As photographers we all do our best to really think about the composition of our images and construct them to achieve a sense of balance. When we do this well we are able to control eye flow and create a pleasant viewing experience for people looking at our photographs. To...
Composition and Art Category Archive - Page 10
Balance in Photography
Balance is one of the least-discussed principles of good composition, but it is perhaps the most important. Photographers, consciously or not, make an important decision for every image: should the composition be balanced or imbalanced? To some degree, every photograph in existence has elements of both balance and imbalance, which makes...
Using Fog to Create Surreal River Images
Landscape photographers often use fog to help them create wonderful, moody images. You've likely seen one of those arresting photographs of a single tree shrouded by fog standing silently in a field. We can use fog in our river and lake images to good effect as well. Under the right...
How Taking a Step Back Adds Story to Photography
We all have our strengths and weaknesses, as well as ways to deal with the latter. And it is only natural for us to sort of... drift towards our strengths. Hold on to them, practice as often as we can and, by doing so, get even better at them. And...
Negative Space in Photography
You already know a great deal about the composition choices that I make. You know my thoughts on what matters most in photography, the rule of thirds, central composition and element placement at the edges of the frame. Whichever preference is yours, I certainly hope you've learned something from reading...
Explore the Edges
If we see the rule of thirds as the default, "bread and butter" sort of composition guide, I can think of at least two ways to break that rule and distance your work from it. The first one is to use, against the advice of many photographers, central composition. It...
The Sin, the Evil, the Horror of Direct Sunlight
Any photographer will tell you - you do not take portraits in direct sunlight. It's ugly. It's much too contrasty. It wreaks havoc on automatic exposure and tests all sorts of other boring technical aspects of a camera to the limit. It's difficult to pose in, difficult to see in;...
The Magic of “7” in Composition
This article will no doubt be the shortest one I will ever write about image composition as it contains only one, very simple idea. And, that is the number “7”. If you’re like me and tend to see the world around you as shapes and angles when you have a...
Introduction to Black and White Nature Photography
What makes a good black-and-white photograph, how do I take one, and why should I try when I have this nifty hypersaturation preset that makes even my lamest photos look awesome? I’ll answer the last question first – your oversharpened oversaturated photos stink. Their gaudy colors may suck the eye...
Improving Eye Flow by Creating Corner Exits
Back in the day when I was working in corporate life, I gained quite a bit of experience creating and managing advertising, usually print based. When we designed ads, it became second nature for us to constantly think about fundamental concepts like visual depth, dominating elements, and ad balance. The...