Photographic Composition and How to Use It Effectively

Composition is the arrangement of elements within your photo, and how your subject and environment relate to what you are trying to convey or show with the image. These composition rules – like any rules in art – can be broken, and can define personal style. If your style is to break them, then break them!

What are the types of compositions?

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds uses the gridlines within the camera to line up subjects in an ‘aesthetic’ position. Whether this is to create flow or engage the viewer’s attention. Most photos look best with the subject centered in the middle box or along the lines, with the main point of attraction, (e.g. a face) where the lines meet.

For example, to the left we have the deer centered in the middle three boxes, with its face and antlers just below the top line. This creates a balanced photo between the deer and the field.

On the right, we have my friend @aljayrankin on his motorbike. His head is aligned on the vertical left line while his bike is aligned with the cross point. This leaves room in the corners, and shows intention of movement into the photograph. While we could crop it a different way, it makes the most visual sense to either crop it with the bike in the centre, or to have space to move in front of the bike.

Leading Lines

Leading lines are any lines or edges that point to your subject within your photo. For example the road lines, bridge rails and the pillars of the bridge that point to the car (the main subject) in the image below.

These can be used to create depth and attract the viewer’s eye to focus on the subject no matter what part of the photo they look at.

Negative Space

Negative space is a great way to focus on a subject. This style of photography is also called minimalist. Negative space is usually parts of a photo that are a solid colour. This generally does not subtract from the focus on the main subject of the photo. In the photo below, we have the horse framed by an overcast sky, which does not distract our eye.

Compare the photo above to the photo below, where we have a similar shot, but with trees and a sunset in the background. There is now less emphasis on the horse and our eye is distracted by other elements.

Fibonacci Sequence

This technique is hard to pin down – I didn’t know it existed until a mentor pointed it out to me. The Fibonacci sequence is an art-type technique, and addresses the way our eyes follow the elements of a photo in a spiral pattern from foreground to background. For example, in the photo below our eyes trail along the horses’ back to the second carriage, before moving in to where the tourist looks out.

I’ve illustrated two examples of the fibonacci swirl to demonstrate how our eyes follow parts of the image.

Symmetry

Symmetry can be defined by if a photo is cut in two, both sides being similar or equal in nature, which creates harmony and flow to the eye. It is often used well with negative space.

Asymmetry

Asymmetry is harder to define than symmetry, and is more based on both halves having similar qualities, with certain distinguishing features. For example more visible trees on the left than on the right in the photo below.

What can I use to help me?

Most cameras these days have a gridline feature that you can toggle on and off. This will help you to align your subject and environment to whatever technique or style you want.

The preferences all come with practice, that is the biggest favour you can do yourself. Get out and figure out what works, and what you do and don’t like.

If you want to learn a bit more about photography basics, start here.
If you’re interested in learning some astrophotography, start here!

Happy snaps!

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