Composition is the key to a great photograph but what is composition and why is it so important in
its simplest form composition is how you arrange all of the things that appear in your photograph,
however if it was easy as that every single photo would be a masterpiece ... so it is something that
you have to work on but there are a few things that will help and later on you can screen grab
my cheat sheet to help you when you're out in the field struggling to find that composition
that you know is hidden right there in front of you the first thing I look for is a subject it
can be a tree a mountain a stack of rocks it can even be a volcano a lake or just an interesting
bit of light but you do need a subject and this is the thing that anchors the photograph and it
gives the reason for that photo to exist if your photo seems like it's just lacking something ask
yourself this what is the subject if you can't answer this straight away then you might have
just made a discovery that's huge and if you've been stuck in a photography rut this might well
just help you get out of that rut and get much better photographs and let's face it we all want
to take better photographs I always have this in the back of my mind when I'm taking a photograph
consider it the lead role in your photograph you can have other things in there but they need to
be supporting that lead role if I can't answer this question I'll change my shots until I can
definitively say what the subject is now if you've been a photographer for a while you'll have heard
of the rule of thirds it's been around for ages some of you hate it others think it's absolutely
rubbish but it is a valuable tool there is a reason why cameras have it as an overlay
grid I see it as a guide to help me start thinking about composition kind of like a reminder to get
me to think about what I'm putting in the frame and where I'm putting it the classic use of the
rule of thirds is to put something on one of the lines on one of the intersections or both but it
is so much more than this if you have a horizon in your frame you can use the grid to make sure
it's level if you want to put your subject in the middle of the frame they can act like a box
within your frame to get it more centered than if you didn't have the overlay on also if you watch
films or TV the rule of thirds is used all of the time from Talking Heads to Landscapes and so much
more this means it's something that we're really familiar with and something that we can use to
get a more pleasing image again this is what we all want to do when I'm out taking photos
or setting up the shot I'll see how the subject looks in different positions I'll try to Center
the subject then I might put it on each of the thirds into sections then I might also try and
put it at the bottom of the frame and then at the top of the frame as well as this I might make the
subject really small in the frame and then really big in the frame to see the difference it has on
the impact of the photograph but if you are just learning or need a bit of a refresher turn on the
thirds grid it'll help you just start thinking about that composition now sometimes the biggest
hindrance to your compositions can be your tripod now I'm not saying I hate tripods I actually love
them and they're really good tool but if it's the first thing that you get out when you set your
camera up it could be really getting in the way of you getting much better compositions I think of
it as a platform to put my camera on but I want to dictate where that platform goes not the other way
around so I'll keep my tripod packed away until I found the composition that I want so if you
have your camera in your hands you can make very subtle changes which will have a massive effect
on your comp position whereas when your camera is on a tripod it's really hard to make those subtle
changes if you look at these two shots they're both at the same location but produce a very
different photograph and if I'd set my tripod up straight away I might not have found that second
shot now there's a lot of light about at the moment but sometimes you might be setting up
that composition when it's really dark what I'll do in this situation is bump my ISO up to get a
good exposure find that composition where that camera needs to be I'll then set the tripod up
put the camera on it and then change the settings back by dropping my ISO down and then compensating
with the other two settings when you are finding a composition like this have a look around the
frame and see if there's anything that you can exclude it might be a case of tilting the camera
backwards or forwards moving it to one side or the other or zooming in slightly this can get rid of
things that you really don't want in your frame or that can be really distracting and once you've
found that composition make sure there's nothing creeping into the edges of the frame this is
called The Edge Patrol where you look around the frame before you take the shot another thing is
you could take a test shot and check that as well there's nothing worse than getting home and seeing
a Lamppost a tree or some branches just creeping into the frame ever so slightly although there is
always photoshop on the other hand if it supports the subject this could become the supporting actor
this could be the foreground leading the viewer into the shot a shape that complements the subject
or just something that balances out the photograph I've mentioned this in previous videos but
composition is basically photographing with intent it's been thoughtful about how you put things
in your frame if it looks like a snapshot to the viewer that's basically what it becomes whereas
if you've arranged the things thoughtfully in the frame subconsciously to the viewer it'll look like
you've photographed with intent and it becomes a photograph more than a snapshot it could be as
simple as lining two or more elements up or having a beautiful leading Line running your eye into the
frame subconsciously you're saying to the viewer I've got this I know what I'm doing so just relax
and enjoy the photograph and this leads me to my favorite thing I like to find whenever shooting
Landscapes and that's the good old leading line sometimes they work and other times they don't
but when you get a good one they can add so much to your photograph I'll always look for
leading lines whether it's lines in the clouds maybe a path or a river or anything like that
something that leads the eye to the subject is absolutely fantastic don't be afraid of getting
a bad one either remember no one has to see your photographs but you the main thing is that you
start looking for leading lines and then you'll develop that part of your brain to always look
for them now imagine the field talking about this but this isn't the only place you can work on your
compositions when editing you can really work on your compositions without any of the distractions
you might have in the field this is where you can recompose your shot to make it better and
also learn from the way you shoot sometimes I'll look at a shot and wonder why I wasn't a few steps
to the left or the right or why I'd even taken the shot in the first place nowadays with high
megapixel cameras it's possible to crop in and crop in a lot especially if you aren't printing
your photographs which you should start to do if you aren't already but that's a story for another
day the sky is the limit with editing just be careful not to take it too far now I have to
admit one thing I often forget in my photographs is balance and balance is one of the hardest
things to understand and get right if your shot is unbalanced it can just make the photograph look a
little bit off for instance this shot is weighted to the left because the cliffs are dominant
however if there was a sailboat on the water this might balance it out when you look at the shot on
the back of your camera what is your eye drawn to does it feel heavy on one side or the other
if so you might have to think about reframing your shot to change that balance in saying that
sometimes an unbalanced photograph tells a story itself and this is the most confusing thing with
composition one person's Masterpiece might be another person's junk and composition is
something that you'll work on for the rest of your life but it can be a fun and fascinating Journey
if you approach it with a curious mind there's a lot more to composition and you can find less
than lists online all this cheat sheet you can pause and screen grab now and take with you in
the field now it's one thing to compose your shot well but if you can't get a Sharp Photo there's
a definite formula that helps and in this video I show you that exact formula I'll see you next time