Between Balance and Dominance

When I press the shutter button on my camera, I freeze the moment. I tear that moment out of our chaotic world, simplify it down to one unambiguous meaning, establish relationships between objects and subordinate all of it to a certain order. I bring order and harmony into chaos.

Composition is the tool we use to create harmony and order in a photograph. Composition is what the author uses to lead the viewer through a crowd of insignificant elements toward his main idea, toward feelings, toward mood, toward the very essence of the photograph, toward its meaning. And even though you have heard about all sorts of compositional devices many times over - that is not composition yet. That is only the means by which it is achieved. And the foundation of any composition is simplicity. Strive for simplicity - that is the main postulate that will help you build your composition. Unfortunately, simplicity is not the absence of effort in making a composition. Simplicity doesn’t come simply. See what I did there? And still - you need simplicity. You will have to sweat for it.

Because for the viewer to understand your idea, nothing should distract him. If a photograph contains several centers of interest competing with each other for the viewer’s attention, then most likely you will fail to express your idea unambiguously. To achieve simplicity, you have to understand clearly what the subject of your shot is. If you have settled on your subject, then rendering it simply is just a matter of technique. It gets much harder when you are shooting something that resists any single formulation. Achieving simplicity in that case is quite difficult. How are you going to exclude distracting elements from the frame if you don’t know what you want to focus your viewer’s attention on? What are you shooting? Someone very clever will say right about now: “You just have to trust your intuition.” Well then, not a bad idea. That is exactly what most professionals do.

Of course, they don’t stand there tormenting themselves with questions about the center of interest and the secondary elements. The thing is, they have already asked themselves those questions. A long time ago. And now they don’t need to. If you ever learned to drive a car, remember how hard everything was at the start. How difficult it was to synchronize the movements of your feet and hands. And how you gave your feet mental commands just to get the car moving. Do you remember your feet now, when you shift gears? Of course not. You don’t even think about it. That is exactly what simplicity is. But did it come to you simply? Most likely not. It is the same in photography. You will have to torment yourself with questions now, until your photographic intuition reaches the point of shifting gears automatically. Ask yourself WHAT you are going to photograph and then photograph exactly THAT. Sounds simple enough. But pulling it off… you should have guessed by now… From simplicity - which is the foundation of your composition - we move on to the rules and principles that will help bring a certain order into your photograph. Bring harmony and balance. Sometimes tension. And better yet, of course - all of it at once. The main thing is not to overdo it! Otherwise it will be completely inedible…

The Center of Interest Is Not the Center of the Photograph

The common mistake of all beginning photographers is that they place the main subject in the center of the frame. And although this can sometimes work, I strongly recommend that you avoid such a composition (at least until your developed photographic intuition enters the game). Believe me, there are many other, stronger compositional devices. Placing the center of interest in the center of the frame leads to a flat and static composition. To a boring and monotonous one. Most amateur photographs suffer first and foremost from this photographic flaw. Can’t guess why? And where is the main metering and focusing point located in every camera? Guessed it now? Of course, it is a conspiracy. A conspiracy of the designers and engineers who develop our cameras. They probably suffer terribly from never getting to take photographs themselves, forced instead to spend all their time improving their high-tech creations. And they take revenge on us. But now I have warned you. So stay alert and… do not place the center of interest in the center of the frame.

The Rule of Thirds

You simply must have heard about this rule. With it you can bring asymmetry into your composition, which will considerably improve how it is perceived. To use this rule, you need to divide your frame mentally (a ruler works too) into three parts both horizontally and vertically. The points where two lines intersect are the centers of visual interest. These points are the ideal place for the main subject (the center of meaning) of your photograph. But you can use not only the intersection points, but the lines themselves. For instance, when shooting a landscape you can place the horizon line either on the lower third or on the upper third of the frame - depending on what will dominate your composition, the land or the sky. The rule of thirds works for horizontal compositions as well as vertical ones. Some people confuse it with the Golden Ratio, which was first introduced in ancient Greece and then used actively by the painters of the Renaissance. These two rules are very similar, but in the Golden Ratio the points of interest sit a little closer to the center of the image (to find the golden ratio points you need to divide the frame with a diagonal, and then drop lines from the opposite corners at a right angle to that diagonal).

The Diagonal and Other Lines

Any photograph abounds in lines and curves. These lines can be real or implied. Examples of real lines would be the horizon, a road, the folds of clothing, a tan line around… let’s say the waist. Real lines come out of a contrast of light or color. Implied lines are not so obvious. These lines do not exist visually, but we can get them too, by connecting certain points of space in our minds. It can be the line of the shoulders or of the eyes, the direction of drifting cirrus clouds, trees growing along a road…

The main thing is that these lines should not cut the frame in half. That is just as bad as placing the center of interest of your photograph in the central part of the frame (I will never tire of repeating this to you, don’t get your hopes up). Lines are usually used to lead the viewer’s gaze to the center of meaning in the photograph. An example would be a road, quite wide in the foreground, but gradually narrowing along a diagonal as it goes deep into the frame and brings us to the little figure of a traveler. Shots with a clearly expressed diagonal create an impression of movement and dimensionality. Relying on a diagonal is one of the classic devices for building a composition. Lines of various shapes are strong compositional elements as well. Horizontal lines usually strengthen the sense of importance, force and monumentality in a composition, while vertical and diagonal ones create a feeling of movement and speed. A curved line in the shape of the letter S is very attractive in a composition - a winding road, for example, disappearing over the horizon. Compositions also often use curves shaped like C, Z, and a big L (both straight and inverted).

