If you scour the internet, you will find that it is littered with techniques, tips, and rules on how to compose an image. For a beginner photographer looking to advance his or her skills, it can be hard to discern when to use one composition technique over the other.
With the wealth of information at our fingertips, we are left stranded, and ill-advised on applying the various composition techniques and concepts to different scenarios.
A better approach to demystifying photography composition is by simply going back to the basics. If there’s anything you take away from this article, it’s this simple, two-step approach:
First, break down the essential elements of the scene
Followed by, crafting your intention by visualising what elements to highlight within the camera frame
Now, don’t get me wrong; the rules of composition are certainly helpful. But up to a point, those rules become a hindrance to our creativity, and at times, overwhelming.
What this “focusing on intention” approach does is, it gives you the room to experiment while guiding you to your ideal image (sort of like a mental compass). Also, keep in mind that this is an approach; we still have to do the hard work of composing the image.
So before we dive further into this approach, we need to start by asking an essential question.
What makes a good photography composition?
Essentially, composition in photography is how elements are arranged within a frame. This definition in itself is freeing because it’s up to you to pick and choose what elements to include and exclude within the confines of the frame.
The next question that comes to mind is: what makes a good composition?
The answer to this question is subjective because my ideal composition may be different from yours. But generally, good composition is well-thought-out, and it has the necessary details to make it visually appealing, yet not too many that it becomes distracting.
And when I say details, I mean the elements of composition.
As the definition suggests, these elements are the building blocks of any composition. Having a firm grasp on these elements and how they relate to one another will help develop your mentality and eye for composition.
Focusing on intention
I can still recall my early days reading The Photographer’s Eye by Michael Freeman; I was amazed and perplexed by the various possible elements within a scene.
If these feelings are familiar to you, don’t worry. Remember, you have the freedom to decide what elements to include and exclude. If you can recognise and highlight one or two elements, your photograph will become clearer and more magnetic.
To show you what I mean, let me take you on a trip to Lake Bled, Slovenia.
1. Breaking down the elements
Although there are countless other elements, the seven basic compositional elements include lines, shape, form, texture, space, tone, and colour. You can combine and play around with these elements to create a composition that works for you.
For instance, when I was at Lake Bled, I was very cautious about not imitating all the photographs I had seen online. Because Lake Bled is such an incredible, awe-inspiring location, it’s easy to become trigger-happy—which I was a victim of—and start shooting from all different angles.
And to be honest, how can you not be awestruck looking at a scene like this:
But once I’d gotten past the trigger-happiness bug, I began to digest the scene and slowly broke down its elements. Essentially, three elements stood out:
The island with the small Christian baroque church
The clarity of the vast, bluish-green lake (and the reflection of the sky)
The mountains, clouds, and buildings in the background
From there, I was able to redirect my focus and energy towards these elements and decide on the composition that I wanted to illustrate.
2. Crafting your visual intention
Equally as important as the elements themselves is the interaction between them. That’s how you derive composition techniques like contrast, foreground-background interest, repetition of shape, balance, symmetry, and so on.
Even though I was able to identify the elements within the scene, I still had to arrange the pieces together to tell a coherent visual story. So I took a couple of shots, and I eventually narrowed them down to two compositions, as shown below:
I was happy with the outcome of both images, but there were a few reasons why image (A) was more appealing to me than image (B).
First, I realised that the main focal point of the image should be the church. As such, it’s better to place the church in the middle of the frame to draw immediate attention to it.
Next, after zooming out from the church, the next immediate element was the lake. In image (A), the clarity of the lake was more prominent and in-your-face. Whereas in image (B), the imaginary path created by the lake from the church to the mountains wasn’t sufficiently compelling—the path trailed off and there wasn’t a single point of focus in the background that captured my attention.
Rather, the background focus was the entire scenery itself, aka the mountains, clouds, and buildings—which leads me to my last point.
I wanted to utilise one of the gestalt principles of visual perception called closure. This principle of closure states that elements that form a closed object will be perceived as a group. As our eyes follow the outline of the lake, we are encouraged to take our time to observe the background scene in detail. What's more, the natural circumference creates a loop that satisfies our innate desire for unity in the image, as the principle of closure suggests.
You can see how combining these three factors guide your line of sight from the church to the lake and finally, to the rest of the image, holding your attention for a longer period of time. It brings about a more powerful image and solidifies image (A) as the conclusive winner.
By sharing my thought process, I hope that I’ve given you some insights into the conscious effort needed to create a composition and select the desired image. The “focusing on intention” approach ultimately gives you a framework to orchestrate the elements within a scene to express your ideal image.
Why does intention work?
Intention works for a simple reason: your visual interest is different from someone else’s.
Maybe some elements resonate with you more than others, and you want to emphasise them. If so, that’s wonderful! It means that you’re beginning to decipher the kinds of images that you want to produce.
Rather than having a mental library of composition techniques and rules, a more vital skill is to be able to decide when and where to apply those techniques.
To recap, here’s the diagram of the “focusing on intention” approach:
Of course, there are other intermediary steps—like the choice of focal lengths and the post-production process—before realising the final image.
But as a whole, this approach will guide you from the conceptualisation phase to the editing phase, all the while ensuring that you are creating an authentic image that you can be proud of.
It’s an evolving process
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect—or at least until it becomes a habit.
Becoming better at composing an image doesn’t happen overnight. By shooting different scenes, you train your muscle memory to notice the elements within the scene quickly.
Another tip that I would suggest is to learn from past masters and study other people’s work. Expose yourself to various compositions and see what appeals to you.
And finally, enjoy the learning process. Have fun experimenting and discovering your photographic style and ideal composition.
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If you want to learn more about the different composition elements, concepts, and techniques, here’s a list of recommended articles:
About the author: Darius Tay is a photographer/visual storyteller who loves capturing meaningful moments and uses photography to tell stories and find beauty in everyday life. If you would like to leave a comment or engage him, feel free to email him at dariustay5@gmail.com.
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