Hello everyone,
how about talking about composition for a little Sunday fun?
As a Fine Art landscape photographer, I consider myself an interpreter. Nature and the landscape in front of me are the score, and my photographs are my interpretations of it. Personally, I think that mastering composition is fundamental to create your interpretation of a landscape, and sadly it's much overlooked these days. Out of the thousands images I see every day online, perhaps only a dozen or so are well-composed. Composition is the first pillar on which a great landscape photography stands, and it deserves more attention than that.
From the spatial relationship between different elements in the frame, to near-far compositions, to the compositional effects of changing shooting point, to using different focal lengths, to the compositional effect of choosing different shutter speeds and different diaphragms, the composition of a great image is the result of organizing the available elements of a scene in the best possible way.
To improve our ability to compose our own images, a vast "visual culture" is fundamental. That means studying the masters of visual arts: first and foremost, painters. Studying the masters of photography, of course, but without trying and replicate their shots; studying great cinema; and so on.
To start this discussion, let me offer 5 tips to improve composition in your photography.
1. Wait. When you arrive on location, don't start photographying immediately. Take your time to explore the location, compose first in your brain and then fine tune your compositions with your camera. Great compositions need time to organise and prepare, don't rush it. Wait, take your time. Then, when you are ready, start shooting.
2. Forget the rules. Knowing the rule of thirds, Fibonacci, Spyrals, Younameit, is fundamental, sure. Not fixating on them when you work, however, it is even more so. The rules should be working for you in the background, without taking center stage, not the other way round. They have to be there, but you don't have to apply them mechanically: that is almost surely going to result in contrived, non-creative compositions.
3. Corners and borders. Check your corners and borders: eliminate stray branches, control that you didn't cut off a piece of something that needed to be fully in, and so on.
4. Simplify. Composition, for me, is a subtractive process. Like in a good story, where you need to tell the reader everything he needs to know but nothing more, don't try to squeeze everything in your photographs: think rather if you really need all that you are framing to tell your story.
5. Experiment and enjoy. As with everything, practice makes perfect - or, at least, better. If you don't go out and photograph, it is very difficult that your compositions will improve. If you don't make mistakes, if you don't throw away images, it is nearly impossible.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! Have a great Sunday, best regards
Vieri
