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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 7:44 AM | |||
 Location United Kingdom Greater Manchester St Helens | How can I learn better compositional skills? The most basic photography books cover the rule of thirds, leaving room for the subject to look/move into, and framing and leading lines, but is that it or is there more? Or at a certain level is it just something that is innate and can't be learned, something you either have or haven't got? Any advice gratefully received. |
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| I am good at dispensing sound advice...but it's 99% sound and 1% advice | |||
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 7:49 AM | |||
 Location United Kingdom Somerset near Frome | Ian -- I can't offer any technical advice whatsoever - I haven't the faintest grasp of technicalities. But to me, if a picture looks right, it is right. So go with your instinct. (Sorry - that's not really much help, is it?) |
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| If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck | |||
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 7:50 AM | ||
 Location United Kingdom Dorset Blandford/Shaftesbury | Try this for some helpful info | |
| IMages and thAT Photography, Dorset England. www.imat.co.uk Wessex Weddings www.wessexweddings.co.uk | ||
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 8:02 AM | ||
 Location United Kingdom Lincolnshire | I think the human mind works in certain way and over many hundreds if not thousands of years artists have realised that the rule of thirds and leading lines and space are pleasing and comfortable for the mind to work with and understand etc when observing and consuming the image ... however our mind is more complex than that and these rules are only a general guide .. 'vanilla' flavoured understanding .. most people will find it pleasing, unchallenging and hardly breaking down boundaries of artisitic inspiration. The human mind will meet the challenge of images that break these rules as well and will perhaps get a greatly enhanced sense from images that challenge the mind and its own comfortable acceptance of space and thirds etc and make it question things in an image that make it feel uncomfortable .. asking itself why this is here or not, and why that line is so close to the edge or the person faces out of frame or into a wall .. etc etc .. so use these rules as a spring board and move on from them and don't be afraid to try things that fly in the face of them as well .. returning to the rules whenever you wish and when the image requires it. I know you can learn the rules but to understand how an image works yourself is done more from inside the artistic part of your mind rather than the rational calculated part that is comfortable with those rules. I am sure most people can become more adventurous and artistic over time and learn to feel and experiment with images and naturally see things and create things. Some more than others .. some people have very little imagination or at least choose not to or are unable or unwilling to use it. They will struggle to move away from the rigidity of the normal. So if you feel you struggle understanding composition and so don't think you could even think of going beyond the rules of composition into a more artistic and challenging area I would say that you probably can to a varying degree depending on what type of person you are .. just stick at it and develop over time. One of the good parts of my degree course in photography is learning about the semiotics in imagery and what these signs are meant to say or represent. When you learn these things the rules will seem less significant and photographs will develop a whole new depth, almost story-like. |
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 8:08 AM | ||
 Location United Kingdom West Yorkshire |  Quote from orsoncarterIan -- I can't offer any technical advice whatsoever - I haven't the faintest grasp of technicalities. But to me, if a picture looks right, it is right. So go with your instinct. (Sorry - that's not really much help, is it?) youve actually hit a note there, throwing all books aside and all knowledge read up, remembering back to before you took up photography, and you used to look at some pictures and just know they were better than others! |
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| I don't bite, that's the dogs job. www.barrydawsonphotography.co.uk | ||
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 8:26 AM | ||
 Location United Kingdom London Bexleyheath | Quote from Ian_Wilson is it just something that is innate and can't be learned, something you either have or haven't got? IMHO some photographers have an innate sense of composition, but I think with practice we can all learn some of the skills involved. I also think that different subjects require different approaches ( and 'rules'). For example the tutorial which Henchard linked to is mostly about the landscape; people (and to a certain extent, animals) can require different treatments. My piece of advice is that until you are really sure about your compositional technique, always frame the shot wider than you think is necessary. That way you can experiment with different crops in Photoshop at your leisure, and learn experimentally what is and isn't pleasing. |
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 8:59 AM | ||
 Location United Kingdom Gwent Blackwood | Quote from orsoncarter .............................. if a picture looks right, it is right. So go with your instinct. (Sorry - that's not really much help, is it?) This goes for me as well. I was "shot down" for this kind of comment when deriding the value of Masterclasses aiding composition. You can't teach others to compose images above a basic instinct. Either you "get it" or you don't. You've got to take your images to please yourself and if you get the image you intended then that's all that matters. If the image is pleasing to you and (if taken for someone else) others like it then that's a bonus. Don't worry, start shooting.  Mike |
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 11:46 AM | ||
 Location United Kingdom Nottinghamshire Mansfield | Rules of composition haven't changed in centuries, so hit Ebay and pick yourself up some dirt cheap books on composition aimed at artists rather than photographers. If you're not adverse to a certain Mr Rockwell, he has a page detailing his approach to it on his site. |
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 12:45 PM | |||
 Location United Kingdom Cumbria Kendal, Lancaster | One tip I remember from my early days of photography was when you've got the picture framed, stop looking at the subject and check the four corners of the viewfinder. Then you see the whole picture! | ||
| 'The great question that has never been answered, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is "What does a woman want?" - Sigmund Freud | |||
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 12:57 PM | |
| kruse No longer a member | Quote from gwentman This goes for me as well. I was "shot down" for this kind of comment when deriding the value of Masterclasses aiding composition. You can't teach others to compose images above a basic instinct. Either you "get it" or you don't. You've got to take your images to please yourself and if you get the image you intended then that's all that matters. If the image is pleasing to you and (if taken for someone else) others like it then that's a bonus. Don't worry, start shooting. Mike What utter tosh. Might I suggest you book yourself a course with Si Young who can give you a day's intelligent tutorial about the wonderful world of composition. Just because you might not be able to teach it, don't assume that it can't be taught. Jeremy |
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