes it from a flat looking image to one that looks more like a three dimensional experience for the viewers. This consists of three areas of your frame. Foreground which is everything right up close to you when taking the photo. Then you have middle ground which is everything in the middle of the photo. And lastly there is background, everything on the backside of your frame. When you include all three it creates a deep image with lots of detail for the viewer to look at.

For example in this image we have a foreground as the players on the sideline cheering for their team, then we have in the middle ground the players on the court celebrating their last play, additionally in the background we have the fans and student section cheering for their team.

Angles and Perspectives

Always look for new perspectives on things to showcase the subject or idea in a new way that the viewer has not seen before. Instead of always shooting straight on with your subject try getting low, getting high, tilt your camera, go off to one side. Be creative with your frames and it sets you away from everyone else and you become your own creative look.

With this photo above it was taken down with the camera near the water to showcase the depth of the water having to walk through for the hunt. If the camera was pulled away and just taking the photo from above on the shore the story would be more of just picking up the decoys. It just shows that if you change your angle you can get a whole new perspective and meaning conveyed through the image.

Don’t Always Follow The “Rules”

Like I stated above, do your own thing, be creative and make the photos the way you want them to look. There is no standard on how a photo should look, its all about what message you want the viewers to take. Always try to experiment, try something new on each photoshoot to see how you like it maybe you want to incorporate it into future photoshoots. Have your own creative style.