A common mistake made by many amateur photographers is that they stand too far away from their subject matter, in a desire to include everything. Their photographs become busy, unstructured and cluttered with unwanted detail which distracts from the primary subject matter. Subject matter can look unimportant and not worthy of closer attention and there is also a danger that the photographer will not have control over the composition. The first photograph in the gallery below is a study of the human figure and also a composition of shape, tone and line. There are three dominant shapes. The woman’s leg, the man’s back and also the third shape which is created between the frame and the man’s back. The act of framing a subject using the viewfinder of the camera imposes an edge that does not exist in reality. This frame also dissects familiar objects to create new shapes. The shapes that this frame creates must be studied carefully in order to create successful compositions. The powerful arc of the man’s back is positioned carefully in relationship to the edge of the frame and the leg of the woman is added to balance the compositio EXAMPLES OF FRAMING
DEPTH
When we view a flat two-dimensional print which is a representation of a three-dimensional scene, we can often recreate this sense of depth in our mind’s eye. Using any perspective present in the image and the scale of known objects we view the image as if it exists in layers at differing distances. Successful compositions often make use of this sense of depth by strategically placing points of interest in the foreground, the middle distance and the distance. Our eye can be led through such a composition as if we were walking through the photograph observing the points of interest on the way. Photographers can also control how much of the image is seen ‘in focus’, which again can contribute to a sense of depth.