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Dear Subscriber,
These basic composition guidelines come from photographer Scott Bourne. They're a quick read and a handy check list.
If you're an amateur I think you'll find them interesting. Pros may want to use these tips in training sessions for your "shooters."
Do you have photo tips you'd like to share with our readers? Please contact me and I'll try my best to include your ideas in future newsletters.
Dale
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 25 Ideas You Can Use For Better Pictures
For each of these tips, an opposite artistic argument could be made. This list is designed to give you a sound, proven starting point.
My Recommendation: Concentrate on basics first. Pretty soon you'll be able combine several of these techniques in each of your photographs.
As your comfort level increases get creative with your own unique compositions.
Start With These Basics:
1. Be clear on your subject. What story are you trying to tell with the photo?
2. Draw attention to the subject. This can be done by simply getting closer, using selective focus, using color, lighting just the subject, framing the subject in a doorway or window, etc.
3. Simplify. Simple is best. Remove anything that doesn’t help you tell the story.
4. When in doubt, leave it out. If there is something in the field of view irrelevant to the subject or that somehow doesn’t support the subject, get rid of it.
5. Check your negative space. Don’t leave too much negative space. When there is negative space, be sure to use it wisely. Your subject should always be the primary visual element unless there is a specific reason you want to minimize it.
6. Fill the frame. You will rarely go wrong by filling the frame with the main subject. Many of the best pictures are the simplest ones. It is unnecessary to add background for the sake of adding background.
7. Check the edges of the frames. Don’t cut off feet or hands of the subject half way. If you want to exclude those appendages, make sure it is clear you meant to do so. Make a clean crop well above the wrist, for instance, if you don’t want to include the hands.
8. Check for intruders. Is there something popping into the picture from the side? Is there a tree branch, power line, or telephone poll that creeps into the shot and steals attention from the subject? Recompose and remove it.
9. Remember POV – point of view. Shoot up on objects to make them more powerful. Shoot down on subjects to diminish them or make them look less imposing.
10. Use the Rule of Thirds. Draw a tic-tac-toe board over the picture in your mind. Position the subject at one of the four intersecting corners in the grid.
11. When shooting portraits: Always keep the eyes above the center line in the photo.
12. Strive for balance. Look at the composition and determine if there’s something out of place that tilts the viewer’s attention one way or the other.
13. The eye goes to the brightest part of the scene first. Don’t let anything in the photo be brighter than the main subject.
14. Add depth by including strong foreground objects in shots where the background is also important.
15. Shoot vertically to enhance tall objects or emphasize height. Shoot horizontally to emphasize width.
16. Use patterns, particularly repeating patterns, to make pictures more interesting.
17. Use leading lines to attract the viewer’s eye where you want it to go.
|  | | The lines of the pier, the rocks, the horizon and the people walking all lead the eye to the lighthouse. |
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18. Use S-curves or shapes as a more relaxed, casual way to lead the eye through the composition. A road or a stream are good examples of this approach.
19. Start by shooting at the subject’s eye level. For example, get down low when making a child or animal’s portrait, rather than standing over them and shooting down on them.
20. Make sure there is separation between multiple subjects to avoid unsightly merges.
21. Don’t center everything unless there’s a reason.
22. Don’t let the horizon fall dead center in the picture.
23. Don’t let the horizon cut through the head of any human or animal subject.
24. Don’t let the horizon merge with objects that are important to the image, and make sure it is level.
25. Right before snapping the photo, take a second. Look up, look down, look all around...and make sure there’s nothing you’re missing.
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Your composition doesn't end in your camera...
There will usually be several excellent pictures within your composition. You can print those "pictures-within-pictures" with our laboratory's help after your photograph is taken. What you do "in the lab" can make a real difference!
Cropping - Changing a
composition ... even slightly ... through cropping can dramatically improve it.
Both our iPrints.com site
for amateurs and our pro site, iPrintsPro.com, offer easy cropping of
your pictures with simple online tools.
Print Size and Shape - Consider
the dimensions (shape) and size of your enlargement.
- Choose a full frame print format or the classic 8 x 10 proportioned print size based upon your composition.
- Order a larger print size (11" x 14" - 20" x 30") when you want a more impressive enlargement.
Printing as Black & White - A good composition in color can become a great one in black & white. Converting to B&W just requires a click of your mouse on either of our sites.
Paper Surface - The paper you print on can improve your print's impact:
- Lustre/matte prints have wonderful texture and depth.
- Glossy produces vivid color and snap.
- Metallic offers a beautiful, almost 3D quality to bright colors and B&W.
The secret to getting pro-quality prints from your compositions is in the printing.
That's what we're here for. You snap the pictures ... we'll do the rest!
Best wishes,
Dale
Dale Farkas
President, iPrints.com & iPrintsPro.com
(Online printing services of Dale Laboratories)
Questions? Call (800) 327-1776.
We're here to help!
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P.S. Do you have a friend who is interested in getting better photographs? Just click Forward Email below to share this information.
Shooting With Film - Please note that though we've emphasized our online sites these guidelines for composition will work just as well for film...and we continue to process film to the highest standards in America.
Our thanks to Scott Bourne at Photofocus.com for his copyrighted 25 tips.
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