Article on Composing a Picture

[Colin Southern]

A long time ago when we used to have books published I actually did do a fair bit of proof reading for a range of technical subjects.

You sure they weren't "definitive wine guide" type books Bill?

[William W]

gee you're quick.
I was just logging out and the email alert popped up . . .

Have a great day . . . I have to go and earn some moeny so I can buy more NZ white

CU later

[JERRYS]

I too have written about composition for the classes I teach in digital photography. Your statement "all the elements of a picture are equally important and should help the subject stand out" makes no sense to me whatever. If all the elements are equal, then how do you know what the subject is? What you are talking about is a picture that is so confusing that it makes no sense. Perhaps I have missed your points, I must admit that I was also blown away by your comment about the rule of thirds. Is this your way of starting a discussion?
JerryS

[mrme]

"all the elements of a picture are equally important and should help the subject stand out"
It means that when taking a picture you should be just as concerned with the background as you are with the subject.

What you are talking about is a picture that is so confusing that it makes no sense.

Haha, everything I talk about shouldn't be done at once. It's a collection of techniques. You pick a few of the techniques that work well for a given scene and follow them. The important thing to understand is how these techniques make the subject stand out.
Photographers like you and me have a photographic eye that lets us 'see' how to best compose a picture, without thinking about different techniques, but it's nice to see the techniques put into words. Writing this article has been really helpful to me to understand why some compositions work better than others. I can see which composition is the best of two pictures by looking at the pictures, but sometimes I can't put into words why I think that composition is better. This article has helped me put that into words better and I hope it does the same for other people.

luxborealis from the luminous landscape forums said this about composing landscapes

I always advocate working towards creating strong 3-dimensionality. If you have a grand scene or vista before you, it needs to be set into the context of what's on the ground in front of you which will provide the necessary context for those viewing the photo. This is done by actively searching for then building into the composition a strong (detailed, textured, interesting) foreground element which is often called a "foreground anchor".

Your work continues as you work to "unite" the foreground and background by actively looking for and incorporating leading lines to guide the viewer through the scene from foreground to background: pathways, fence lines, trails, roads, river banks, etc. C-curves, S-curves and especially diagonals are the strongest shapes to work with.

It is through these leading lines and through the foreground-background relationship and all the other techniques that I talked about that good compositions are made. The rule of thirds is one of the least important of these rules. The subject should be made to stand out, not by the rule of thirds, but by the way elements in a picture are brought together. How the leading lines, how the forground and background, how the lighting helps the subject. The rule of thirds can be used as a last resort, especially in simplistic images, but it shouldn't be the main thing that comes to the mind when taking a picture. The rule isn't all-together terrible, but it has been bloated out of porpotion.