The composition in a photograph is how you organize all the elements of the scene in the frame, this will depend on whether your work is more or less attractive, in fact the composition is one of the most important (if not the most important) keys to make your photograph stand out among the others, in today’s article I intend to teach you some tricks for you to master the approach , your main tool in the composition game, but to master something, you first need to know what it is.
Each photograph must have a main reason to which the viewer’s gaze should be directed, if you look at a photo and your gaze disperses in the chaos of the scene, you will immediately lose all interest, the image will not be attractive even if it is technically perfect in terms of color, light, sharpness, focus?With an image that you intend to tell a story, to convey, therefore, like every story worthy of that name, it must have a main element or a protagonist. , it may be from one person to a button, but it must be the center of your photo, the one that comes out and I don’t mean it’s in the center, none of that, but it’s the first thing that allows you Eyes see when they look at the image, that your look is directed directly at that element, that there’s no doubt about the subject of the photo , what it’s all about.
Have an approach or not have made the difference between a beautiful photo and an undes interested image.
Do you want to know how to show your approach?Keep reading and you will see that there are many ways (and very easy)!
The simplest and widest way to highlight an element in an image is to place it in one of the points called points of interest, because that is precisely what they achieve, if you place your element in the center of the image, the most likely thing is that you subtract its prominence, to highlight, it is best to place it in one of these points , which result from dividing an image into three parts by two lines, both horizontal and vertical.
The background when highlighting the focus of a photograph is essential, I’ll explain why. The protagonist of the scene can be very clear, for example your animal that is beautiful and sleeps peacefully on your sofa, but if your sofa is stamped, it can completely distract your attention and your gaze without knowing if it should target your sweet kitten or printed fabric. Here is an example with flowers, in the first image, the background of the letters completely distracts and as far as you know that the subject is orchid, attention is distracted and the focus ceases to have “interest”, while in the second image it becomes very clear what the center is in theory and practice, don’t you think?
In short, look for soft backgrounds that don’t distract attention or completely disqualify them from damaging your focus, and if you want to know more about the backgrounds in your photos, be sure to read this article by my colleague Alexa.
The lines are also an excellent composive element in themselves, but they are also ideal to direct the gaze towards the focus, here you have a sample, taken by Emilio Chulia.
A good tip to highlight the element you’ve chosen as your focus is to play with depth of field, so you’ll focus all your attention on it if there are elements around that can compete with its prominence.
Negative space is the part of the image that contains no information or is so irrelevant that it is une interested and that serves precisely to give more visibility to the element you have decided to highlight. The negative space around your protagonist will draw attention directly to the Focus If you want more information, do not miss the article how to get splendid compositions thanks to the negative space.
It’s not about putting music on your protagonist to dance, if that’s what you think?Rhythm is created by visually capturing certain elements of your image over and over again, that is, by including in your scene a series of elements that are repeated and constant, if at this rate you suddenly put another element that completely breaks the sequence, it will immediately become the focus of your photograph and will also add tension and appeal to the rhythm of your image.
Another way to highlight an element in an image is to frame it with another element that is part of the image, this is called natural framing (we dedicate a weekly challenge, in case you want to take a look at the gallery and get some ideas by putting a “frame” on it, it will give it greater importance.
You can use contrasts to highlight your interest, and you can do so in several ways.
COLOR CONTRAST
If the whole image has the same tone and suddenly an element of a totally different color appears, the attention paid to your protagonist is assured. Look at this example:
LIGHT CONTRAST
Imagine a scene, all dark and light focus focused directly on the artist. It’s not just because it looks great, it’s for the audience to focus all the attention on him or her. The same thing happens in photography, if you drop the light on the element you want to draw attention to, you will make it stand out much more. Maybe by one example you’ll see better.
Sometimes we can’t help but distract items, either because we can’t stir them or we can’t remove them. Fortunately, there is a trick to overcome this obstacle and it is to change your perspective. By changing the angle of the shot, you can change the background or remove anything that could damage your focus. Try different perspectives until you find the right thing to do to make your element stand out from the rest.
Don’t forget to look for an item of interest before shooting with your camera, once you’ve located it, apply one or more of these tricks that I’ve told you (or several) and you’re sure to get a spectacular photo. If I were you, I’d like to finish reading this to take my camera and practice them, in fact they just gave me a terrible urge to go out and take pictures and that’s what I’m going to do, not without first thanking you. to read so far and ask you, if it’s been helpful, to share it on Facebook, Twitter or Google. Thank you again and until our next photo shoot!