What Makes a Good Composition in Photography?

Photography is about more than just taking a photo—it’s about taking the best photo you can every time. A rubbish composition will give you a rubbish photo. A great composition will give you a great photo.

Create better compositions, and you will end up with better photos – and in this episode, I help you to do just this – what is not to love?

So, if you want to learn how to create better compositions, listen on.

In this episode, I tell you 

• What is composition?
• What are the fundamentals of composition?
• Why the subject matter is so important.
• How light makes or breaks a photo.
• The other elements of a composition.
• Some things that you can do – yes, you, dear listener

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!

Chapters

• 0:00 The answery bit
• 1:09 Hi and welcome
• 2:53 What is composition?
• 3:20 What are the fundamentals of composition?
• 4:25 Subject matter
• 5:07 How light makes or breaks a photo
• 9:54 The other elements in the composition.
• 11:59 How can depth help make a great composition?
• 13:39 Right - here are some things that you can do
• 15:13 What do I do?
• 15:46 Some thoughts from the last episode
• 16:09 Next episode
• 16:26 A quick plug for me and what I do.
• 17:01 Get an email from me.
• 17:16 Ask me a question

Transcript

Photography is about more than just taking a photo—it’s about taking the best photo you can every time. A rubbish composition will give you a rubbish photo. A great composition will give you a great photo.

The secret of a compelling image starts with the subject matter, how the other elements are arranged, what the light is doing, and how these three elements work together to create a captivating photo.

A good composition creates a photo that is interesting and pleasing and guides the viewer around

the content of the photo. A good composition is one that a viewer will spend time looking at. A good

composition holds the viewer’s attention. A good composition is the starting point for a good, or

indeed great, photo.

So, not much, then! Blimey, there is a lot to get stuck into here. And yes, I did write that!

Hi, and a very warm welcome to Episode 201 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.

Yes, I started with the answery bit. Well, after 200 episodes, I finally realised that was the way to go, so why not, dear listener?

In the last episode, I told you how I take photos - the mechanical and technical side of composition. But you might be thinking after that episode– but what is a good composition, Rick? Don’t worry; so was I. Here is my take on what a good composition is.

And no, this is not going to be about the rules of photography – for completeness, I will cover them in the next episode. Well, what they are, and the ones that I use - not all of them. No, in this episode, I will give you some things you can think about before taking a photo. These things will hopefully make you think differently about your photography and help you to take better photos, all explained in a talky bit kind of way.

What is composition?

Composition is what you include in a photo. And what you do not include in a photo. The subject matter and other things in the composition and how they relate to each other. And, of course, what the light is doing.

Photography is drawing with light, after all, dear listener.

What are the fundamentals of composition?

These are my fundamentals of composition.

Subject matter.

Other elements in the composition.

Light.

Let’s not overthink this. That is composition to me. Sure, there is lots more that I could throw in here, but there is a very good reason why I am not.

No, take these three things and use them to create the most interesting, most compelling photos that you can. Your composition is your composition – it is your interpretation of what you are seeing, what you are looking at, what you are feeling and thinking, and what you want to capture and share with others. And that is the beauty of photography; it starts with what you see and feel. And at the time of taking that photo, no one is seeing and feeling what you are seeing and feeling.

Subject matter

This is the star of the photo. This is what you are taking a photo of. So, finding an interesting subject to photograph is always a good starting point. Someone once said that if you want to take an interesting photo, go somewhere interesting!

Now, the subject matter might be given to you if you are taking photos for someone else – I talked about this last episode.

Whatever the subject, though, it needs to be the star of the show and should be treated accordingly.

How light makes or breaks a photo

Photography is drawing with light. If you have ever wondered, that is what the word photography means. Photo is light, graphe is drawing. We need to remember this. Great light can make a great photo. And rubbish light can make a rubbish photo.

We start with our primary light source, that big free one in the sky. This is a directional light which creates highlights and shadows. How the elements align with each other and the sun will change the composition.

Your job as a photographer is to make the most compelling photo you can. Your job is to make a photo that people want to look at. An excellent composition guides the viewer’s eye through the photo. The viewer’s eye should move through the composition in a natural way.

You do this by arranging the elements of the composition and by clever use of light.

You can use shadows and light elements of a photo to draw the eye in and direct the viewer's eye. We are naturally drawn to the lightest part of a photo. We can also use shadows to accentuate the lighter part of a photo, often the subject matter.

You can also use shadows to guide the viewer's eye. This is where moving around helps, as the light changes when you change where you are in relation to where it is coming from.

Light can create depth and interest in a photo.

