Composition - Introduction

The key to a successful image is composition. How the subject is arranged within and against it’s background. It’s about eliminating distractions so the focus stays on the subject and not the details. It’s about placing the subject in a location that enhances it. It’s about understanding all the little details that go into taking a photograph, and making them work for you.

Elements should enhance each other and not interfere with each other. They must never distract from each other.

Eliminating distractions so the focus stays on the subject and not the details.

Has the artist's message conveyed and resulted in an emotional reaction?

The ability to stand on its own as a whole when taken out of its original context. A successful composition needs no explanation of the context from which it was removed.

A photograph, regardless of size, format, equipment, or technique used in its production, takes part of a scene and separates it from a larger context. From that point on, the image becomes a whole, self-contained composition. When this composition gains in impact from being separated from its original context, it is successful. If it loses impact - it is unsuccessful. Thus the next criterion for a successful composition is in its ability to stand on its own as a whole when taken out of its original context.

What is the centre of interest? the smile of a sitter, the shadows on snow,

What elements were used to create a good photograph?

Simplicity in composition does not necessarily imply fewer elements, but could be fewer distractions. e.g. an image may contain a subject standing in front of hundreds of trees trees' pattern remains uniform they will not distract from the main subject. Remembe, elements in a composition should enhance each other or, at the very least, not interfere with each other. They must never distract from each other.