Composition - 3 Example Rules and the One Rule to Rule Them All

Composition is everything in Photography.

How you frame your subject, how you lead the viewer into and through your image, and how your images maintain the observer’s focus all comes down to composition. Taking great care to choose you vantage point for the image will greatly impact your final image’s composition. Lines, movement, balance, negative space… Just a few of the elements to consider when framing up a shot. Learning composition can be tricky and somewhat overwhelming in the beginning but fortunately there are some “rules” that have been widely accepted to help you out.

The first rule that most photographers learn, after “point the camera at the thing you want to take a picture of”, is the rule of thirds. In this rule you are going to imagine two horizontal and two vertical lines evenly breaking up the scene you are photographing. Placing transition points or points of interest on these lines helps to create a sense of balance within the space. In the image to the right, I have placed lines on top of the image to help illustrate the idea better. In this image, take in Banff, Alberta, you can see that I have broken the image into three areas using this rule of thirds. There is the river in the bottom third, the trees in the middle and rising above the scene is the mountain peak in the top third.

Many modern digital cameras have built in guides that will overlay composition lines such as the rule of thirds into your viewfinder. Utilizing these assistance tools are both a great way to learn this composition style for beginners as well as a invaluable tool for seasoned photographers. This overlay is predominantly open on my own camera.

Reflections can add balance to images

For the third example in this exercise, we find ourselves in Negative Space. Before you skip this section in the desire to avoid any negativity in your life, please indulge me for a bit. Negative space in composition is incredibly impactful when done right. This technique can be awkward to become comfortable with as it requires purposefully leaving large areas of your image relatively blank. However, when done effectively what you do choose to put into your image becomes that much more important!

Take for example this image taken from a mountain peak in the Cascade Mountain looking South to Mt. Rainier. By choosing to dedicate so much of the image to the gradient of colour from skyline to moon, I have put importance onto not just the moon and snow covered peak but, to the vastness of the scene. Images such as this often serve to remind me just how small I am and how big the world is.

This image is made pleasing by composing to the rule of thirds

Next, we will talk about Balance or Symmetry. In this technique you will frame up your scene in such a way as to place subjects equally within your image. This does not mean that you need two items that are identical or even of the same weight or size. Balance is more about items of importance within your frame. Balance can be achieved by a single duck in the empty space of a lake’s surface to balance out the trees of the forest behind. To create balance, you need to make the second subject as important to your viewer as the supporting subject(s).

Another way to achieve balance is to have a reflecting or symmetrical shape to your scene. In this image I have placed the transition from tarn to rising mountain in the middle of the image. I have done this as the textures change from water and grass to snow covered rocks creating a natural line at this transition point. Additionally, I have framed the scene in a way that the shape of the tarn mimics the slope of the mountain. Lastly, I was also able to capture a reflection of the sunset’s colourful sky in the water adding a third element of balance to the overall scene.

An example of negative space done effectively

And now, as the title promised, there is one “rule” that I hold above all other “rules” when it comes to photography. It’s a bit unconventional and won’t be found in many teachings but here it is: take photos of what you want. You’ll notice that in this section I have put the word “rule” in quotes. I have done that specifically to remind you that photography is an artform and as such, there are no rules. The rules you learn for any artform, photography included, are really guidelines to what is most readily accepted by the public. However, there is NO WRONG WAY to do art! It is entirely up to you as to how you enjoy your art, what you choose to work with and how you choose to frame a picture. Making these decisions also comes with the weight of outside opinion. If your goal is to share your imagery, sell privately or commercially, or otherwise depend on the public for feedback of your images, then you would be wise to study the such things as rules of composition. However, if you practice photography for yourself, intend to images to be for your viewing pleasure or only create prints for your own home, then, by all means take photos of what you want.

I believe it is important to learn and respect the rules as they are the foundations, we are all standing on as we practice our crafts but, it is those that chose to push the boundaries and try new things that ultimately created new rules.

So, go out, take pictures, practice your craft, try these and other composition rules. Find what works for you and what doesn’t. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the artist that creates the next compositional style.

- Happy Shooting!