Moises Levy is a Mexico City-based photographer who uses juxtaposition to tell the story of life on beaches and open spaces. His black-and-white photo portfolio is filled with clever framing and compositions.
I have no idea where I first heard this, but it’s extremely true: “the main difference between painting and photography is that the painters need to work hard to put things into their images, whereas photographers have to work hard to take things out of their images.”
Here's a short 4-minute video by Light Club that looks at using a vertical or horizontal middle line through the frame, something it refers to as "a secret rule of photo composition."
Capturing images that grab attention is a goal of any photographer. It’s exactly this skill that separates a good photographer from an average one.
You know those moments when you're chimping and wonder why that amazing shot that you thought was going to be, well, amazing just isn't? Your exposure was right - check; white balance - check; aperture - check; shutter - check. Lens... hmm. Let's see. Lens? Yes, I shot with the right lens. If you are shooting competently and things are still not working out like you would want them to, I have a great piece of advice for you.
Photographer Eric Floberg made this 5-minute video tutorial on the subject of composing portraits.
Photographer Toma Bonciu (AKA Photo Tom) made this 10-minute video with 9 composition tips and rules you can use to shoot more effective landscape photos.
Landscape photographer Nigel Danson made this helpful 20-minute video in which he shares 7 simple composition tips that you can use to instantly improve your landscape photos.
Here's a 7-minute video by Advancing Your Photography that shares 15 tips for composing your photos from 4 masters of photography: Chase Jarvis, Bob Holmes, Chris Burkard, and Marc Silber.
If you're just starting out in portrait photography, here's a helpful 4-minute video by photographer Sheldon Evans that looks at 3 big composition mistakes that beginners often make in the genre.
Photographer Denis Cherim has an eye for creative composition. His Coincidence Project is filled with cleverly framed photos containing interesting relationships between light, shadows, and the lines of objects.
Sometimes a beautiful landscape scene doesn't look as good on camera as it did to your eye, but that's because translating a 3-dimensional scene into a 2-dimensional space is challenging. Using strong foreground elements in your composition is one way to create depth and counter this problem, as shown in this 8-minute tutorial from Nature TTL.
Here's a 20-minute video in which Serge Ramelli shows how he captured some beautiful fine-art photos of hot air balloons at a festival, even though the photo opportunities were initially looking bleak. Faced with a poor foreground full of spectators and bright yellow buses, Ramelli had to think outside the box.
When it comes to composition “rules”, it’s important to understand the concepts so that you have them in the back of your mind while shooting. You’re not going to jail if you break them, but you will likely end up with a better image if you follow them! This 6-minute video from photographer Evan Ranft runs through 4 common composition mistakes that photographers make, and how to avoid them.
Ever wonder what it is that makes Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" photos "work"? Photographer Tavis Leaf Glover put out a two-part video series in which he explores Cartier-Bresson's famous photos and shows how they conform to various ideas and principles of composition.
Composition can make or break a photograph. Here's a 7-minute video by photographer Peter McKinnon in which he runs through three tips to help you improve the composition of your photographs.
Ever since I decided to start learning photography, I’ve been looking for a good catalog of composition ideas. Once you figure out the mechanics of how a DSLR works, getting good at the composition of your photos seems to be the 80/20 of rapidly improving at photography.
Improving your composition can bring balance and personality to your photography, simultaneously enabling you to produce more appealing images. And as quick tips go, this 90-second video from Mango Street Lab is absolutely packed full of key compositional advice.
Belin-based Julian Schulze is clearly a master of minimalism, a feat made all the more eye-catching and impressive when you consider the cultural clutter of our times. If you've been looking for minimalist inspiration, look no further.
Today I want to share a super-simple idea that, if you can grasp it and put it into practice, I guarantee will really help your photography.
In my photography I draw a huge amount of inspiration from film and tv series. One of my favourite recent series has been Mr. Robot. This is how this series proved to have a profound effect on the way I compose my photos.
Raymond Thi—the creator of the Composition Cam app and ultra-popular Twitter account—is back with another great database for composition-obsessed photographers. It's called Geometric Shots, and it's a searchable collection of great composition from well-known films and TV shows.
Focal point is a term that photographers and photography blogs throw around continually. “Create a focal point,” it’s said, “it should be the first and last place the eye goes in your image.” That’s true, of course, but like most important things it’s easier said than done.
When doing photography in general, and in my case travel photography, the use of a photography template can be very beneficial and help improve the overall performance.
What's the 'recipe' for a great photograph? As we embark on this new 365-day journey called "2017," our friends at COOPH teamed up with photographer Craig Semetko to answer this question; and he believes it all comes down to 4 key elements: Design, Information, Emotion, and Timing.
You have no doubt heard of the Golden Ratio, which is somehow or other connected to the Golden Mean and the Fibonacci Spiral, which is oft-touted as the basis of all great compositions. It is less likely that you have heard of the Diamond Ratio.
When was the last time you saw a round photo? It's probably been a while. The world is ruled by squares and rectangles. It's almost as if there's no place for circles, but I have come round to thinking that maybe those ancient mathematicians were onto something when they got all excited by circles, maybe you can have your pi and eat it too.
Here's a simple composition tip that promises to help add depth and impact to your images. Instead of thinking of light and lines separately, try to combine the two by having your strongest light source and your leading lines work together.
A long time ago I was a young art student, being told about the “Rule Of Thirds.” I was told it’s one of the most important fundamentals of art and photography, as it helps you get the right composition in your images.
Chicago-based commercial photographer Nick Ulivieri was shooting aerial photos over his city last Friday when he captured this gorgeous photo of Chicago's skyline casting a shadow over Lake Michigan.
For many advanced photographers, the rule of thirds is seen as something of a beginner's trope or amateur construct, but learning how, why, and when to break it can be a challenge. This short episode of Brain Flick helps deconstruct that question and explain why and when "bad" compositions work.
Every great photograph consists of three key elements. First and foremost composition, then lighting and, of course, the moment. Look at any great image and you’ll notice these elements.
Leading lines, negative space, rule of thirds, all of these compositional elements are discussed ad nauseam in the world of photography. This short video ignores all that, and instead focuses on a different, but equally powerful element in an image: geometric shapes.
The filmmakers behind ShoHawk have put together a simple infographic for filmmakers that, with all due respect of course, we think applies even better to photographers. The graphic describes 15 principles of Mise en Scéne, and it helps explain how different visual elements and styles in an scene (or photo) help tell different kinds of stories.
There are no unbreakable rules when it comes to how you should compose your photographs. After all, who likes rules except for your old school principal or heads of H.R. departments? There are, however, several photography composition guidelines you can use to help improve the composition of your photos.
Recently I got a message from a person who said that they liked my pictures, but unfortunately they don’t have a "photographic eye." This inspired me to write the following article about basic aesthetics and their relationship to photography.
Want to see the composition concepts used in famous scenes from famous movies? Raymond Thi of Composition Cam has been taking still frames and overlaying neon pink lines to show things like symmetry, thirds, quadrants, triangles, diagonals, and more.
The golden ratio (or golden mean, or golden section, or divine proportion, or whatever you want to call it) is the subject of heated debate among photographers. But if you love using the golden ratio when you shoot, you should definitely check out this creative little pocket-sized card.
Many prime lens lovers will tell you they don't need no stinkin' zoom lenses, just "zoom with your feet" as they say. But there is a point to zoom lenses, and it's not just the versatility of having multiple focal lengths—it's the ability to tell different stories with the same lens.
This is an older video, published back in February of 2015, but the lesson is timeless. The video's creators call it "the one thing holding you back from compositional perfection," and it's this: style to the camera.