BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: To Be Categorized

Composing

Kelly

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September 23, 2000

Composition is not simple, it's complex. The guidelines for composition (I don't like to call them "rules") are many, much like tools in a toolbox, and can fill a large textbook. Some are general purpose and others highly specialized. Rather than trying to enumerate these generally accepted guidelines, this answer will discuss their purpose and its central role in photography. There are many, many books available that explain and demonstrate compositional techniques, the affect they have, and how they are used.

Photography is a purely visual medium based on light. Image composition involves positioning the camera and/or the objects that will be in the image, and controlling the light emitted or reflected by them, so that the resulting photograph holds the intended viewers' interest and conveys to them the photographer's "vision" for the image, without distractions. The photographer cannot control it all. It must be done within the constraints of what can be controlled.

The "vision" for an image starts with a concept of what the photographer wants the image to achieve and proceeds with a mental visualization of a photograph that will accomplish it. The concept can be "telling a story" or "expressing an emotion" or "documenting a person or object" or some combination of these. There are many methods for doing this and no two photographers will do it the same way.

The "vision" is a very personal thing the photographer must develop in the mind. It's what makes composition a *creative* art, not a science. It employs the science of perspective, light, optics, specific film characteristics, and exposure to perform it. There are many guidelines used in composition involving the psychology of what humans generally find visually interesting and how they respond to visual stimuli. None of them are absolutes; no single image contains them all. Some will be deliberately violated at times by a photographer to achieve the "vision."

-- John

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September 23, 2000