Compose Yourself

Yes, that's me in 1969

Now that we have talked about gear for a while, it’s time to take a quick break to talk about the basics of technique when it comes to taking a photograph.

Back in the days of me and my 110mm camera, I would simply point the lens in the general direction of what I wanted to shoot, press the shutter release and live with the results. For 99 percent of the population who take photos, there’s nothing wrong with that. At all. It’s called taking a snapshot, and that’s part of the reason why cameras were invented in the first place. My baby album is filled with snapshots of me as a little tyke, and I don’t think that any of them would win a prize. I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. 

If you plan on taking more artistic photographs, however, simply snapping away isn’t going to do it for you. You will want to learn the basics of what is known as shot composition.

There is a little bit of science that goes along with this. Our eyes don’t necessarily gravitate to the middle of an image – be it a painting, designed document or photograph. We tend to scan parts of the image first before we look at the middle of the image. This was noted back in 1797 by art critic John Thomas Smith, who first coined the term the Rule of Thirds.

As you can see by this illustration, the naturally eye flows to these four points on your photo. So, if you have a point you want to emphasize, you can put it right on one of those intersection points. Say, a person’s eye or a striking feature of a building. Instead of just shooting a face, you put that face off to one side of the photo, allowing for the subject to interact with the scene.

You don’t even need to necessarily use the points. If you are looking at a gorgeous sky, put the horizon line at that bottom third line in the frame, and click away. If the sky is boring, but the foreground is amazing, put the horizon one third from the top.

How do you know where these marks are on your camera? Many allow you to turn on a grid that projects onto your camera’s LCD screen, making lining up she shot easy.  And, if you misplace the shot in the shutter, you can always use a photo manipulation program on your computer to get it cropped down to look good.

Another trick used by photographers is to think near, mid and far. Taking a photo of a large building or a mountain is awesome but shooting something or someone in the foreground gives your photo a real sense of depth. That’s why a lot of photographers I have spoken to through the years have advised me to shoot my shots very wide – not zoomed in too tightly on the subject. This way, I can always crop out what I don’t need after the fact.

In this example, my good – and photogenic – friend Joe Farago posed for me on the terrace of a hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. With Joe in the foreground, I was able to give the background a little bit more emphasis so show just how grand it truly is.

The key to getting great photography is to continue to practice as much as you can. Experiment. Soon, you will get a feel for shot composition, and it will come as second nature.