Photo Composition

Shooting tips

 

Composition

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Avoid static images, look for peak action:

pepper spray
A protester being pepper sprayed. The image won an award for breaking news photography.
Survivors carry religious images, ten days after Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the central Philippines.
Survivors carry religious images, ten days after Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the central Philippines.

Rule of thirds:


– This technique draws the viewer’s eye into the entire composition, instead of just the center.
– Off-centered images often feel more dynamic than centered ones.
– If the central subject is small, use an intersecting point of the grid. If it is large or long, put it along a grid line.
– In a landscape, place the horizon on one of the horizontal lines, not in the center.
– If a subject is looking or moving in a direction, leave the empty space in that direction.
– Right placement is a popular choice to draw the viewer into the image.

Working the layers:

Scott Jones gives his girlfriend Alex Thomas a kiss after being knocked down to the ground as riot police clear the streets of downtown Vancouver, Canada after the city broke out in riots when the Vancouver Canucks lost Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, on June 15, 2011.
After punching a hole in his bedroom door, Scott panics in his living room. Scott said that being diagnosed with PTSD “means I have nightmares every night. It means I’m hyper-vigilant — It means I have no fuse and if I get attacked, I’m going to kill. “I don’t want to feel this way.”

 

Sara King, left, walks past her boyfriend, Trinidad Rodriguez, in the van they live.
Some 300 guests celebrated for two days when bride Heelan Muhammad, 23, married Husham Raad, 30, last October.

Point of view:

Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a prayer as they gather in the religious neighborhood of Mea Shearim to protest against summer events organized by the city council, Jerusalem, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2011. “Prayers for Protest”
KONA, HI – OCTOBER 8: A general view of competitors swimming over a school of fish at the mass swim start for the 2011 Ford Ironman World Championship on October 8, 2011 at Kailua Bay in Kona, Hawaii. Considered one of the most grueling races in the world, nearly 2,000 competitors must brave 95 degrees temperature and 90 percent humidity to complete a 3.86 km swim, 180.2 km bike, and a 42.2 km marathon with in an 17 hour time cutoff to be called an “Ironman”. (Photo by Donald Miralle for LAVA)
In Tripoli, at the 32th Khamis Brigade head quarters, rebels forces found 53 carbonized bodies inside a warehouse supposedly used as a detention facility by soldiers loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi.
NPPA winner
Joesphine Mpongo, 37, practices the cello in the Kimbanguiste neighbourhood of Kinshasa, DR Congo. The Kimbanguiste Symphony Orchestra practise here 5 days

Light and shadow:

A doctor cries when four of his friends (one doctor, an ambulance driver and two nurses) were killed by a NATO air strike in the road between Ajdabia and Brega.
Evacuees cast their shadows on tents as they arrive at a UNHCR refugee camp fleeing violence in Libya.

Patterns:

March 14, 2013 - Lovozero, Russia - Reindeer herd together on a breeding co-operative farm.
March 14, 2013 – Lovozero, Russia – Reindeer herd together on a breeding co-operative farm.

Framing:

Todd Heisler’s “Final Salute” was named one of the most influential photo essays of the past ten years. While a staff photographer at the Rocky Mountain News, Heisler (now at The New York Times) spent a year documenting the work of Major Steve Beck and the Marine Honor Guard who handle family notifications and the funerals of Marines killed during the Iraq War. At a time when the Pentagon barred photographers from covering the return of military caskets to Dover Air Force Base, Heisler’s “Final Salute” provided a rare and intimate look at the dignity of military funeral rites.

The Great Empty

Rawalpindi, Pakistan. No standees, and few seat takers.

market-india-allard_26012_600x450

An example of “framing:” The 18th floor toilet in the Boom Boom room in the Standard Hotel offers a bird’s-eye view and exposes patrons to the elements.

Perspective, lines:


The fishing community on the Lofoten islands of northwestern Norway is slowly diminishing, as their way of life is dying out
The fishing community on the Lofoten islands of northwestern Norway is slowly diminishing, as their way of life is dying out
Rebel fighting against pro government soldiers inside a building in Tripoli.

Motion blur:

Port-au-Prince, July 2010. The group dance during a voodoo ceremony.

Timing & serendipity:

A man sits on a bus with a clothing ad, Slovenia.

President Obama is lifted in the air by Big Apple Pizza owner Fort Pierce Florida, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012. (Photo by Doug Mills/ The New York Times)
President Obama is lifted in the air by Big Apple Pizza owner Fort Pierce Florida, Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012. (Photo by Doug Mills/ The New York Times)

Vary the image types: wide shots/establishing shots, medium range, close-ups/details:

Establishing:

Mushers compete in a stage of La Grande Odyssée sledding race, on 18 January.
Mushers compete in a stage of La Grande Odyssée sledding race, on 18 January.

Medium:

gun nation
Gun Nation

Close-up:

smile
At the 11th annual open-air health clinic in Wise, Virginia, most of the 2,347 patients needed dental care.

Detail:

Portrait:

Sources: 10 Top Photography Composition Tips, National Geographic Tips, NPPA Best of Photojournalism

Cell Phone Camera Tricks



More tips

The 10 rules of photo composition (and why they work)