28 Composition Techniques To Upskill Your Photography Skills

A. What is composition?

Composition is a crucial topic in photography which is complicated, as well. You may have noticed that many people have taken different photographs with different people as subjects in a famous location. But, some photographs; captured by a good photographer are truly eye-catching, and the rest aren’t very interesting.

The thing that the photographer has added into the frame to make the image more interesting is composition. Composition is everything, from the arrangements of the photo elements to how you tell the story in a single frame.

B. Why is composition important?

Suppose you’re going to capture the Statue of Liberty, New York, USA, that had already been photographed by the masses. If you’re well aware of choosing the proper composition techniques, you can distinguish your photography from other so-so photographs.

Composition techniques are powerful aids that will help you take better photos. How do you frame a photo, or how do you arrange the film elements into the frame - these are very personal creative decisions.

Whether you follow the rules or apply your creative ideas, in the end, the goal is to make the images aesthetically pleasing and convey the inner meaning of the photos as clear as possible. If the cinematic compositions or the colorful aspects of a frame, sharpness and clarity of an image could attract the audiences, it would be a great achievement for the photographer.

If you’re eager to learn the traditional composition techniques, move ahead to the next part of the article.

1. Rule of Thirds

The ‘Rule of Third’ is all about positioning the key elements of the frame, the most well-known photographic composition rule. It is the easiest way to get started with composition; that never lets your expectation down.

Professionals use this composition technique extensively, which in turn is reflected in their shots.

A) What is the Rule of Thirds?

The ‘Rule of Thirds’ composition guideline composes photos based on an imaginary grid. What this means is the frame is divided into nine separate equal-sized blocks (3*3 matrix).

Now the intersecting lines vertically and horizontally divide images, more precisely in the frame, which can be viewed in the viewfinder when set in Live View Mode.

To understand better, see the image above. According to the rule, you have to place the subject (here it is the dog) at the third left or third right of the frame and leave the remaining two-thirds open. Thus you can create harmony between the subject and all the elements in the frame.

There are other composition forms, but the ‘Rule of Third’ makes it easy to create such a visually pleasing effect; that touches our soul and ensures a well-composed shot.

B) Why is the rule of thirds useful?

Close your eyes and just think about your favorite photograph; maybe you’ve captured it or seen it elsewhere. Now tell me, what is the thing that attracts you towards it? What comes to your mind at first? The subject matter; Right?

Some photographs strongly resonate; make us feel like everything in the frame is assembled just in the right place. Maybe the photographers have achieved such resonant balance going through lots of trials and errors.

But now you know how to arrange all the pieces of the photographic puzzle following the Rule of Thirds. Before implementing the technique, you should also know why it matters or what it will do for the photographs. Let’s dive right in.

The photographs will become more balanced and visually pleasing than usual when you position the key elements at the intersections or gridlines by following the ‘Rule of Thirds’.

The key elements will create visual interest in one-third of the frame, whereas you’ve to balance out the blank space in the remaining two-thirds of the frame. The viewer will feel everything in the frame is complementing each other.

If you keep the key elements in the center of the frame, it could feel boring and static. The viewers will easily find out the subject at the center and leave.

On the other hand, the ‘Rule of Thirds’ prefers both sides of the frame for key element positioning to encourage dynamism. When people see the key element on the side, automatically, it will take their eyes on a visual journey all over the frame.

At the same time, studies also show that we usually look at one of the intersection points more than the center of a frame. By all means, you can say the right or left third of an image is the best place for keeping the key elements.

In other words, the ‘Rule of Thirds’ composition ensures the engaging photographic experience working with such a natural way of viewing an image.

This composition rule doesn’t take much effort at all. Just you need to ask two questions - what are your points of interest and where you want to place that key element; that’s all. After determining these things, position them accordingly along the rule’s grid line and you will definitely end up with a beautifully balanced shot.

C) Breaking the rules: should you do it?

The ‘Rule of Third’ teaches us what is the right place for the subject; from where it will look a perfect harmony with each other. But it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. If you ignore composing your photos accordingly, it doesn’t mean it will become boring or unattractive. You can even create a stronger composition than it with other composition techniques.

For instance, if you’re photographing some particular subjects, like a close shot of a flower or a long shot of a corridor, the symmetry-looks in the center of the frame will look the best. Isn’t it? 

However, the man who is playing an instrument in the picture; is positioned according to the Rule of thirds guideline, at an intersection point of the right third side.

