Composition is one of the basics of photography and getting a good shot. That's the theme of this lesson.
I took these pictures in Chandler, AZ walking around near the library and the downtown area. The first shot was one where I had noticed the remarkable curved lines of the concrete walls. So I took the shot, hoping to have the curves draw the eye into the frame. But I was disappointed when the picture turned into a "bright rail" in the foreground caused by the sun on the near wall.
I saved the photo by cropping the image to give it the vision I wanted. The end result is not a true representation of the original dimensions, because I cropped it down to the picture I saw in my mind. I realize that this is not a perfect "thirds" photo. In fact, it is almost split 50/50 vertically. I wanted the dark trees to balance the light wall in the foreground, and for the curves to draw the viewer into the frame through the peaceful shadow area. All in all, a nice restful picture (at least to me).
This next photo is a rule of thirds photo. I wanted to show the geometry of the light post compared to the color of the background wall and the flowers. The green from the trees helps frame the shot. Since this light was only around 2 feet tall, I had to get down on my knees to take the shot.
As I was walking around, I spied a very colorful truck on the street. So I snapped a shot from a distance. It has a lot of color, but I did not like the composition. So I moved in closer and took a close up that I thought represented the concept of the colored truck, and what looked to me like a very humorous ad. This for breakfast? They have got to be kidding! But they are not. The drink is an example of the 1/3 rule. Click on the truck picture to see the close-up.
We have a lot of palm trees out here. It is always hard for me to capture their impressive stature. This was a shot of a row of trees, taken almost vertically to avoid the nearby buildings. It has a little of the flavor of the 1/3 in it with the palm in the left foreground. I liked the composition.
Ok, only one more to see. This last shot was interesting as the aperature setting and the speed of the camera helped produced the 1/3 rule shot. The aperature captures only the nearby water streams in focus, and the stop action of the fast picture holds the viewer to these water arcs. I liked this shot because the nearby focus on the water helps to keep the viewer from the rather busy background. There were cars and trucks on the streets in the background beyond the trees/shrubs. I waited until I had only cars in the frame and no trucks. I also was seated on the ground to get this photo of the water from "eye" level.
I liked this lesson. Composition is such an important rule for getting good photos. Another sub-lesson is that if you keep your images in the high pixel range (megapixels), you can afford to crop your resulting images to get more favorable pictures.
Return to DP 101 Index