Perspective

For any photograph it is very important to create a sense of perspective. This is achieved by including converging lines in the composition, or well-known objects that let us correctly judge sizes and distances in flat images. People or animals are very often used as such “special” objects, since we have an idea of their true size and on that basis can easily reconstruct the missing perspective.

Tension and Balance

Balance is another cornerstone of composition. In principle, any composition should be balanced. This means the objects in the frame should counterbalance each other in a certain way. The easiest way to reach equilibrium is through identical size or shape. Although this is also the most boring version of balance. Equilibrium can be reached for unequal objects too, for example when one object is bright and the other is dark. All right, let’s check how well you are following my thought… Which object should be the brighter one to create balance? I hope you answered - the smaller one. To our eye these two objects will be perceived as equal - one will draw attention by its size, the other by its bright color. Tension is the opposite of balance. More precisely, almost the opposite. Because it is the point at which balance is about to break. Creating compositional tension in the frame is far harder than creating balance, but probably that is why such shots have far more impact on the viewer.

The Natural Frame

One of the strong compositional devices is including a natural frame for your photograph inside the shot. It can be a window, a door, an arch, or simply a group of trees bordering the central subject. In any case, try to find some natural boundaries for your composition and include them in the frame. It is simple enough and very striking.

There are still quite a few compositional devices out there, among them shape, pattern, rhythm, color, movement, visual accent and others. I just don’t want you to get lost in all that variety. Start with the simple ones. With the most understandable and easily doable devices (which, by the way, are also the strongest), and as you master them you will be able to expand your compositional toolkit on your own.

And a few more simple pieces of advice, recommendations on how to strengthen the composition you are building, or at least not ruin it:

Don’t Draw Attention Away from the Main Thing

Even if you have a strong center of interest, it can easily get lost among other details that will pull the viewer’s attention away from the main subject. It can be bright glints of light on secondary objects, little branches clipped by the edges of the frame, a sharp and detailed background, bright patches of light or contrast - all of this and much more can easily reduce the expressive effect of the object at the center of meaning, and therefore of the whole photograph. If you are shooting a moving object, always leave enough space in the direction it is moving. Otherwise the impression will be that your subject is running into the borders of the frame.

Make the Main Subject Stand Out

A good photograph requires the central object to separate from the background. If the object is light, it is better to shoot it against a dark background, and the other way around. The human eye instinctively looks for the brightest and sharpest element in a photograph, so try to make the center of meaning exactly that. If the subject turns out to be out of focus or blurred by motion, this usually hurts how the photograph comes across - unless, of course, that was the photographer’s creative device.

The Subject’s Size Does Not Match the Space of the Frame

Although all the auxiliary space of the frame not taken up by the main subject is also part of the overall composition, the subject itself should occupy a fairly substantial part of the shot. Shots where “extra” space takes up more than three quarters of the area look limp and unappealing. Wildlife shots are usually guilty of this - it is hard to get close enough to the animals to shoot them large enough in the frame. To fill the frame with your subject, you simply need to come closer. At first I advise you to use this rule - come as close to the subject as seems possible to you. And then… come closer still. The point of this simple exercise is that most beginning photographers misjudge the size of the subject and its relationship to the space of the frame. But step over your own notions a couple of times and the problem disappears by itself. A subject taking up most of the frame pushes the distracting and secondary elements out of it.

A Tilted Horizon

The most widespread mistake in landscape shots is a tilted horizon. Certainly, in a number of cases the effect is created deliberately, but far more often it is just carelessness during the shoot, which spoils the frame and makes it look unnatural. What’s more, you don’t have to be a great guru to fix the horizon in a digital photograph. But it is better still to remember about it while shooting. One minute before you press the shutter button will save you ten minutes of work at the computer.

Rules Are Made to Be Broken

I simply had to say this, because there will always be someone who reads these rules and follows them as the one unbreakable truth. Don’t. Just know that such rules exist. Follow them where you can. But if you feel like breaking them - break them. Only don’t forget that good shots can come out only if you break these rules consciously. And then the result you get may just justify your “apostasy.”

Remember that if the center of meaning in your photograph dominates the frame, it is easier for you to make it clear and interesting to the viewer. Simple shots, not overloaded with detail, always look attractive. Build the frame with a strong accent on the subject, use depth of field to push everything unnecessary into the background, or use a uniform, non-distracting background - all of this will help make your composition more expressive. Simplicity is felt in those shots where the author manages to concentrate the viewer’s attention on the main subject.

The eye looks first for what is bright, sharp and warm in tone. If you remember this while building your composition through the camera’s viewfinder, you will be able to place the subjects in the space of the frame most effectively.

Good composition is balance. Between simplicity and originality. Between stillness and movement. Between tension and equilibrium. Between Scylla and Charybdis.

So, Jason?.. Think we’ll punch through?