However, if any rule limits your creativity or you’re not willing to follow it, break it and have fun. Now learn the Symmetry Composition in detail.

2. Centered Composition and Symmetry

The centered composition and symmetry composition guideline composes a shot by splitting the frame in half, either horizontally or vertically. According to the rule, if you’re going to photograph architecture, roads, and nature in landscape mode, you can achieve the perfect aesthetically pleasing balance or symmetry in your photographs only when you’ll place the subject at the center of the frame.

This composition technique is ideal for capturing something with reflections in water, glass, or a mirror. Hence, you could use Horizontal Symmetry to capture an impressive landscape with reflection (picture on the left). If the subject is a high-rise building (refer the picture on the right) or you’re portraying someone or something, go for Vertical Symmetry to induce a sense of calmness.

3. Foreground Interest and Depth

Aside from the subject, if there are strong foreground elements in the scenes, you can use the following photography technique to create depth, this way –

Divide a grand landscape scene into three sections; the foreground, the middle ground, and the background. Another important thing; that lies between you and the main subject is the foreground. The middle ground is the subject or main point of interest of the photo or where most of the action takes place. Everything behind the subject is in the background. 

For instance, the above scene contains eye-catching red flowers in the foreground, eye-soothing greeneries in the middle ground, and sky in the background.

We add the foreground to reveal the finer details of the story. Keep in mind; you can use this technique only if the foreground is an important part of the scene. The foreground should not be empty or a cause of distraction.

4. Frame within the Frame

To enhance the sense of depth, you could purposefully frame your main subject with some props or something else; that is already present in the scene. The Frame within the Frame photography is all about surrounding the subject with something; that looks like a frame. The frame within a frame composition is a great way to focus the viewer’s eye on your subject – and a great way to add depth to your photos.

You could use anything, even an actual picture frame to surround your subject and keep them in front or behind the subject. You could ask your model to make a frame within a frame self or use out-of-focus elements as frames.

Look at the photo above; the photographer used the handle of the bench to frame the person. Though the bench is in foreground position, that adds extra depth into the picture and helps us understand it’s a sitting area.

5. Leading Lines

Leading lines refer to the lines of a photograph; that leads our eyes from one part to another and draws our attention to a specific point of interest. 

4 types of leading lines are there –

• The Horizontal leading lines; often get used in nature or landscape photography.
• The Vertical leading lines; are suitable for fashion photography or street photography.
• The Diagonal lines; get used while dealing with a large depth of field.
• The Converging lines; photographers place a subject at the axis of these leading lines.

Generally, the lines start from the foreground of the image and draw our eyes in a specific direction, mainly towards the background.

6. Diagonals and Triangles

Diagonals and Triangles are the most preferred shapes in photographic composition techniques. It’s all about placing a subject either diagonally into the frame or in a way; where we can draw an imaginary triangle. If there are three important elements or more, imagine a triangle and place them at three points; thus, you can stabilize the photographs.

The diagonals create a center of attraction, add depth, and change the way a viewer sees an image. On the other hand, the triangle rule could turn a dull frame into an energetic scene, add attractive layers to the image and lead the viewer’s eyes throughout the entire image.

7. Patterns and Textures

You will try to represent the reality in your frame while photographing something. Nothing could be better than if you can let your viewer see what you saw or experienced. That’s what Pattern and Texture photography is all about. The photographs convey how the subject or material feels; smooth or rough, hard or soft, wet or dry?

The photographers generally use pattern and texture composition styles to add new dynamics or depth to their photography. Look around you; you’ll find patterns everywhere, from nature to man-made constructions. The repeated objects, shapes, or colors are truly eye-pleasing; you could use them as the background, even as the main subject of your photo.

Texture photography is a bit challenging and tricky; you’ve to capture a close look of the material or subject with all details, vibrant colors, interesting patterns, and a good depth.

Generally, the texture composition style is often found in textile photography. Photographers often try texture photography to photograph something else along with textile photography.

To understand texture photography much better, look at the pictures of the elephant given above; it’s texture photography but followed by ‘Rule of Thirds.’

8. Break the Pattern

Sometimes the pattern could look monotonous. To add some spice to the photograph, you could break the pattern or include something different in the pattern.

Look at the picture; The red apple breaks the pattern created by the green apples and catches your eyes at a glance. ‘Break the Pattern’ rule also follows the ‘Rule of Thirds’ technique, so you’ve to put the contrasting element at an intersection.

