Photo Composition - Tell The Story
Compose Picture Elements To Enhance The Theme
Every picture tells a story and one of the arts of photography is making it clear what is the story you are trying to tell.
The key to great photograph is to develop a clear understanding what it is about the scene that compels you to take the photograph in the first place. This is the underlying story of the photograph. It may not be an action; it could be a mood a texture or just the beauty of a landscape. There are many stories to tell, so photography is a rich art form.
The eye and the brain create their own composite image of the world while the camera captures its own harsh version of reality. The photographer needs to understand how their camera and lens alters the perception of a scene.
Part of the art of photography is seeing beyond the obvious and using the camera to bring a different view of the world to make the viewer stop and think. Photography is a visual language and an effective photograph creates its own reality
According to John P. Schaefer in the The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography, "The ability to visualize a scene as a photograph is one distinction between a “snapshooter” and an accomplished photographer.”
Understand the Camera’s View
Camera and lens impose their own view on a scene and the process of visualization is bending that view to suit the photographer’s creative purpose. The photographer needs to understand how the limited angle of view of the camera lens frames a scene and prioritizes parts of it. Then the impact of the variables, such as aperture and shutter speed, and how they can enhance the photographer’s visualization of the scene needs considering.
Choosing the focal length of the lens gives a very different view of a scene. Shorter focal lengths tend to exaggerate the depth of objects in a scene, while longer focal lengths tend to compress the distance between objects.
Shutter speed is a critical factor in portraying a sense of motion in a still image.
Positioning the subject in the frame
There are rules of composition such as the rule of thirds, which are guides on where to position the critical aspects of a scene that will support the photographer’s visualization. Another device is using lines and patterns in the scene to lead the viewer’s eye to areas of the scene the photographer considers important. Even if compositional techniques are not used, the photographer needs to consider them to avoid creating distractions from their story.
Hidden Meanings
This can be the most difficult and complex part of composing an image. There can be many subtle meanings and connotations conveyed by the image created by the cultural context of the viewer. This meaning derives from the viewer’s perception rather than the photographer’s intention, so where the image will be displayed needs to be a factor in its composition.
A simple example from our stories is typically good guys wear white, while the villains wear black. Some viewers may interpret the choice of color and exposure levels as value judgment of the subject. Semiotics, the science of signs, is an important tool for deeper analysis of the hidden meanings in images.
Reference:
- Schaefer, John P. The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography, Revised Edition. New York; Little Brown and Company, 1999.
