Lets talk about how composition can make you feel, the stories it can help you see in a photo and even artwork.
Understanding common composition guidelines is helpful of course. For me composition reasoning is just as, if not more important then understanding every method.
So in practice lets go beyond the rule of thirds, golden ratios and other guidelines. Thinking instead from a creative/emotional standpoint.
King Hamster
The king watches over his minions in this shot. My partner had been cleaning out the hamster cage and this idea popped into my head. I quickly grabbed a flashlight for added drama, but what amplifies this image is the hamsters high location at the top right of the frame; where he can peer over the darkness of his "balcony". The negative space adds to the slightly ominous and almost powerful feeling from the tiny hamster.
Snail Planet
In my snail planet photo, my composition choice here had been purely to play with the sense of scale. How can I ensure that the concrete ball dwarfed the tiny lone snail? At the same retaining the snail as the primary subject matter of the photo.
This image can easily fit either the rule of thirds or golden ratio.... however these were not the driving force in anyway. The shape of the sphere needed to be clear so naturally I choose a glancing angle of the sphere. The shallow depth of field is important to pull yours eyes towards the snail making sure that I hammered the focus. This close up of a tiny snail on a relatively massive object fills your screen in a minimalistic fashion. Not far off how one would photograph a rock climber on vertical cliff face.
Alone
A bit of street photography here, I had been wondering along the river clyde in Glasgow. I spotted someone sitting down in what felt like an exhausted and slightly saddened pose. In this shot I had been standing next to another set of stairs so had a lower position then normal. I took to the time to swap to a wider angle lens. This allowed me to create a sense of isolation from the space around him, the distance feels further then it is due to the foreshortening on the floor caused by the lower position. Its this spacing that intensifies the feeling from the photo alongside the pose.
Ready Set Go
In my photo above the subject spotted a bird out the window to my right. Using the basic rule of thirds I lined up his closest eye. In this sort of photo its common to give the subject more space in the direction they are looking. In this case I did the opposite. But why?
For me I could see his excitement bursting with energy, even in the photo you can see the vibration in his stance. So I wanted it to look like at any moment he would explode out the right side of the photo.
To finish
Use what you know but its important to think about what the key takeaway is from your photos. Try not to self limit by restricting your shots to composition guidelines, they are there to help but they don't own your photography style.
Remember to enjoy your self :-)
Nick
Nice pictures! Reminds me I need to learn more about composition, it really does add some drama to a picture.
Very nice stuff indeed, love the snail photo
What great pictures!
@OriginalWorks
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