9. Rule of Odds

The composition is not all about eye-pleasing factors. The main goal is to make the viewers look longer in your photograph. The Rule of Odds is a handy composition trick; that helps manipulate the viewer’s mind; also creates a more engaging and visually pleasing composition than others.

A) What is the Rule of Odds?

The Rule of Odds states that an image should have an odd number of objects rather than an even number of elements. Do you want to know why?

Several studies showed that when people see an even number of elements in a photograph, they unconsciously tend to group them in pairs. This human nature makes us separate the whole image into pieces.

Hence, the ‘Rule of Odds’ wants to strike this natural tendency. When the viewers face three people rather than four, five flowers rather than six in a photograph, their brain can’t pair them up all together with ease.

Once we move beyond single-digit numbers, we tend to see all the elements as a group – even if they’re odd. Due to this human nature, unconsciously, the viewers will also try hard to organize the odd numbers of objects in pairs.

So, the viewers will move between the individual elements plus look longer at the image. On the positive side, it will engage the viewers in the images; they may find the pictures interesting, as well. These are the power of the rule of odds in photography.

B) How to plan your Photos with the rule of odds?

With Rule of Odds, you have complete freedom to decide what to include or exclude; where and how to place the elements. You can arrange the odd number of subjects in such pleasing ways -

Look at this picture; the flowers create a triangle shape, and the entire subject is positioned according to the Rule of Thirds.

In the second picture, you can see; the photographer arranged the subject (bees) in a diagonal position.

You can see there are three key elements in the image. The subject (the girl) is surrounded by the window frame, whereas the TV is framed by the table lamp. That means the Frame within the Frame composition technique meets here with the rule of odds.

C) Useful Tips

10. Fill the Frame

The 'Fill the Frame' composition technique is about filling the photograph with more of the subject; instead of leaving blank space. Here, you’ve to capture the subject from closer without worrying about composition.

However, it does not mean always taking close-up shots. You could leave space, but the background space should be presented as the subject or supported story.

Look at the picture above; we can understand that the baby is lying on a white-colored sofa or bed; due to the blank space around the baby.

11. Leave Negative Space

While Fill The Frame does its best for some shots, sometimes you must leave negative space for the photograph to speak on its own.

A subject-filled photograph without any space could make your viewer feel chaotic or claustrophobic. Leaving blank space around your subject sometimes positively affects the composition. The viewer’s eye can rest on the negative space; plus, it emphasizes the subject and evokes the feeling of movement.

We often see the usage of negative space in magazines or product brochures, where the empty space gets used for text placement.

12. Simplicity and Minimalism

Simplicity and Minimalism are nothing big to understand. You have to eliminate the unnecessary things from the frame to let the main subject speak more. 

When the viewers see a grand scene where too many acts are going on, they think about what is the most interesting here. It could make them look throughout the image. But, if the photograph fails to tell the story clearly or the viewers can’t find out the subject, the net result will come to a big zero.

So, keep the frame clean, minimal, and simple! You would not find a killer background and mesmerizing foreground with multiple subjects in every situation. Just keep the thing in the frame; that you want to show to your viewers. 

13. Use Black and White

The black and white photography eliminates the distraction of color; lets the viewers focus on the subject, the shapes, patterns, and textures. Another advantage of black and white composition is that you can create a dramatic effect by playing with lighting and shadows.

14. Isolate the Subject

If you want to grab all the attention of the viewers towards your subject, isolate it from other elements. To do so, you could blur the background; or create a contrast using color and external light; or isolate the subject physically by using an interrupted pattern and leading lines, shooting it from a different viewpoint, leaving negative space around it, and positioning it according to the Rule of Thirds.

15. Shoot from Below

Shooting from low angles makes the subject more interesting, helps capture a better background, and presents diversity without changing the shooting perspective. The low-angle shots establish a superior or heroic look on your subjects. You could try this composition technique during architecture photography.

16. Shoot from Above

The high-angle shot is the counterpart to the low angle. The camera positions above the subject and takes shots positioning towards your subject.

The photographers use this technique to capture a wide area, fighting scenes; show the character's psychological vulnerability, fear, or establish a frightening scene. 

17. Look for Particular Color Combinations

Choosing an appropriate color combination is one of the most important parts of an image. It directly impacts the depth of interest and emotions. The warm colors, red, orange, and yellow get used to attract the viewer’s attention. On the other hand, the photographers use cool colors, green, blue, and violet to include the sense of soothing and calmness into the picture.

