Learning how to compose your photographs can mean the difference between a so-so snapshot and a high quality picture. Hopefully, you’ll find these composition tips helpful for taking digital pictures.
Filling the Frame & Clearing Clutter
There are exceptions to this as you’ll see in a second, but generally filling the frame is one of the easiest things you can do to compose interesting photographs.
One of the most common mistakes is to include too much in the photo and end up with a ho-hum photo where nothing really stands out.
For example, if you’re taking a picture of your child on a swing in the backyard, fill the frame with your child and leave out the rest of the swing set and the other kids doing cartwheels on the lawn. Otherwise your child will be lost in the clutter and the picture won’t capture the wonderful details of your child’s gleeful flight through the air on their swing.
A nice thing about digital cameras is that after you take the picture you can check for clutter in playback mode. Right away when there’s time for a retake you can see if something looks bad or if there is something like a stray piece of litter on the ground or a lamp post that appears to be growing out of some one’s head.
Sometimes leaving lots of empty space in the photo also works very well. Something like a meadow might fill two thirds of the photo for effect. Just be sure to get a close enough shot that your subject fills at least about a third of the frame. And that brings us to another important tip….
Rule of Thirds
Most snapshots have empty (or cluttered) space on either side of the subject, with the subject dead center. This makes sense because most people use digital compacts and they’re usually in autofocus mode with a center-weighted focus.
Professionally taken pictures rarely have the subject centered in the middle because they use manual focus and use classic composition methods. If you have a digital SLR (DSLR) you can manually focus too (we’ll even look at a way for some digital compact users can use).
The “Rule of Thirds” is one of the most popular classic composition methods used in the world of art. With this method, the photographer imagines six evenly spaced lines breaking the image into nine even parts. Some cameras have a tic tac toe grid superimposed over your image in preview mode but if yours doesn’t you’ll have to imagine it. Using this grid, frame the composition so that the subject (whether in individual, family, object, etc.) is on one of the intersections or on one of the lines.
This may seem tricky at first but with a little practice it becomes second nature.
Focus
Now lets first talk about getting your subject focused without placing them in the dead center of your frame.
This method works like a charm for subjects that are still. Here’s what you do:
- Using the viewfinder’s focus point, move the camera until your subject is in the middle of the frame, and press the shutter release button half way down.
- Wait for the green light to glow steadily signifying your focus is locked
- Keeping your finger on the shutter release button so it remains pressed only half way, move the camera until you have the composition you want.
- Holding the camera steady, press the shutter the rest of the way.
- As always, wait for the green light to signal the camera’s captured the shot.
Remember to always focus on the main point of interest in your photo. And when you’re photographing people or animals, that usually means you want to focus on their eyes because that’s where people naturally look first.
And anytime you’re focusing on a subject in your picture, look for a unique angle. This could mean taking the picture while standing on a chair or lying on the ground- whatever gives you a unique vantage point that captures the subject best.
That’s it for now! Start using these tips and before long you’ll be getting all kinds of compliments on your well composed pictures hanging on the wall.