Light and composition. These are the building blocks of photography. What is photography? Photography is painting with light. In order to understand how to make photographs we need to understand light. We don’t need to understand exactly how a photon works or anything like that. But we do need to understand the different ways in which light can be altered, and effect our photos.
Light
First there’s light. There are four main aspects of light that we need to consider. These are the direction, the intensity, size of the light source, and the color of the light.
First there’s the direction of the light. By being aware of where the sun is we can move ourselves and our subjects around the light source to best express the scene in the form of a photograph. When taking photos outside we can’t move the sun, but we can move our subjects.
When the sun is behind the subject the image tends to be dramatic.
If the light is hitting the side of the subject this will produce images that show texture.
If the sun is directly behind the photographer the image tends to look flat and two dimensional. This isn’t always a bad thing, sometimes you don’t want shadows going through the photograph.
intensity
Next we move on to intensity. Rule #2 of photography is that more light is always a good thing. When there isn’t enough light photographs lose detail. When a digital camera doesn’t have enough light the image algorithm won’t reproduce what was in front of the lens. the algorithm makes up information in a form called “digital noise.”
With certain cameras in low light there will be times where the image will be blurry because in order to get enough light into the sensor to see anything, the camera slows down the shutter speed making the images blurry.
Size of the light source
There’s also the size of the light source. This controls the size of the shadows, how dark the shadows are, and the transition from highlight to shadow. In the photo world we have two terms for light. This is soft light, where the transition from highlight to shadow is gradual, and hard light, where the transition is sudden.
color
The final aspect I’ll mention is the color of the light. During the morning and evening when the sun’s low the color in the sky becomes warm and orange. This is almost always a good thing, in my opinion. If you ever want to make the color of something appear even more saturated make sure the color of the light source is the same as the color of the object. Blue water looks better under a blue sky than a grey one, red houses look nice during sunset, etc.
Composition
“There are no rules for good photographs, only good photographs.” -Ansel Adams
The more deliberate we are in placing the content of our photographs, the better our images will be. Composition is like sentence structure. You want to practice it enough so that it becomes as automatic as the changing of gears in a car. You don’t think about how to put together a sentence before saying it, you just say it. But the first we need to know how to put a sentence together, and to know where to place the subjects in the frame.
I think it’s important to remember that everything I’m about to say here is just a suggestion. It’s important to know what the rules of composition are because 9/10 good photographs follow one of these rules. If you understand why a photograph is interesting you can better emulate that in your own work.
The choice of which compositional technique we use is dependent on the world around us.
Rule of Thirds
This is the most basic rule of composition. If you look at paintings from 1000, 2000, or 3000 years ago, artists followed this principle. In photographs and paintings 10 000 years from now they’re still going to follow this principle.
When making portraits you want to think about where the closest eye is in the frame, and then place that somewhere on the ⅓ marker.
Centering
The second is centering the subject. There are certain times when you want your subject to be in the middle of the frame. If there isn’t much interesting content besides one thing, or if the world around you creates lines that can point towards the center of the frame, then this may be the best option.
Balance
Both of the above rules were chosen because of “visual balance.”
Photographers need to see the world and organize it into a two dimensional frame. We need to make sure that both the subject and the background “fit in with each other”. To make sure one doesn’t distract from the other. 99.99% of the time we want our subject, whether that’s a bicycle, a person, or a group of clouds, to be the largest thing in the photograph. Should the subject touch the corners of the frame? Should there be a little bit of space at the edges? Or should the photographer back up and make the subject smaller, in order to make it fit in with the rest of the things around it? This is a mental game of geometry. We need to interpret all of the subjects in the frame as shapes that are going to be placed next to and possibly overlap each other.
Layers
With each individual layer something new is told about the story in the photograph. All of this information helps to show the viewer what it was like for the photographer to stand where they choose.
I was staying at my cousin’s cabin and taking photographs of the bay. He calls me over and I leave my “real” camera on my tripod and walk over to where he’s sitting. We talk for a bit and as we do I notice his reflection on the window. All of his stuff is mixed with the reflection of the mountains and the water the whole scene looks surreal. I compose the image making sure everything is balanced, and then I wait. I make sure the mountains are where they need to be, I make sure his foot is inside the circle, and that the camera has the proper exposure. Then something completely unexpected happens. Weldon turns towards me with his iphone, the same exact tool that I’m using, and places it right in between the table and himself. If it were overlapping with the table the image would be a failure. If it were too close to his body it wouldn’t be as visually prominent as it is here. It’s the placing of each subject precisely where it can be easily seen in the form of a photograph that will make the final image come together.
One of the best pieces of advice I got was to compose with the back layer first, and wait for your subjects to enter the frame.
Leading Lines
Leading lines is a great compositional technique to use because it makes photographs more dynamic. A good photograph should be fun to look at. It should be a joy to look at a photograph and feel like you can just walk (or run!) into the scene. Our eyes naturally follow lines and like to see where they lead. A good technique to use is to bring your camera lower to the ground so that there’s more foreground to lead into the frame.
99% of the time good composition points toward the subject. These lines don’t need to be straight. As long as the lines that you make bring the viewers eye to where you want it.
Photography is a game of finding new and creative ways to use the light bouncing off of subjects and making it do what you want. Translating the three dimensional world into a two dimensional piece of paper.
The whole game is one of creative expression. To speak about what the outside world, and your inner thoughts at the same time is the magic of photography.
One thing I never do is think to myself I want to practice any particular rule of composition. I go out with no preconceived ideas of how the world should look. I think to myself what does the world around me look like, and which technique is best for this unique scenario? What’s going to produce the most “balanced” results.
That’s all for today. This series will be continued in future posts.
Thank you for your time.
-Jeremy Brake