When both types of colors appear in the same photo, they create an attractive color contrast, which is a focal point of interest. Like - red and green or yellow and violet plus orange and blue complement each other.

You’ll get endless color variety in the real world. You can follow the classic color theory to earn better knowledge of color combinations.

18. Rule of Space

The Rule of Space is another important composition technique; that helps you understand the matter of space. It will give you a detailed idea regarding - how much of the frame should be used for the subject? Or how much space should be left for creating an eye-pleasing contrast and highlighting the subject?

A) What is the rule of space?

The ‘Rule of Space’ states that the subject should not look directly to the camera or out of the frame, and the frame should have plenty of space for the subject to look into it.

Applying the rule of space does not always mean that you’ve to capture a simple and minimalist photo with lots of space around the subject. The main purpose of the rule of space is to create a motion in the image using the negative space.

The correct application of the blank space is the key here. The active space and negative space are equally important in Rule of Space, through which you’ve to add a story to the images.

You’ve to make your viewer enter the photograph to see the active space or subject and look around the pictures through the perspective of the main subject.

That could be when the moving subject will head towards the negative space, and the main subject will look in a certain direction. 

B) Why use this composition technique?

If you follow the rule, it will create interest in the viewer’s mind. The viewers will naturally look at the area where your subject is looking in the picture. Thus, you can grab the attention towards the background; direct the viewer’s eyes to the other key elements. Thus, the technique makes your viewers look throughout the whole image.

C) Locations That Work Well for Rule of Space Photos

The rule of space works well in some locations, where you can capture minimal landscape photos or find plenty of leading lines. They are –

19. Left to Right Rule

A) What is the Left to Right Rule?

Suppose a subject is moving from one side to the other in the frame. Hence, the Left to right composition rule states that it will look best if you present your subject as he/she is moving from the left side to the right side of the frame.

B) Why Use it?

The logic behind this rule is; the people of many countries read or look at something from left to right. According to some research studies, our eyes prefer to move from the left to right at first.

So, the viewers subconsciously expect that the subject of an image will move from left to right. You could indirectly include an eye-soothing composition aspect to your photography by following this rule in this way.

20. Balance Elements in the Scene

Two main techniques are there; that you should be aware of – symmetrical balance and asymmetrical balance.

Symmetrical or Formal Balance

You could achieve formal or symmetrical balance by choosing two or more similar or relevant subjects, framing the subject in the middle of the frame, and even placing the subject at the center of other props. It will reduce all sorts of visual distractions and provide an eye-pleasing sense. This type of composition gets used for portrait photography.

Asymmetrical or Informal Balance

If it's some dissimilar elements; that have irrelevant size or nature, even if they are much different from each other, the photographers apply some composition tricks to achieve eye-pleasing balance and harmony.

Informal balancing techniques have no specific rules. It’s a concept; that can be achieved in various ways. So, the photographs with asymmetrical balance look more appealing and well-composed than the formally balanced photos.

Look at the photo above, and see how the photographer properly balanced the two elements. The lamb and the tree are perfectly counterbalancing each other. If the lamb was missing from the image, the top of the frame might look heavily weighted. If this was the case, the formal balance (center alignment) would look better to the eyes.

21. Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is a fascinating composition concept; that helps illustrate the contrast between two objects. You can directly frame the contrast of different sizes of the same things, or you could establish an interesting contrast between them by playing with their colors or shadows and reflections.

For instance, the black versus white, the light color versus dark color or lighted versus dark area, tall versus short people or objects, young versus old or wealthy versus poor people, old versus new things, natural versus artificial components, and so on could create stunning composition. 

22. Golden Triangles

The Rule of Thirds has guided you to draw vertical and horizontal grid lines across the frame and put the important elements on the intersection line.

But when it comes to Golden Triangles, you’ve to draw imaginary diagonals and triangles across the frame during composition. 

Look at the picture; the point of interest in this picture is the surfer. Now notice the intersecting dot on the diagonal line , coming from the bottom-left of the image, where the photographer placed the subject.

Note:

23. Golden Ratio

The golden ratio is one of the handiest composition rules; that helps us achieve a pleasing and harmonious composition with ease. The rule gives us an idea about the perfect proportion, which our human eyes find eye-pleasing.

The ratio is approximately 1.618:1, known as the golden ratio, divine proportion, or golden mean. We can find this ratio in nature and our human body; that’s why our eyes find something pleasing, natural, and organic when the thing follows this ratio.

