Photography Composition Tips and Techniques – How I Take Photos

The single most important thing we can do to improve our photos is to think about what we are taking photos of before we take them. We need to take the time to get the best composition every time we take a photo. The success or otherwise of any photo starts and ends with what is in the photo.

Photography composition is what you include in a photo, what the light is doing and how the elements within the composition relate to each other.

In this episode, I tell you 

• Why this is important
• What I am looking for when I take a photo
• How I take photos of buildings
• How I photograph sunrises
• How I photograph an island
• What my photography superpowers are

I also tell you

• What if you use a phone to take photos
• What I do
• How you can ask me a question
• And a little bit about me.

All explained in plain English, without the irrelevant detail, in (much) less than 27 (ish) minutes!

What is not to love? How utterly splendid!

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Chapters

• 0:43 Here is the answery bit
• 1:21 In this episode
• 1:31 The harsh reality
• 2:27 How do we get the best compositions?
• 3:30 Here is the talky bit
• 4:21 My photography superpowers
• 5:04 OK - what am I looking for?
• 5:36 How do I take photos of a building for a client?
• 17:21 How do I take photos of a building for me?
• 20:46 How I photograph a sunrise
• 22:35 [Ad] The Profitable Creative
• 23:18 (Cont.) How I photograph a sunrise
• 24:23 How do I photograph a sunset?
• 24:47 How do I photograph a holiday destination for a website?
• 28:19 What if I use a phone to take photos?
• 28:43 What do I do?
• 30:35 Some thoughts from the last episode
• 31:34 A quick plug for me and what I do.

Transcript

Hi, and a very warm welcome to Episode 200 of the Photography Explained podcast. I'm your host, Rick, and in each episode, I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 27 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. Yes really. I'm a professionally qualified photographer based in England with a lifetime of photographic experience, which I share with you in my splendid podcast.

Here is the answery bit

The single most important thing we can do to improve our photos is to think about what we are taking photos of before we take them. We need to take the time to get the best composition every time we take a photo. The success or otherwise of any photo starts and ends with what is in the photo.

Photography composition is what you include in a photo, what the light is doing and how the elements within the composition relate to each other.

That was the answery bit.

In this episode, I am going to tell you some things that you can do to help you take better photos.

What is not to love?

But before I do that, let me get the harsh reality out of the way. And it is this.

About your photo: No one cares about anything other than what they are looking at—what is in your photo, that is. I know it is a horrible thought, but this is the harsh reality.

This is why composition is so important and is the place where we need to focus our efforts.

So, how do we get the best compositions?

There are some things that I have covered recently that I don’t want to repeat here but will point you in the direction of a couple of related episodes

197 - How To Take Fewer Photos But Better Photos In 2025 (With My One Photo Rule).

195 - Why Do I Have So Many Rubbish Photos? (And Why It’s OK, And What I'm Doing About It)

186 - Get out taking photos more—but take fewer photos

I talk a lot about taking better photos, as this is the number one way you and I can improve our photography.

This is a talky episode. Here is the talky bit.

What are you taking a photograph of?

This is the starting point. What are you taking a photo of? What is the main subject of a photo?

Every photo needs a main subject, whether a view, a building, a person, or a very small object.

Your starting point is what you are photographing and the main subject. If you don’t know this, what chance do you stand of getting even a half-decent photo that other people will find interesting?

My photography superpowers, walking around, looking, thinking,

This is where the good stuff starts for me. Rather than just taking photos of anything in front of me, I do this. I walk around, look and think.

I used to go to a place and photograph anything and everything without much thought, which is how I ended up with loads of rubbish photos.

But not anymore.

OK - what am I looking for?

I have been thinking about how to explain this and had a brainwave. Fortunately. I am going to tell you how I take photos of a variety of things. This most excellent idea resulted in a change to the title and a much better episode, so I'm happy with that!

How do I take photos of a building for a client?

I will have a brief—what photos are needed, what the photos are for, and how many photos are needed. I will sometimes have a shot list.

My style is my style, so people know what the photos will look like—you can see numerous examples of my work on my website.

So I know what I am doing, which is a great start, and what I will produce.

Sure, there will be job-specific stuff; each job has its own nuances, after all. And that is the first use of the word nuances on the podcast!

One variable is the building's location and orientation, as well as the time of year I am taking the photos.

During my appointment, I will have established what time of day is best to take photos, as the sun moves throughout the day, and the orientation and what is important will dictate the best time.

This all means my starting point is knowing the subject matter, when I need to take the photos, what they are for, and what they are going to look like. A very good starting point indeed!

I will skip gear prep, which is one for another episode. But my gear will be properly prepped.

This is what I do on the day of the shoot.

I will turn up at the location, and the first thing I will do is walk around and have a good old look, and a good old think. This will be without my camera. I am looking and thinking, working out how I am going to approach the shoot knowing what I already know, which I have just told you.

What am I looking for?

Let's use the front of the building as an example.

