Renowned travel photographer Bob Holmes says he shoots in a "National Geographic style." A style that he describes as not about the photographer, but about the subject; a style that is graphic, and features a strong use of color. And in this video, he shares some composition tips that will help you capture some of that iconic style in your photos as well.
This is a set of notes on composition, loosely based on ideas of composition from the Victorian era. There's quite a bit more, and yet quite a bit less, to the Victorian ideas.
Mastering composition is the best way to get more keepers in your street photography. That makes sense, right? If you know how to make a visually pleasing image, then you can discipline yourself to capture the remarkable photos that tell a story.
Photographer Joel Goodman was photographing revelers in Manchester on New Year's Eve when he came across a strange scene: police were wrestling a man on the ground while another man was reclining on the street and reaching for his beer.
Goodman's resulting photo has gone wildly viral online, and many are referring to it as a "perfect composition" and a photo that's reminiscent of a Renaissance masterpiece painting.
Composition can make or break a photograph. This is why it's important to understand it and know how to effectively and creatively use it. In essence, composition describes the position of relative elements in a photograph. A strong composition will tend to have leading lines that draw attention to your subject: these can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines depending on the placement of your subject in the frame.
In my mind, there are three important elements of a photograph. Lighting, Composition and Moment. Every picture that I love has these elements, in varying amounts. A great picture may have strength in all three areas, or it may be, for example, such an emotional moment that it overpowers poor composition or light.
But for this article I want to take a quick look at composition, and how photographers will be subconsciously considering many compositional elements when making pictures as well as editing and post processing later.
Here's a great video on photographic composition, created by The Cooperative of Photography using tips and photographs by legendary photojournalist Steve McCurry. Each of the 9 composition tips is illustrated with examples from McCurry's impressive body of work.
Here's a term that most of you have probably experienced before, but some of you may never have heard before. It's called "focus breathing" (or simply "breathing"), and it refers to the shift in angle of view that often occurs when you focus a lens. If you've ever carefully composed a shot, refocused, and then discovered that your composition changed, you've been a victim of focus breathing.
The basic rules of composition apply to almost every visual art there is, be it photography, painting or graphic design. Whether it’s the rule of thirds or the rule of triangles, the principles overlap, leaving the educational resources for each respective art form useful across the board, not tied down to one specific field.
There is a specific composition to 'portraits of power.' Almost without exception -- no matter the country or year, even if the medium was paint and not light -- every leader stares out of a frame with a look of seriousness on their face, seated just so, emanating the power and authority granted or given them.
It's these similarities, punctuated by minor cultural differences, that make photographer Alejandro Almaraz's Portraits of Power series so engrossing.
What happens when you give a graphic designer a camera? Well, in the case of Lino Russo and his latest project Skymetric, you get a eye-catching series of images that explore the relationship between nature and architecture in the most colorful way imaginable.
How far would you go to capture a beautiful photograph? Would you spend almost an entire night inside a dark, freezing cold, kilometer-long lava cave in Iceland? Because that's what photographer Ingólfur Bjargmundsson had to do to capture this stunning composite of the aurora through a cave's skylight.
Oftentimes it’s the simplest elements that make or break a photograph, setting it apart from the rest for either better or worse. Today, we have for you a case of the former in this striking series of black and white street photos by photographer Mahmoud Merjan.
Erik Kim is one of the best-known street photographers out there, today. In his continues efforts to shoot and share, Kim has put out the full presentation he used in his Introduction to Composition for Street Photography talk at Gulf Photo Plus 2014.
Post-processing and lighting and camera tutorials are all good and well, but none of them are going to do anything for you if you don't have a good handle on composition. To that end, this basic two-part composition tutorial by Mike Browne will give you a solid foundation from which to start.
Photographer Chris Pritchard recently took it upon himself to pay a time-lapse tribute to a city he loves. The city of Los Angeles. The final product is called Above LA, and it manages to capture our attention in an over-saturated genre thanks to its fantastic compositions, beautiful use of movement and vibrant (but not overwhelming) colors.
We all know how much time and effort is put into photo compositions, but the process by which the above image was created is even more mind-blowing when it's compiled into the GIF you see below.
Composition and the rules that accompany it are some of the most basic aspects you learn when first picking up a camera. If you've been a photographer long, it's probably safe to say that the "rule of thirds" and "golden mean" are ingrained into your brain so well that it's second-nature now.
That being said, every once in a while it's nice to take a fresh look at the rules and the underlying concepts behind them -- if for no other reason than because you have to know the rules in order to break them properly.
Has someone ever asked you why you like an image? Beneath the surface of great picture, there is a geometric design in hiding. During World War II, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt worked for the early version of the Associated Press and went on to become a Life Magazine photographer, taking over fifty cover shots for them. Without getting too deep into Eisenstaedt’s personal story, I will say that he started photography with very little formal training.
Here's a primer for beginning photographers on the concepts of aspect ratios and compositional theories.
In this B&H Event Space seminar, David Brommer takes you “Beyond The …
Here’s a talk Photoshop guru Scott Kelby gave at the recent …
When I was a freshman in high school, I signed up for a film photography class thinking it would be a good excuse to spend a good part of the school week and some homework time getting to goof around with a camera.
The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) has announced the winner of its prestigious GDT Nature Photographer of the Year competition. The 2024 winner is Dieter Damschen for his photo Winter flood in a riparian forest.
Profoto announced the Eclipse II, the second-generation all-in-one product photography station that comes from what was formerly known as StyleShoots, a brand Profoto acquired in 2022.
Last Friday I was able to take photos I only thought were only possible in my dreams. As a professional landscape photographer, I have seen my fair share of beautiful northern lights in the Arctic, but I’ve always dreamed of seeing a strong aurora display in the Netherlands.
After shooting the recent total eclipse on 35mm film, analog photographer Sven White decided that instead of just developing them and having photos that look "like all the others" he would double expose the film instead.
Hasselblad announced the 25mm f/2.5V (which it writes as 2,5/25V), its widest V-series lens for the XCD system. The wide-angle prime is designed for photographing cityscapes, starry skies, and indoor portraits.
A tripod head is one of the most important pieces of equipment a photographer can own. Most photographers start with cheap, shoddily built tripods with integrated heads, sometimes bought as part of a kit. While they don’t know it, these tripods aren’t worth their weight in plastic, which is a fancy way of saying they’re worthless.
Nikon and Photo London have announced the nine shortlisted photographers in the Nikon Emerging Photographer Award 2024. The photographers showcase the power of visual storytelling and how a camera, in the right hands, can substantially impact the world.