Ask why a photo looks 'professional' and people point at the camera. Usually it's the composition — where things sit in the frame. These five rules are the fastest way to make ordinary scenes look considered.
One: the rule of thirds — place your subject a third of the way in, not dead centre. Two: leading lines — use roads, fences, and shadows to pull the eye toward your subject. Three: frame within a frame — shoot through a doorway, a window, or overhanging branches for depth. Four: negative space — give the subject room to breathe instead of cramming the frame. Five: fill the frame — when in doubt, get closer than feels comfortable.
When to break them
Dead-centre symmetry can be striking. A tiny subject in a huge empty frame can say more than a tight crop. The rules are training wheels: learn them until you feel them, then break them on purpose, for a reason — which is different from breaking them by accident.
Spend a week shooting with just one of these in mind. It'll change how you see scenes before you even lift the camera.
No comments yet