Nearly all these days, we’ve focussed a lot on the technical aspects of photography. However, technicality can only get you so far. A major part of photography is composition: the ability to frame a subject so that it appeals to you/the reader, or it speaks a story.

Composition in Photography

You can take a an ordinary flower and turn it into something magical just with the right composition techniques. In this article, let’s explore just how much you can expand your photography boundaries with composition.

Learning To See:

Before we get into any concrete aspects, there’s a caveat that needs to be spoken: in the end, you alone can harness for the kind of composition techniques you use, in your own unique way. There *are* some techniques that can be used but how you use them depends on what you are trying to convey, like we mentioned.

Therefore, one of the fundamental aspects of photography a hobbyist should learn is the art of seeing. Not just looking at a subject, but seeing it and understanding it.

This is a topic that can be an article on its own(indeed, a lot of people have written books on it) and we’ll certainly talk about it in depth soon. But as a rule, don’t approach your subject with a concrete idea. Try messing with it. Take a photo from an obscure angle. Darken or highlight it some more in post. You might just end up getting a new picture, and probably even a new perspective.

2 Basic Techniques Of Composition:

Learning to see can be further aided with some photography techniques that are commonly used by everyone. Even here, there are no actual methods to composition, but simply rules that you can imagine.

Rule Of Thirds:

Perhaps the most popular method of composition, the Rule Of Thirds method is also the easiest to understand, and yet has a massive impact on how you take a photo. Simply put, divide your frame into 9 parts. The Rule of thirds is simply to place your subject in one of these “zones”. When you divide your frame into 9 zones(using 4 lines), the points of intersection are where you should ideally place your subject, which allows for a more aesthetically appealing frame.

Rule of Thirds

Back then, this used to be an imaginary guideline that photographers used. Thanks to how far technology has brought us, you can apply a grid overlay to your camera(and most phones come equipped with it these days), which means less fuddling with the viewfinder or screen for you.

Using Patterns:

While this might seem simple enough, it’s often overlooked. Patterns can make some stunning works of art, especially when it comes to photographing architecture or abstract work. They add spice to a photo, and if there’s nothing else, can make for a very interesting subject on their own.

Recognising patterns

Some places, even the lack of patterns can be quite photogenic. Like we mentioned in the beginning, there’s really no concrete rule as to how you approach a subject. So even an irregularity in a pattern can make for a striking photo.