principles of image composition

PRINCIPLES OF IMAGE

COMPOSITIONBY: ARGENTINA ANDRADE

PURPOSE Your best friend Steve just

purchased a brand new Digital SLR but his photos are dreadful. He uses his camera's automatic mode. His pictures are white balanced, properly exposed, and in focus but his photos lack interest and impact. Help him develop a photographer's eye by creating a photo gallery of images that demonstrate each of the principles of image composition that you have learned.

This is Steve.

FRAMING This technique captures the “picture”

within a picture. By placing these around the edge of the composition you help to isolate the main subject from the outside world. The result is a more focused image which draws your eye naturally to the main point of interest.

EMPHASIS Make the focal points stand out. In this

picture the photographer emphasis the ladybug and the specific red color. Emphasis plays an important part in enhancing the main focal point inn the image.

ANGLE OF VIEW The viewpoint has a massive impact on

the composition of our photo, and as a result it can greatly affect the message that the shot conveys. Rather than just shooting from eye level, we could consider photographing from high above, down at ground level etc.

RULE OF THIRDS Imagine that your image is divided

into 9 equal segments by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines. When taking the picture you should position the most important elements in your scene along these lines, or at the points where they intersect.

BALANCE Balance helps add a sense of serenity to

the picture and makes it feel like everything is where is belongs. You should balance the "weight" of your subject by including another object of lesser importance to fill the space.

TONE AND SHARPNESS Sharpness is the quality of details

captured in a photograph. Tone is the overall lightness or darkness of an area of an image, similar in meaning to "luminosity"; or the colour of all or part of the image, usually in relation to its warmth (bias towards red, orange and yellow) or coolness (bias towards blue and green).

CLOSE-UP The classic close-up is about getting

detail. That usually means getting right into the subject. If the subject fully fills the frame and detail is clear then the size of the subject can imply closeness rather than actual distance.

ARRANGEMENT The way that things or people are

organized for a particular purpose or activity to make a picture look appealing.

HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) It is a post-processing task of taking

either one image or a series of images, combining them, and adjusting the contrast ratios to do things that are virtually impossible with a single aperture and shutter speed.

DEPTH Effects of depth, space, projection

toward the viewer add interest. Linear perspective in the real world makes things look smaller in the distance. Some artists try to avoid depth by making large things duller and small things brighter, and so on, to make the objects contradict realism.

PATTERN An underlying structure, the basic lines

and shapes in the composition. Patterns can also be used to break symmetry or pattern in some way, introducing tension and a focal point to the scene.

SIMPLICITY Simplicity is the key to most good

pictures. The simpler and more direct a picture is, the clearer and stronger is the resulting statement.