The light. Where is the light from the sun coming from? If it is overcast, I will not think about this too much more, as what I have is even, soft, diffused overhead lighting. But if the sun is out, this wonderful free directional light will impact the external photos. So, I will work out how to make the best use of this free light source, which will influence when I take which shot.

Part of getting the best composition is to get the best light that we can.

For the front of the building, I normally start with a straight-on shot. Everything I am saying here assumes I have unimpeded access by the way.

In the first photo, I place myself in the middle of the building. My camera is on my tripod and is vertically and horizontally bang on. I don’t tilt the camera back to fit the building in unless I have to. This means that there is more foreground in the composition, but that is fine—I want to capture the building as is, level and vertical.

I will use the central focus point only, which will be slap bang in the middle of that face of the building.

I am looking for an even area between the edges of the building and the edges of the photo. This is quite often not the case, but I always have an even gap left and right; the building is central in the frame.

I get relatively tight when composing, as tight as what I am photographing will allow. I need to get the boundary on either side, plus anything relevant to the front. And if there is an aerial on the roof, I want all of that—it is there, and I need to capture it.

As you will see, this is a technical exercise. I take time to get the most technically correct composition I can – let’s be honest, this photo is a technical photo of the front of a building for a specific need.

I want the composition to be so correct that there is no cropping or correcting of verticals or horizontals. If I can avoid that by getting the composition correct, I am happy.

The next shot will be the front elevation with the wall to the left-hand side. This will include both elevations, with an emphasis on the front façade but showing the relationship to the side wall.

For every composition, I will ensure that the verticals are vertical and the horizontals are horizontal. The gaps around the edges will be the same as in the first photo.

All the photos are taken in landscape orientation unless I have to change to portrait orientation or have been asked to by the client.

I will stop there. The point is that I get the composition of the first photo as perfect as I can, and then I basically repeat this for all the other external photos. They all need to belong together; they need to look like part of a set. The composition of the first photo dictates the composition of all the other photos.

For the interiors, I am normally after two photos per room, one looking into the room and one looking towards the wall with the doors and the room it connects to. My compositions tell the story of the internal space.

My composition covers as much of the room as possible. I am using 17mm on a full-frame camera, which is normally fine. For smaller rooms, I will use portrait orientation, but only when I have to. I am talking toilets, utility spaces, cupboards and stairs

My compositions are normally taken from the door looking in, getting as much of the room in and technically bang on of course, and the second photo looking the other way. If there are features in the room that demand a third photo or a fourth, that is what I do, but I follow the same compositional sequence and approach.

The point is this – I am photographing a building for a specific reason, and that is how I approach it.

My photos have to be technically excellent, and this starts with the composition. I know this is hardly a creative process, but this is what I do.

Shall I move on? I will make the next one much quicker.

How do I take photos of a building for me?

I walk around, look, think, and see if there is anything interesting. If there isn’t, I don’t bother, and that is fine. I will move on. I won’t photograph a building because it is there. Thankfully, I am not that obsessed—or sad, even. 

I need something interesting to capture, and I do this by looking around and taking my time. This is for me, after all; this is what I love to do.

I look at what the light is doing and if it is creating anything of interest.

I look at what is around a building. Are there any interesting relationships with adjacent buildings or other things?

When I move around, I observe how various buildings and elements interact.

I look closely to see if there are any interesting details, and then I go up close and see what's inside.

When I find something interesting, I will look even closer to find that one composition. Yes, I am taking photos for myself, so I am after one photo of that building or part of the building—one photo of what interests me.

Only then will I raise my camera and look through the viewfinder. This helps me frame a photo; of course, it does. This is one of the beauties of a camera to me—looking through the viewfinder isolates everything else and allows me to concentrate on the composition.

I will try different focal lengths, zooming in and out until I get what I am after. I will move around to tweak and refine what I am looking at through the viewfinder. And then I will take that one photo.

It might be one photo; it might be three if I am using auto-exposure bracketing.

I will then check what I have got, and if I am happy, I will move on and find something else interesting to photograph. If I am not happy, I will work out why, take another photo, and repeat the process until I am happy.

I won’t delete the photos I wasn’t happy with in camera; I will do that when I sort the photos after import. The screens on my cameras are so small that it is safer to do things like this on my big monitor.

How I photograph a sunrise. And I will be even quicker this time.

OK, and now for something completely different. And if you get that reference, please let me know. And if you don’t know what I am talking about, apologies. You can always ask! 

Right next one. I will go to the location that I am thinking of during the day and have a good old look around. I will use an app to work out exactly where the sun is rising, and at what time, of course. I will decide what I want in the foreground, middle, and background. I will decide where I want the sun to be in the composition as it pops up over the horizon.

I will take a photo and see if the content is what I am after. If not, I will change where I am, what I am looking at or the focal length. I will then take another photo, and if I am happy, that is me done. If not, I will repeat the process until I am happy with what I am going to get the next morning.

