Compusition
About Compusition
Composition is one of the most challenging yet powerful and exciting aspects of painting. It is the technical foundation of your painting. Without it, paintings visually fall apart. Careful consideration of the composition before putting paint to surface will make your session more enjoyable, and contribute to the success of your painting.
Rumor has it that Moses dropped one of the stone tablets containing God's commandments, leaving us with only ten. Exactly what may have been on the other slab of rock we'll never know, but if God wished to guide us in our photography ....
Within photography, there are three essential elements that combine to produce a successful image: correct exposure; sharp focus; and an effective or pleasing composition. Two of these: exposure and focus, are handled very well by today's sophisticated electronic cameras. Although we still use and advocate one's knowledge of manual mode and spot metering, it is astounding to see the quality images attained by simply shooting on a programmed mode using matrix or evaluative metering. There are flaws with automatic metering, but for eighty to ninety per-cent of one's shooting, automatic metering does remarkably well.
Focus is another element handled well with auto focus cameras and lenses. Effective images usually require a correctly exposed image and a sharply focused subject, however the latter isn't necessarily mandatory. Great shots are possible when techniques such as slow shutter speeds, defocusing, intentional camera shake or double exposures are used to depict movement, creating an impressionistic image. However, most nature images are indeed sharp, and autofocus lenses with good, secure tripods make obtaining such fairly easy.
Unlike exposure and focus, the third element — composition, is not dependent on the camera. If you frame an uninteresting image, neither you nor your camera's technology can salvage the image. Boring is boring. Sloppy is sloppy. Poor imagery is poor imagery.
Some people have a natural gift for composition, seeing interesting patterns, close-up details, juxtapositions, lights and shadows, contrast, or drama in images others would ignore or dismiss. This is a gift we all wish we had. Unfortunately for many, composition doesn't come easily, and making an "interesting" or aesthetically pleasing image is a real challenge.
Some tackle the problem by the sheer power and diversity of their equipment. Granted, the more lenses, filters, diffusers, flashes, and cameras they have, the greater is their freedom to compose or to capture whatever is in their "mind's eye." However, even a glut of gear won't produce great results without an interesting subject — and a compositional sense.
If your brow is beading with sweat as you read this, for fear that you are one of those unhappy souls that know little or nothing about composition and who has no natural eye for aesthetics, don't fret. There are several rules — the commandments I mentioned earlier — that can shape a mundane image into a striking one. Like all rules, they're not meant to be strictly and unquestioningly followed, they can be broken if need be. With that said, let's consider the ten commandments of successful imagery.
One. Find a Center of Interest. This should be obvious, right? Otherwise we wouldn't be making the shot? But sometimes we end up capturing either too much, or too little, of what had originally caught our eye in the first place. We've found this most common when people are shooting macro landscapes. Instead of capturing an artistic image of a rotting log, they'll end up with a really uninteresting shot of dead wood. Scenics, too, can fail, merely because they are just a recording of the scene — a snapshot, revealing nothing new about the landscape and providing no insight into the shooter's motivation. When considering an image, ask yourself, "What am I trying to convey?" "Does my technique work in doing this?" If you can't answer the first question, chances are the second question won't matter. If you can, well, that's when technique comes into play.
Two. For easy and effective compositions, fill the frame with your center of interest. Years ago, we overheard John Shaw joke that if you can't make it good, make it big. That's really quite true. Close-ups, whether produced from a super telephoto at eighty feet or a macro lens at eight inches, fascinate us, revealing details and sometimes capturing expressions that we often overlook. The subject carries the shot, as our attention is directed solely at that subject. Even here, a great close-up can be marred by poor compositional technique.
Three. Follow the 'Rule of Thirds' and the 'Points of Power' Grid. Centered images are often weak. When we find ourselves looking at the center of the screen for each projected slide, our eyes grow weary of the monotony. We tire of the imagery, regardless of how interesting the subject may have been.
Let your viewer's eye rove the screen, seeking out detail or interest. Let there be visual surprises with each projected slide, giving your viewers no clue as to where their eyes will be lead. And that's the point, centers of interest do not have to be centered!
If you're not familiar with the 'Rule of Thirds' and 'Points of Power', consider a 35mm rectangular frame that's divided horizontally by two lines that roughly divide the frame into three quadrants of equal size — thirds! Now, divide the frame again, but this time with two vertical lines that divide the frame into three vertical quadrants. It doesn't matter if you're considering a horizontal or a vertical composition for this. Putting these four lines together results in an elongated tic-tac-toe board. The intersected points of horizontal and vertical lines mark the 'Points of Power' — the sweet spots on many compositions. If you place your subject at one of these four points, rather than the center, chances are, your image will improve.
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Which point you choose depends upon your subject and what other elements comprise the image. A lone bird in a dead snag might look best in one of the two upper 'points of power.' This allows the viewers' eyes to sweep upward, following the snag until the eye comes to rest at the top of the frame where the bird rests. An elk, bugling majestically in a mountain valley, might look great in one of the lower 'points of power', where, in this position, you'd have room to include the mountains that define the scene's location. As you can see from either example, a centered subject would have provided less room to reinforce the sense of height or locale you wished to convey.
Four. Include all of your subject's important elements within your frame. Don't cut off paws, tails, ears, or flower petal tips. This often requires a judgment call in a tight close-up. Consider the lines of the subject's cut-off part. If those lines run parallel, or are diverging, then a cut-off part may not be missed. But if the lines are converging, and seem to do so just out of the frame, then back off or zoom out to include the cut-off area. Otherwise, your viewer's eye will beg to complete the slightly missing part, and the image will be perceived imbalanced.
