Tuesday, February 8, 2022

AYWMC: Part 2 Lesson 1: Composition Elements

 This post is part of a series entitled A Year With My Camera.
 
We're out of the technical lessons and on to the fun stuff! 
 
Lesson 2.1 in my own words
  • Good composition is a balance of 3 key elements:
    • Foreground - traditionally a small element that leads the viewer into the image
    • Background - offers context and contrast but doesn't distract
    • Subject - best to stick with just one subject
  • Whole frame
    • Choose the composition in the frame then step back and take in the entire image
    • Check for balance
    • What path with the viewer's eye take into the photograph?
  • Use viewpoint to change the balance of the elements
    • Move the camera or yourself to change your point of view.
    • Visualize what you want and think how to get it

This Week's Project

Use the same subject and take 5 different photographs by changing only viewpoint. 
  1. Mostly subject 
  2. No foreground at all 
  3. Mostly foreground 
  4. Mostly background 
  5. A pleasing balance between all three
Mostly subject

No foreground


Mostly foreground

Mostly background

A pleasing balance of all three. (I hope).


What I learned

I've had a lot of art classes, so the information about composition was pretty familiar. For photographs, I'm always aware of background clutter (the cutest baby pictures aren't so cute when there's a mess everywhere else!), but for composition, I've always relied on my crop tool in Gimp. I didn't do that this time but worked with point of view to compose with just the camera. 

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