When you look at a scene with your naked eye, your brain picks out things that interest you. A camera doesn’t do this – it captures everything in frame, which can lead to a cluttered picture with nothing that catches your eye.
To create a main subject, have an object then select a viewpoint (or focal length) that makes it the centre of attention in the frame. You can’t always keep other objects out of the picture, so try to keep them in the background and you could potentially blur them. Silhouettes, textures and patterns are all devices that work quite well in simple compositions. |
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When you first start in photography, it’s tempting to put whatever you’re shooting right in the centre of the frame. However, this produces boring, standard images. A way to avoid this is to use the Rule of Thirds, where you split the image up into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, and try to put your subject on one of these imaginary lines or intersections.
Move your subject away from the centre and get a feel for how it can be balanced with everything else in the scene, including any areas of contrasting colour or light. Another way of this technique is called the golden ratio. |
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A poorly composed photograph will leave your viewers unsure about where to look, and their attention might drift aimlessly around the scene without finding a clear focal point. However, you can use lines to control the way people’s eyes move around the picture.
Converging lines give a strong sense of perspective and three-dimensional depth, drawing you into an image. Curved lines can lead you on a journey around the frame, leading you towards the main subject. Lines exist everywhere, in the form of walls, fences, roads, buildings and telephone wires. They can also be implied, perhaps by the direction in which an off-centre subject is looking. |
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Horizontal lines bring a static, calm feel to a picture, while vertical ones often suggest permanence and stability. To introduce a feeling of drama look for diagonal lines in your images.
You can need nothing more than a shift in position to get them – wider angles of view tend to introduce diagonal lines because of the increased perspective. With wide-angle lenses you’re more likely to tilt the camera up or down to get more of a scene in. You can also introduce diagonal lines artificially, using the ‘Dutch Tilt’ technique. You do this by simply tilting the camera as you take the picture. |
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Eric Kim is a street photographer currently based in Berkeley, California. His passion for photography came when he studied Sociology and combined the two together to make statements about society through street photography.
He tries to share all the insights, wisdom and knowledge that he has learnt with the world we live in. Some of his work includes the gallery on the left. |