Although this seems like an easy rule to follow, it's actually not. Cameras, with viewfinders that show 100% of the image area, can produce shots where parts are cut-off by a slide mount, even though those parts were in your frame! Viewfinders showing 93% may show too little, and you may end up with more than you thought, including parts just slightly cut off that you thought were completely out of the picture. Practice, and a hard-luck familiarity with your viewfinder's particulars, are the only solutions to this dilemma.
Five. Use your depth of field preview button. Hopefully, your camera has one! Not all do, while others require replacing one custom camera function with another. Without this preview, you truly won't know exactly what's in your frame, or how sharp your subject and other elements will appear. Unless, of course, you always shoot your lenses at their maximum, wide-open aperture.
Beginners using the preview button often complain that everything gets too dark, that nothing is visible, or that they do not see any difference. This is true. In dim light at minimum apertures (f/11 to f/32), a stopped down lens produces such a dark viewfinder that details, or even your subject, may be difficult to see. If you're not stopped down very far, depth of field differences between wide-open and your chosen aperture will be so subtle that you may not notice a difference. In good light, differences are certainly present, and as you fine-tune your sensitivity you'll see these changes.
Depth of field charts tell you what's in focus over a given distance range. They do not address elements within your frame that are outside the critical sharpness zone which are, nonetheless, present in some degree of sharpness. Depth of field preview allows you to discern the sharpness of these elements, to make judgments on whether to soften them further, or to stop down to get those elements sharper. If all else fails, you can recompose or eliminate these elements entirely.
Depth of field preview is so critical for effective compositions, that I simply would not even consider buying a camera without this feature.
Six. Eliminate foreground and background distractions and clutter. Everyone knows to watch for telephone poles jutting out of heads — that's basic photography. There are other, less obvious, but equally distracting backgrounds. In nature, that might be a bright hotspot of a distant tree trunk reflecting brightly in the sun, or with a flower close-up, a stem or leaf catching too much light.
Less obvious, but equally disastrous, are foreground distractions — objects that often are not noticed until you're viewing your processed film. Leaves, twigs, and other small objects may be completely invisible when you're looking through your lens wide-open, at the minimum depth of field. By using your depth of field preview button, any potential clutter in your final image will appear.
You can eliminate these distractions in several ways. One is to choose a longer lens and reduce the angle of view. Another may be to shift perspective, moving left or right or up or down, shooting around these distractions. Another may be to simply shoot at a wider aperture to lessen the depth of field, incorporating the idea of selective focus to isolate your subject from distractions.
Seven. Sweep the edges of your frame. When you're finally composed, take an extra few seconds to critically view all four sides of your composition. Have you missed anything? Have you added anything you didn't want? Use your depth of field preview button to discern this.
Eight. Consider geometry! Look at the natural lines within your frame. Are they diverging, converging, diagonal, or curving? Lines, be they the trunk of a tree, a forest path, or the stem of a flower, naturally lead your eye. They can take the viewer to your center of interest, or they can lead the viewer away, or out of the frame. Use them effectively to convey the image you want your viewers to see.
Nine. Use your lenses effectively. Everyone knows long lenses magnify, while short lenses provide a wider view. In truth, lenses should be considered in the following three ways: image size, or how large a subject appears on film at a given distance; working distance, how close can you get for the image size you wish; and angle of view, how much of the background do you want
offer the greatest image size at greater working distances and will simplify compositions by including less within the frame. The angle of view with long lenses can really isolate a subject, allowing you to position your subject against simple, pleasing backgrounds. Short lenses won't do this as easily, as their greater angles of view incorporate more within the image.
Ten. Use natural frames. Whether your subject is framed by clear blue sky or a ring of soft color produced by out of focus foliage, natural frames will highlight your shots. How these frames are rendered depends upon your depth of field and your lens choice. Long lenses, shot wide-open, will produce wonderful softly framed images if the foregrounds are relatively close to
your lens, and not right up against your subject. Short lenses, on the other hand, lend themselves to frames containing detail, and it's often best to frame these using as much depth of field as you possibly can. You'll see the final effect if you use that all-important depth-of-field preview button. If you have difficulty conceptualizing 'Commandment Ten,' or any of the ideas presented above, browse through nature and wildlife photography magazines and books and review the images. Try to match up some of these commandments with the images. Can you see where they were used? Where they weren't? As you learn to identify these compositional elements in other people's work, you'll begin to sensitize yourself to these same rules, and soon, without thinking, you'll be incorporating these commandments into your imagery. The results will be visually stunning images that you, and Moses, will be proud of.
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Whitetail deer, Glacier National Park, Montana. 500mm F4 lens, 1/250 sec. at f/6.3, Kodachrome 64. Commandment #3, 'Rule of Thirds'/'Points of Power'. By putting the deer in a 'point of power', the viewer has to sweep the image to find the subject making a potentially boring picture more interesting.
Yellow-crowned night heron, Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Florida. 300mm F2.8 lens, 1/250 sec. at f/4, Kodachrome 64. Commandment #8, Consider geometry. The natural sweep of the curved branches leads the viewer's eye into the frame and up to the bird, which is placed in an upper 'point of power.'
African lion, Masai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya. 80-200mm F2.8 zoom lens, 1/60 sec. at f/13, Fujichrome 100. Commandment #9, Use your lens effectively. With a medium length telephoto lens, a wider angle of view, and a greater depth of field, a sense of location is conveyed in this portrait of the king and his subjects.
Reticulated giraffe, Samburu Game Reserve, Kenya. 600mm F4 lens, 1/500 sec. at f/4, Fujichrome 100. Commandment #10, Use natural frames. This image is a great example of selective focus where foreground foliage is blurred out of focus to create a muted, colorful frame around the giraffe's head. The unobscured eye in a clear area gives the image a center of interest and a sense of mystery.
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