Advanced Composition

Georgianne Giese
August 1, 2018
 Image Composition and Pre-Visualization
• Humans have perception, cameras do not
• Perception is the interpretive mental process that organizes and stores
electromagnetic sensory data in a way that ‘makes sense’ according to ones
own memories and awareness.
• Cameras capture electromagnetic data including spatial and light
relationships, but cameras do not interpret that data.
• Images seldom reflect the impactful memories of the visual experience.
• Pre-visualization arranges the components of an image to reflect the impact
on the photographer.
• This arrangement tells a coherent story of what the photographer wishes to
share.
 Practice: Compose Before Shooting
• Train your eye to see what the camera sees.
• This takes persistent practice OR many years of occasional practice.
 A Great Pre-visualization Tool
• Most DSLR cameras have a default aspect ration of 2:3, while many
snapshot cameras have an aspect ratio of 3:4.
• Check your camera for your aspect ratio. See manual. Some cameras allow
you to change the aspect ratio, as needed.
• Cut a 2” X 3” hole from the middle of a cardboard. Make a 3”X 4” hole if
that is your camera’s aspect ratio.
• Carry the card around with you. Hold a 2” X 3” cutout 6” from your face
and look at your surroundings. Hold it 12” away for 3” X 4”.
• Identify a subject and note its surroundings and light, through the hole.
Move around and compose using principles of composition.
• Squint your eyes at the image, to identify shapes and light/dark areas only.
 Identify Your Subject AND Story
• Walk around a scene that attracts you.
• Identify what it is that attracts you. It may not be just an object, but
perhaps the light or environment that impacts an object, or an action.
• Identify the ‘story’ you wish to tell with your photograph. Let your photo
tell what impacts you most about the scene.
• “Work” the scene, photographing from different angles, and apply the
guidelines for composition until you get the shot that tells the story best.
• The story is best when components that are extraneous to the story are
eliminated or de-emphasized (preferably in the shot, but also in post-
processing.)
Not enough of dog’s face;
Distracting background;
White corner focal point, doesn’t support story.
White corner distracting;
Eye’s unbalanced.
Distracting background;
Face unexpressive.
Extraneous objects in background diminished in size and muted;
Foreground visual weight / focal point supports story;
Story expresses sleepy dog peeping at viewer.
****
 Story as Subject
What is the story? What is the subject?
What is the subject now?
With post-processing, what is the subject/story now?
 Focal Points
• A focal point is a predominant eye attracter. It stops the eyes and causes
your eye to linger on it.

• It can be due to something living, size, color, shape, focus, contrast, etc. It
is often NOT the subject. There can be many focal points in an image.

• Squint your eyes and slowly open them. What attracts you first?

• Does a focal point support your subject or is it your subject? Good!

• If not, it detracts from the subject.

Focal point defined by contrast

PSA Journal 7/2018: Adelle Penguin by Craig Parker photographer

Focal points: Shape, size, contrast, life

What is the subject?

Hint: Cup your hands around the entire image, then narrow the hole
around the seal. Does the story change?
PSA Journal 7/2018: Bearded Seal by Craig Parker photographer
 Where are the focal points?
What is the subject?

(from Photographic Society of America (PSA) Journal, July 2018: Duck Dodge by Robert Higgins)
 Find Subject and Focal Points
• Use your cardboard cutout
• Locate the subject, which may be the story.
• When viewing images or when pre-visualizing before taking a picture, cup your hands
and view sections of the image through the hole between your hands. Find the most
predominant attractor in the image. Is it the subject?
• Widen your hand hole around the subject. Does the story change?
• Narrow your viewing hole and move it around the subject. As you block out focal points,
does the story change?
• Don’t change the story by eliminating focal points that support the subject/story when
pre-visualizing.
• Eliminate focal points that do not add to the subject/story when pre-visualizing.
• Development brings second thoughts! If you didn’t crop in camera, crop or otherwise
post-process your image to eliminate or diminish unsupportive focal points and enhance
the focus on the subject.
Do the focal points support the subject?
Does the focal point support the subject/story?
Where is the Subject? Where are the focal points?
Is the subject clearly apparent? Where are the focal points?
Subject? Focal points?
Is the subject clearly apparent? Where are the focal points?
Is the subject clearly apparent? Where are the focal points?
 Balance and Visual Weight
• Visual weight, like focal points, is what attracts the eye first, e.g.,
objects that are bulky, dark, very bright, contrasting; Weight also
includes the order in which an object draws the eye compared to
other elements in the image.
• Balance the weights in the image to draw the eye toward the subject
and not away from the subject.
• The subject should carry the primary visual weight.
• Avoid a preponderance of visual weight on one side of the image.
• Remember the power of triangular placement of visually weighty
objects.
Unbalanced Image
Cropped to Reduce Visual Weight of Tree
NIK Applied Vignette to Move Max Weight to Subject
Visual weight