I then take a photo of that composition with my phone. I will also photograph exactly where my camera is. If there is a distinct feature, like a rock, I will use this as a reference point, or I might place a stick or something where I want to take the photo. I will find some way to record where I need to put my tripod to get the composition that I like.

I will then return the next day and take one photo with that exact composition before sunrise and another one as the sun rises over the horizon.

See, I only want one photo of the sunrise, sorry, two, one of each. And no more.

If I am on holiday, I will do all of this, but the next day, I will sit on my backside and enjoy the sunrise, and then I will come back the next day and photograph it.

And that is me done.

How do I photograph a sunset?

Same as the sunrise in reverse, of course.

And if I am on holiday, I will probably be sitting somewhere nice having a drink with Mrs M rather than taking photos!

How do I photograph a holiday destination for a website?

I went to the amazing Greek island of Santorini on a photographic treat, and Mrs M was the reason for my trip.

I had five days to take photos. How did I approach this?

I did no research at all; just got out and walked around and found stuff. This was some years ago now, but it was the start of the walking, looking, and thinking thing. See, I had no plan; I just went out and found stuff.

Now, you might think this is ludicrous, but had I researched the island, I would have ended up with the same photos everyone else has taken—and that is not me.

I walked for hours and hours, trying to find interesting things. I think this was the beginning of me taking fewer and better photos as the possibilities were endless.

How many photos did I take over those 5 days? 2,795 photos.

If I were doing the same now, I would be looking to take a maximum of 200 photos.

I will stop there.

I did have more examples, but I am going to stop there. This is the point. They are all the same. I go through the same process for whatever I take photos of.

I walk around, I look, I think. I look at what the light is doing, how the various elements of a composition relate to each other, and how these things change when I change my position. Then, I use my camera viewfinder to refine the composition by excluding everything else and adjusting the focal length, trying wider and narrower.

Ok, there are some differences.

I have to adapt my composition depending on if the photos are for me or for a client, different end uses.

Same but different.

How do I photograph a person?

I need to include this because I know a lot of you listeners will want to know this. It's not my strong suit, but here are five tips for taking photos of people.

• Focus on the eyes
• Use a flattering focal length – 85mm on a full-frame camera
• Try to get the light falling on the face from one side
• Check the background for distractions
• Be as informal and natural as possible as you illicit a big, natural smile from your subject.

Blimey it sounds like I know what I am talking about!

I have lots more to say, but not in this episode. So, the next episode will focus more on composition.  As in, what is a good composition?

What if I use a phone to take photos?

You can apply everything I say to take photos with your phone, especially if you do not have a camera. But you don’t have the viewfinder to help you cut out everything but what you are taking a photo of. That is the big difference to me when taking photos with a phone or a camera.

What do I do?

I write and talk about this stuff. This is episode 200. I want to talk about that and my podcast briefly if that is OK with you. I started my podcast in October 2020. I am a big podcast listener, but I couldn’t find a podcast that explained things how I wanted them explained. So, I thought I would do my own podcast. And that is how my small but perfectly formed podcast came to be.

200 episodes later, I am loving doing this more than ever. My audience is growing with every episode, so hello to you wherever you are in the 156 countries where my small but perfectly formed podcast has been downloaded. Yes, 156 countries. Wow, that blows my mind.

And the other thing that I do is take more photos. I am spending so much time writing and talking about photos but not enough time taking them myself, so this will be a big change for 2025.

That is what I do. That was quicker than expected!

Some thoughts from the last episode

Sub-folders in Lightroom. That could get confusing. So I had a good old think about this, and do you know what? I am getting rid of them.

Photos go into the job folder and are sorted into Picks and Rejects. Rejects get deleted. Picks get edited. And that might leave some other photos that are unpicked, which should be deleted – I will see how that goes. But I am playing this as I go through old folders, so this is another improvement which I am happy with.

A quick plug for me and what I do.

Well, why not? If I can't plug myself on my own podcast, where can I?

You have found this podcast, so why not check out the podcast website photographyexplainedpodcast.com? I have another photography website, rickmcevoyphotography.com, where I write blog posts about my photographs of buildings and other good stuff. On my courses page, you will find my course, How To Become A Real Estate Photographer. You can also find me on YouTube talking about my podcast and my blog - just type my name in, and you will soon find me.

If you want a weekly email from me, just fill in the box on any of my websites, and every Friday, you will read what I am thinking about photography related.

That's enough of the self-promotion.

If you have a question you would like me to answer, or if you just want to say hi, email me at sales@rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk, visit the podcast website, or text me from the podcast feed.

It is always lovely to hear from you, dear listeners.

This episode was brought to you by a cheese and pickle sandwich and a bag of salt and vinegar crisps. Yes, it really was, which I consumed before I settled down in my homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium. 

I've been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here) and for giving me 27 minutes of your valuable time. After I have edited out the mistakes and other bad stuff, this episode will be about 35 minutes long.

Thanks for listening

Take care and stay safe.

Cheers from me, Rick