Composition is what holds your attention to a particular photo. Composition is the art of presenting your vision in an uncluttered, clear arrangement, or making the complicated simple. Composition provides the structure to the story you are trying to tell.

In the late eighteenth century painters began using a rule called the rule of thirds. It’s quite simple, if you were to take a rectangular frame, draw two vertical lines and two horizontal lines evenly spaced — like a tic-tac-toe game — on to it, where the lines intersected, those points would be points of heightened visual interest. It’s a phenomena that almost always will work. There are times with the rule can be bent or broken in order to achieve something specific, but it’s best to understand the rule so you know when this is appropriate.

The dominance of subjects can be a tricky thing. Our minds can play tricks on how we perceive an object. The thing we perceive to be most important will “pop” from the photo. We can dictate to the viewer what is most important by using some simple conventions. Moving closer, the closest object is often perceived as most important. Perspective can make one object feel dwarfed or dwarfing another. Selective focus, what is in focus will be perceived as most important. Other sources of dominance can be color, brightness, texture and pattern and the lines, shapes and forms of the scene.

The idea of balance in the photo can help you play with the dominance and perception. There are a few types of balance: equilibrium, or a perfectly balanced image; symmetrical, using the center as the balancing point of multiple objects; asymmetrical, purposefully making the scene unbalanced to create a feeling of tension; negative space, void of details, letting the scene’s weight be from nothing.

Proportion is useful in dominance as well. The proportional relationship between two different objects will tell you which object has the power in the scene. This can be used to make a typically un-dominate object appear dominate by making it proportionally larger.

Using a sense of scale, you can make a subject feel much smaller by showing the world around it. Large natural landmarks are wonderful for this. No matter how dominate your subject may be, next to the Grand Canyon, everything looks small.

Here are a few good rules of thumb for all design, but specifically for photography. Less is more: distill your ideas down to the most important elements. Cropping can be used in post, but doing pre-planning will almost always produce a better shot. Also, know the benefits and detractors of a vertical and horizontal framing. Using them correcting, or artfully breaking the rules will help you produce an interesting photograph. It’s never a good idea to only shoot a scene from one vantage point. Shoot from different views, different focal lengths, zooms and positions. You may find something much more interesting than your initial planned shot. Rhythm is an interesting characteristic. By providing enough elements to create a pattern, you can set a visual rhythm that will boost the interest in your photo.

Journaled Time: 5 hour – reading, research and taking notes
Total Class Time: 37 hours