Photography Composition TipsMaster just a few photography composition tips and you will be amazed at how much better your photographs are. This article shows how your choice of perspective dramatically changes your photograph. I am sharing a few photo tips that I used during a recent trip to watch the US Open Tennis tournament in Flushing New York.
I used three different perspectives to get different photography compositions in these photos of the very large and impressive Unisphere. The Unisphere, designed to celebrate the beginning of the space age, was conceived and constructed as the symbol of the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. Almost all digital cameras have a zoom lens. This often gives you the ability to change perspective. So this tip on taking digital photography is simply to use your zoom lens to change perspectives while photographing your subject. The picture on the left was taken with a wide angle lens setting and the camera down low and close to the flowers in the foreground. In the middle photo, I used more of a normal setting and backed a little. This brought the water fountains into view that surround this impressive structure. The third perspective is much farther back with the camera lens zoomed in to a telephoto setting. Changing your camera distance and your lens setting at the same time can have a major effect on how objects in the photograph relate to each other with respect to their size. Which composition do you like? I prefer the middle one in this case. I like the way the flowers act as a base to the Unispere, and don't obscure the fountains from your view.
I tried a few spots with a few different zoom lens settings until I found one I like. The blue, September sky and the few white puffy clouds made it a great day for having fun with my camera.
By moving to my left, the grass that is now revealed acts like a leading line, bringing our eyes into the image. Although I broke one of the rules of good composition by dividing the picture frame in half with the horizon, the water fountains break up that line and connect the top and bottom of the photo. I also cheated a bit by burning in the sky, along the edges, to center our attention on the Unisphere. Burning in is a photo editing technique I use quite a bit in Adobe Photoshop. Be careful. It is a Common Photo Mistake to use too much retouching.
This rows of flowers converge at an angle and lead our view toward the Arthur Ashe Stadium. It's not a great photo because the shadowed underside of the stadium's seating isn't great subject matter. However it is a good example of using diagonals and also the use of the composition Rule of Thirds. The photography rule of thirds is so widely used that I wrote a second article called Photography Rule of Thirds to better illustrate it.
I broke three rules in this photo:
I actually like the resulting photograph. The slanted curb creates a bit of a diagonal. The backlighting on my subject creates an interesting silhouette. The manhole in the bottom of the photo creates a contrast. It's a contrast between it's smallness and the largeness of the sphere, and a contrast with the direct reflective lighting and the backlighting on the Unispere. The curb separates the natural smoothness of the sky and the man-made pattern of the brick. I could also have changed the photography composition dramatically by coming in closer to the manhole to make it bigger and more important in the photograph. I have attended the US Tennis Open several times, but embarrassingly enough, as a photographer had never explored the south entrance to the stadium complex. My old college friend gave me the photo opportunity tip about the Unisphere and the surrounding park. It was a great opportunity to use and share some photography composition tips. I had a blast, enjoyed the beautiful weather and only missed about 40 minutes of world class tennis. Happy Shooting! Do you know anybody else who likes taking photos? You can share these tips by copying the computer code below and pasting it on your website, your FaceBook, your blog or in an email. Pass it on.
p.s. This makes a pretty cool abstract black and white. Black and White Photography. If you are interested in black and white photography, you may enjoy reading this. Photo Composition Tips. If you'd like to read some more on Photo Composition, try this article. Composition in Photography. Here is an article explaining the use of balance and patterns and how they relate. Digital Photography Composition Tips. Here are two composition tips that you should use specifically when using digital cameras. Photography Rule of thirds. How you can use the rule of thirds when you do your photo editing. This article has sample photographs to illustrate how to use this rule and improve your photography composition. Photographing the moon. More information on how these composition tips apply to photography of the moon. Moonlight Photos. This is a second article on moonlight photos. It has specific critiques of several photos relating to photography composition. Do you have an interest in good photography composition techniques for family portrait poses? Read this: Family Portrait ideas If you prefer a few composition tips on portrait poses of young children, try this article: More Portrait Poses
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