In a previous article I discussed three compositional ideas to help with your compositions. In the article we will revisit those ideas and look at a few examples to give you some ideas on how those compositional ideas might be put into practice.

“Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic.” - Edward Weston.

The techniques can be practiced anywhere. Local park, botanic garden, or even in your backyard. You can use these compositional tools with any genre of photography. I'm going to use examples from my landscape/nature work which is a good place to start practicing since you can take your time and for the most part you don't have to worry about your subjects getting bored or antsy.

Tool of Thirds

Let's start with where we might place subjects/elements in the frame with the tool of thirds technique. Divide your frame into thirds horizontally and vertically and line up subjects/objects/elements on the third lines or at a cross point.

Lake Marmo, Morton Arboretum - Copyright Paul Lucas

The leaf was floating across Lake Marco and I thought it was a good contrast against the blue water and green pine tree reflections. When I created this image it just happened that the timing of the shutter release allowed the leaf to line up on a  cross point.

Lake Marmo, Morton Arboretum - Copyright Paul Lucas

Lake County Forest Preserve Fort Sheridan - Copyright Paul Lucas

I was most interested in the clouds in the sky, and Ideally I would want to line up the horizon even lower to show more of the sky. I felt I needed an anchor in the image and included the rock in the bottom right-hand corner. The horizon ended up lining up at around the bottom 1/3 line. There is no rule on how you might use the tool of thirds.

Lake County Forest Preserve Fort Sheridan - Copyright Paul Lucas

Chicago Botanic Garden Dixon Prairie - Copyright Paul Lucas

Imagine the tree in the foreground in the images above as your key subject. The above image shows nine different possible ways to line up that subject. There's really an infinite way you position that subject. If you are using a digital camera, you've already paid for the film. Take a few moments to experiment with the location of your key subject(s).

I Need Some Space

We will move on to talking about convergence or as I might say "I need some space!" Many times the subject(s) need some space around them to make for a stronger composition. We want to allow them to breathe. Other times like in a group photo, we may ask everyone to lean in to each other to get everyone in the image. No rules here. Just tools to think about using in creating your composition.

Chicago Botanic Garden - The Japanese Garden - Copyright Paul Lucas

When I made this composition I worked to position the camera so that there was space between the two small rocks and also space between the big rock and the reflection of the weeping willow tree. In this type of composition, giving these elements some space strengthens the composition.

This is also an idea you can use in photographing portraits. Try to place your subject's head in a clear space. Nothing worse than having a telephone pole coming out of the middle of Aunt Vivian's head.

Rosewood Beach - Highland Park, IL - Copyright Paul Lucas

Here the image is made stronger when the tip of the pier doesn't touch the horizon. I would encourage you to experiment. Try placing the pier tip below, on and above the horizon. See which composition looks best to you.

Also consider where the tool of thirds would line in the images above. I was thinking about that compositional tool when I made these images.

Take a Trip Around the Frame

Finally, let's take a trip around the Frame. Take your eyes on a little travel vacation. Just before you "snap" the shutter, take a trip around the frame. Exam the edges and corners for any object/element that is too close to the border. The closer that object/element gets to the border the more significant it becomes in the composition.

Look for anything sticking out from a corner or along the edge. You need to decide if it adds to or detracts from the composition. Look for really bright or dark areas in the corner or along the edge or a boring sky. Can you slightly recompose your image in the field? Maybe you create the image and remove distractions in Lightroom or Photoshop.

Chicago Botanic Garden - The Japanese Garden - Copyright Paul Lucas

Notice how the placement of elements has enough space to breathe. I tried hard to make sure that no distracting elements landed on the edge of the frame.

“Great compositions bring order out of chaos.” - Elliot Porter

The Children's Garden - The Morton Arboretum - Copyright Paul Lucas

There's a lot going on in this image, but I made sure as best as possible to minimize/remove any distracting elements from the edges and corners. The sky was boring that day, so I intentionally left the sky out of the frame. I gave pilings a bit of room to breathe on the left and the bench has plenty of space on the right.

Summary

• There are no composition rules in photograph, but there are some tools to consider when creating an image

• When you see something interesting to photograph, remember to consider...

• Tool of thirds. Think about where you place subjects/objects in the frame

• I need some space. Look for subjects/objects that touch each other (convergence).

• Take a trip around the frame. Check for distracting elements on the edge of the image

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson

Practice early and often.