At midday, the light is overhead and harsh. It is obviously much lower at sunrise and sunset, providing wonderful directional light. The time of day you take a photo directly impacts what you end up with.

So you need to be aware of the light’s direction, intensity, colour, how it lights up the composition and how moving around the light changes.

Light is free; we use it to transform photos from dull to interesting. Be aware of where the sun is, and remember that it is always moving relative to where we are at any one time, and clouds can diffuse it to give lovely, soft overhead lighting.

Sunrise and sunset are great times to take photos, but we must extend that to before and after

sunrise or sunset. Sometimes much longer. This is when the magic happens.

Get an app so you can find out the direction of the sun at any time in any place.

As with composition, be aware of the light and what it is doing, not just when taking photos. Become

a student of light. Learn to think about light more. Learn to love light.

The light that you capture can be subtly enhanced in post-processing. And this will now be a future episode – how utterly splendid.

The other elements in the composition.

This is another biggy for me - how the elements in a composition relate to each other. And most of the time, you have control of this simply by moving around.

Work out what the important elements of your photo are and look at how they relate to each other.

Move around, and you see how the relationship of different things changes.

And also, when you move around, what the light is doing changes.

Moving and looking is the special compositional trick I want you to work on. Walking around and

looking and thinking. Before you take a photo, that is.

Symmetry can be good, but you might find balancing the elements provides a more pleasing composition.

We are trying to achieve a natural balance where the main subject matter is clear but does not overpower the other elements.

More on this in the next episode.

But this has reminded me – if you are taking a landscape photo, don’t put the horizon in the middle – do this, and you are, in effect, cutting the photo in half. Put the horizon about one-third or two-thirds up the composition – this will vary depending on which is more interesting, the foreground or the background. And what you are photographing.

How can depth help make a great composition?

The next thing to think about is the depth of a photo. You don’t want a photo to look flat or one-dimensional. Create depth, and the viewer’s eye is drawn into the depths of the photo, making it more appealing and making the viewer study the image for longer.

Depth can make a photo feel more real.

To create depth in a photo, you need to arrange the elements in the composition, such as where the main subject is, what is in the foreground, the middle ground, and the background. Walking around can help with this in landscape photography – as you move around a scene, you can see how the various elements and relationships change.

And you can use light to create depth.

You can use a large aperture to blur out a background, reducing the depth of a composition and making the subject matter pop.

Just one more thing

Clutter in photos is not good. I do not like that. I like simplified, almost minimalist compositions. Cluttered scenes can be overwhelming and distracting. Try to simplify your composition by removing unnecessary elements.

Right - here are some things that you can do

I think this might be a new section – how utterly splendid.

Analyse Your Photos. Really look at your photos. Look at your compositions critically and honestly. Look at what works and what doesn’t. This self-critique process will help you improve your compositional skills over time.

Walk, look and think before you take a photo.

Take fewer photos

Get rid of the rubbish photos.

Before taking a photo, ask yourself if what you photograph is interesting, and when you

have your final masterpiece, will other people find it interesting? And be honest with yourself now.

There is lots more to this.

But I am going to stop there. 

There is so much to composition but I want to concentrate on the three biggies for me.

Subject matter – what you are taking a photo of.

Other things in the composition.

And light.

I have said more than once that there is so much more to this, which can be the problem. So, if we have these three things in mind when we take a photo, there is a chance that we will take better photos. And that is what I am all about – us all taking better photos.

What do I do?

I have given my thoughts on composition. I have told you that I walk around, look and think. Whenever I go out taking photos, I look for one photo I can put in a portfolio. That means I have to get a better photo than the best 12 photos I already have.

And I share my thoughts with you, dear listener, in the hope that there are things I can tell you that will help you take better photos.

That is what I do.

Some thoughts from the last episode

I want to say again that thinking before you take a photo can significantly improve the photos that you create. And what the photos will be used for will dictate how you approach taking photos. But no matter who you are taking photos for, you must start with getting the best composition.

Next episode

The rules of composition that I use. Nice and simple. And my take on the rules of composition, what they are and what they mean. Then, I am going into some particular composition stuff.

A quick plug for me and what I do.

Well, why not? If I can't plug myself on my 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 - type my name in, and you will soon find me.

Get an email from me.

If you want a weekly email from me, 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.

Ask me a question

If you have a question you would like me to answer or 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, I consumed it before settling 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. I reckon this episode will be about 15 minutes long after I have edited out the mistakes and other bad stuff.

Thanks for listening

Take care and stay safe.

Cheers from me, Rick