Compositional Guidelines

Transcription

1 COMPOSITION Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk. --Edward Weston I just walk around, observing the subject from various angles until the picture elements arrange themselves into a composition that pleases my eye. -Andre Kertesz, Margaret R. Weiss, Saturday Review World, January 1974 There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants. -Arnold Newman, "Interviews With Master Photographers :

2 COMPOSITION Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk. --Edward Weston I just walk around, observing the subject from various angles until the picture elements arrange themselves into a composition that pleases my eye. -Andre Kertesz, Margaret R. Weiss, Saturday Review World, January 1974 There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants. -Arnold Newman, "Interviews With Master Photographers :

3 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

4 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

5 Center or Point of Interest

6 Center or Point of Interest

7 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

8 Putting four edges around a collection of information or facts transforms it. A photograph is not what was photographed, it s something else a new world is created Gary Winogrand

9 Elliot Erwitt

10 Lee Friedlander

11 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

12 Avoid mergers Photographs collapse 3d space into 2d space Photographs create compositional relationships we might not recognize while in the act of photographing Mergers-awkward combinations of lines/shapes/subjects as a result of collapsing 3d space to a 2d image Strategies to avoid mergers: Photographer moves Subject moves Background moves

13 Examples of Mergers

14 Examples of Mergers

15 Playing with Mergers

16 Elliot Erwitt

17 Playing with Mergers

18 Playing with Mergers

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20 "Probably one of the worst things that happened to photography is that cameras have viewfinders." - John Baldessari

21 Mergers: things to watch for Background objects can merge with the primary foreground subject. (For example, a power pole can "grow" out of your uncle's head.) Strong colors or similar colors of objects behind or near the main subject can merge with the subject. A white hat might merge with a light background and all but disappear. Remember, mergers are often removed by simply moving the camera or subject

22 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

23 Balance Symmetrical balance Two matching subjects in size or shape Symmetrical balance distributes visual elements evenly in an image. Asymmetrical balance A heavier presence balanced against a lighter presence

24 Symmetrical Balance

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27 Diane Arbus

28 Roy DeCarava

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31 Asymmetrical Balance

32 Asymmetrical Balance

33 Asymmetrical Balance

34 Asymmetrical Balance

35 Asymmetrical Balance

36 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

37 Keep it simple: an empty frame

38 Keep it simple: an empty frame (in this case empty is complicated)

39 Keep it simple: an empty frame

40 Keep it simple: an empty frame

41 Keep it simple: shallow depth of field

42 Keep it Simple - Shallow Depth of Field

43 Keep it simple: shallow depth of field

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45 Keep it simple: shallow depth of field

46 Keep it simple: shallow depth of field

47 Elliot Erwitt, NYC 1950

48 Elliot Erwitt, Ernst Hass 1955

49 Matthew Tischler

50 DEEP DEPTH OF FIELD - Walker Evans

51 Martin Parr

52 Martin Parr

53 Martin Parr

54 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

55 Frame within a frame

56 Frame within a frame

57 Robert Frank, Butte, Montana

58 Robert Frank, New Orleans, 1955

59 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

60 SUBJECT PLACEMENT

61 Rule of Thirds Use the rule of thirds to help with Horizon line placement Strong lines placement Single subject placement Main subject/secondary subject placement

62 Rule of Thirds

63 Rule of Thirds

64 Rule of Thirds

65 Rule of Thirds

66 Rule of Thirds

67 Rule of Thirds

68 Rule of Thirds

69 Rule of Thirds

70 Rule of Thirds

71 The Golden Ratio / Fibonocci Spiral

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73 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

74 Use Strong Lines

75 This recognition, in real life, of a rhythm of surfaces, lines, and values is for me the essence of photography; composition should be a constant of preoccupation, being a simultaneous coalition an organic coordination of visual elements. - Henri Cartier-Bresson

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77 Use strong lines

78 Use strong lines

79 Use strong lines

80 Use strong lines Always be conscious of where lines are entering your frame: from which side? From which corner? Which of these images is most successful?

81 Strong Lines / Patterns (repeated)

82 Strong Lines / Patterns (repeated)

83 Patterns and Repetition

84 Use strong lines

85 Use strong lines

86 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

87 LIGHT AND SHADOW

88 LIGHT AND SHADOW - Imogen Cunningham

89 LIGHT AND SHADOW - Imogen Cunningham

90 LIGHT AND SHADOW - Imogen Cunningham

91 LIGHT AND SHADOW

92 SHAPES

93 Texture

94 Texture

95 Texture -- Aaron Siskind

96 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

97 Use the edge of the frame

98 Use the edge of the frame

99 Use the edge of the frame

100 Use the edge of the frame

101 Compositional Guidelines These are guidelines, not rules. Understanding them will help you create more purposeful compositions. Center or Point of Interest / Subject Placement Framing 3-D world into a 2D Photograph Avoid mergers Balance Symmetrical-even Assymetrical-a heavier presence vs a lighter/foreground vs background Keep it simple Empty frame Shallow depth of field Use a frame within a frame Rule of thirds Use strong lines Shapes / Light & Shadows / Texture Frame tension Vantage point Birds eye Worms eye

102 Vantage point: your angle of view

103 Vantage point: your angle of view

104 Vantage point: birds eye

105 Vantage point: birds eye

106 In order to accustom people to seeing from new viewpoints it is essential to take photographs of everyday, familiar subjects from completely unexpected vantage points and in completely unexpected positions.one should shoot the subject from several positions, as if encompassing it--not peer through one keyhole - Rodchenko

107 Vantage point: close up/abstraction

108 Vantage point: close up/abstraction

109 Vantage point: close up/abstraction

110 Vantage point: worms eye

111 Vantage point: worms eye

112 And one last thing Consider placing a moving subject so they move into the image

113 Experimentation is key, try different approaches constantly

114 Andy Goldsworthy

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116 Experimentation is key, try different approaches constantly

117 Experimentation is key, try different approaches constantly

118 Todd Hido Roaming

119 Martin Parr from Bad Weather

120 Martin Parr from Bad Weather

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123 Walead Beshty

124 James Welling from Torsos

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126 Strategies: Composition and Shooting How do I balance these ideas? Shooting with a preplanned idea when photographing Things you may be able to plan ahead: location Props time of day vantage point artificial lighting Make a list of things to shoot Improvising in a rapid situation Keeping subject at center of frame Moving frame around with subject somewhere in picture Editing a group of images down to ones that have compositional strength Shoot in quantity, edit for quality Constant experimentation to ensure a variety of images, more chances for success

127 Make a list.

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129 What composition elements are these photographers using?

130 Elliot Erwitt

131 Roy DeCarava

132 Robert Frank

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135 William Eggleston

136 Candida Höfer

137 Roy DeCarava

138 Elliot Erwitt

139 Andreas Gursky

140 Lee Friedlander

141 Elliot Erwitt

142 Lee Friedlander

143 Elliot Erwitt

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