PSA Journal 7/2018: Bearded Seal by Craig Parker photographer

Original Image
Post-processing to
minimize distracting
visual weight
Subject (body of boat) carries
the most visual weight
Front weighted; subject is the curve
Cropped and subject highlighted with NIK
Darken/Lighten Center preset
What is the subject? Where does eye travel?
Eliminate Extraneous Weight to Focus Subject
Balanced Weight
Eliminate Weight that Competes with
Subject’s Weight
 Positive and Negative Space
• Allow enough space around the subject to tell the story.
• If the subject does not fill most of your image, allow enough space
around it to have it entering the image or facing into the image.
• Don’t have objects that lead the viewer’s eye off the edge of the
image.
• Positive space includes all the objects that are directly related to the
image.
• Negative space is everything else.
Good Use of Negative Space
Poor Use of Negative Space
Positive Space Emphasizes Subject/Story
Positive Space Contains Unnecessary Focal Points
Removed distractions with texture and repositioned
subject to power point
Filled small negative space with supporting focal point.
 Light
• Make test shots. Check the histogram. Normally, the graph should stay between the right (light)
and left (dark) sides and not climb up either side.

• Avoid shooting into the sun or other bright light, unless it is part of the story. It will ruin other
images and possibly damage your lens.

• Learn how and when to use fill flash outdoors.

• Learn how to use multiple light sources.

• Learn how to adjust the intensity of your light sources and your exposure.

• If there are drastic differences in light intensity, use High Dynamic Range (HDR).
Camera Histogram
 Shooting Angles
• Backlighting and shooting through another semi-opaque object or screen, with stronger
light behind the object, is often very effective for flowers and leaves.

• Silhouettes result from placing a subject in front of a stronger light source and exposing
for that light source.

• Shadows are best shot from an angle to the light source.

• A shot taken at a 90 degree angle to the light source can be quite effective for many
types of images, but especially landscapes. Fill flash (flash set at a very low power) might
be necessary for portraits.

• In shade, you can get an excellent image, though you might have to use a fill light.
Shooting into Sun for Effect (Panorama, most likely
stitched from photos shot at different angles in Aperture Priority)

Sand dunes Death Valley National Park by Fikret Onal

Backlit Tulips
Adjustment of light in post processing
Fairly even light,
taken in early afternoon

Visual weight of tree competes

With similarly weighted statue
 Manual result with Brighten/Contrast
NIK Darken/Lighten Center result Adjustment layer
Toggle mask color from white to
black with Ctrl i

Layer 1: Brighten
Layer 2 Darken

Click layer icon to see

and manipulate
adjustment layer effects
Adjustment Layer Effects, Layer 2, Layer 1

Layer 1: Top adjustment brighten layer

Layer 2: Lower adjustment darken layer

Special Techniques
• Shooting Through
 “Shooting Through”

Hold a semi-opaque
object such as netting,
other flowers, etc.,
close to lens while
shooting another object
further away.
 Special Techniques

Add 3-D dimensionality with

light in post-processing
Look for graphical shapes, repetition, and eye leading
spatial relationships
Look for Strong Shapes
Look for graphical elements and repetition
Triangular relationships between focal points are
particularly effective
S curve combined with polygon shape
 Pre-Visualize a Final Image Format
• Square a possibility for symmetric subjects
• Rectangular or panoramic as appropriate for the story
• Landscape with aspect ratio of 2 high and 3 wide
• Portrait with aspect ration of 3 high and 2 wide
• Circular for classic images
• If you don’t pre-visualize the final result aspect, you might have to crop to a
non-standard final size, which is a disadvantage for prints.
• Inspect the edges for components that lead the eye out of the frame. Don’t
include them in your image.
• Crop in camera: Frame your image with the guidelines for composition, so
you don’t have to crop in post-processing. This requires the selection of a
proper lens, among other things. Post-process cropping deletes pixels and
reduces the pixel quality of the remaining image.
 Enjoy your practice!

Do it with photography friends, not people you would bore to

death.

See as the camera sees.

Compose to really communicate your wonderful experience of

beauty!
 Reference:

Photzy.com
Advanced Composition by Kent DuFault