One of the most important things a photographer can carry in their bag is a firm understanding of the basic elements of photography. A photograph is not simply the visual record of something that happened, but is actually the result of thousands of tiny variables all coming together at exactly the same time in a very specific way, never to be repeated again. Understanding these elements and how to use them is critical to any photographer that wishes to improve the quality of their work. One of the most critical elements of photography is composition.

The Definition of Composition

Put simply, composition is the way in which the subjects of your photograph interact with one another. You can think of it simply as where each object in a picture shows up in the frame and can also include things such as depth of field, focus and zoom.

When a picture has great composition it tells a clear story but when the composition is bad, the picture becomes less appealing. One easy way to see if a photo has poor composition is to see if it looks boring or has nothing of interest in the image.

The Components of Composition

Once you learn how to use these helpful rules of composition, you can get amazing results. Although these composition rules aren't set in stone, by following them it will help you better understand the impact on your images.

The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is based on the artistic assumption that humans are naturally inclined to look at the point of an image that falls about two-thirds up from the bottom. If you imagine a photograph cut into nine equal squares, your subject should fall as close to one of their intersections as possible. Whenever you take pictures, picture th
e lines in your image and try to line them up for an even better result.

Image Balance

Although this isn't an official photography rule, it's good to remember when taking pictures. Placing your subjects off-center in your frame will often help to keep the Rule of Thirds, but be sure that you aren’t creating a vacuum of empty space around that subject. Whenever possible, try to balance important parts of an image with less important parts – for example, a photograph of a child running through grass would be more interesting if they were near one side of the frame, and where they were running was at the other.

Lines

There is something about patterns of lines that naturally draws our eyes. Our minds are naturally drawn to following patterns and lines so you can use this to your photographic advantage. When lining up a shot, look for lines in the frame and ask yourself if they lead to important parts of your image. If they don’t, it is likely the viewer will be unsatisfied with the image as their eyes trace the lines to find out they aren’t supposed to be traced.

The Power of Cropping

Sometimes what you leave out of your picture can be as important as what you leave in. You should be cropping in your mind every time you line the camera up for a shot – get rid of the extra stuff that distracts from the subject, and fill the frame with what you want to capture. There are ways to fix this using software or in the darkroom but try to correct it by cropping before you take the picture.

Composition is one of the elements of photography that takes years to master. Because it represents the culmination of several other elements, composition is something that will present a constant challenge even to the most experienced photographer. Once you have mastered the basic rules and know how they work, then it becomes time to break them.