Now, I’m coming to the application method of the Golden ratio in photography. If you’re interested in photography; researching the composition tool, you may have heard of the ‘Phi Grid’ and phi grid photography.

The phi grid system divides a frame into nine rectangle blocks using two horizontal and vertical lines, while the lines intersect each other following the golden ratio. All you have to do is place the important elements close to the intersecting lines or at the intersection points.

The golden spiral is the evolution of the above-mentioned golden section. If you place the subject accordingly, it will lead the viewers through the entire photo. 

24. Let the Background Give Context to the Subject

A well-composed photograph is not all about the subject and its proper placement. Aside from the subject, the other objects, even the background could also be your focal points. Don’t keep them always visually dominated. Let the background speak more or give a context to the subject.

The background could tell the story of the photographer, like where he/she finds the subject. Look at the picture as an example. 

The overall composition really deserves a big thumb up. The photographer emphasizes the subject (rose) but doesn’t make the background too blurry. That’s why we can understand that the rose was photographed inside a beautiful church or monastery; whose wall has such beautiful artwork.

25. Let the Eye Wander Around the Frame

The concept of simplicity and minimalism composition states to eliminate the unnecessary things from the frame to let the main subject speak more.

In that case, the viewer could leave just after seeing the subject. If you want to engage your viewer in your photographs, you’ve to make their eyes wander around the frame. You could do so by applying some tricks, even with random clicks. 

Look at these two random clicked photographs. When people see the first photograph, most of them will definitely check every painting; that is being exhibited. Similarly, in the case of street photography, people might look at every subject; their eyes will wander around the frame and tend to notice all the little details, as no one is the main subject in the photograph.

26. Use Layers in the Frame

You could include layers of elements at varying distances in a scene to add a sense of depth, just like foreground interest. The layers will lead the viewer’s eyes throughout the entire picture, from the foreground to the middle ground and finally to the background.

27. Add Human Interest

People and their daily lives are always an interesting topic to photographers. The photographers always want to frame human behaviors, their social issues, and some heart-touching activities, through which they try to make their viewers smile, sad, angry, wonder, and so on.

28. Wait for the Decisive Moment

The decisive moment is a vital term in photography, specifically street photography. The decisive moment refers to a fleeting moment.

If you can capture such moments; that can tell all the stories, rather than what is happening at that time, the viewer will find the picture more interesting than others, even than a well-composed static shot.

How do I master composition in photography?

You could compose a stunning frame, even in ordinary situations, if you have a good grasp of composition knowledge. Hopefully, you’ve gone through all the composition rules and techniques; that I described above.

After following all these things, the composition often feels a bit monotonous. In this case, your unique creativity could spice up your photographs.

If you’re stuck between photographic composition techniques and a creative rut, I would like to suggest going with creativity. You could master your composition following these things – 

TIPS FOR FINDING THE RIGHT COMPOSITION

After knowing all of the photographic composition rules and principles, are you getting confused regarding what to use? You may be wondering - how could these compositional principles help you to tell the stories with photographs? Or what will be the right composition against a situation or for a particular form of photography?

Look, there is no specific rule; you need to follow this particular rule for this form of photography. Which rule you’ll follow; it’s up to you.

Composition is the way you arrange the subjects and other key elements in a scene. And the challenge is that you’ve to make the shot visually appealing to grab the viewer’s attention and hold it for a while by making it engaging.

The idiom – ‘THINK BEFORE YOU DO’ could help you out here. Before taking a snap, as yourself these following questions –

With these questions in mind, remember all the important composition techniques; that you’ve learned and go ahead. My hope is you’ll end up with some genuine well-composed photos.

Common Composition Mistakes and How to Fix Them?

Have you ever wondered why few photographs are just good but not great? Some of the small mistakes are the reason for such differences, which your inexperienced eyes couldn’t find out. Being aware of such common mistakes and knowing how to fix them early will help you pay attention to all the details in the future.

Here are the common mistakes; that beginners usually make.

Check whether you’ve made one of these mistakes or not? If yes, keep these things in mind and try not to repeat them in the future.

Other Ways to Improve Your Composition Skills in Photography

Composition is the key thing; every photographer wants to learn from scratch, and the experienced one wants to polish their skills. The photography-related books or the guide articles like this one will only help you understand the composition rules and techniques.

To help you out, here, I’m sharing my experience; how I improve my composition skills. 

In conclusion, I would like to say again that learning through observation and practicing them as much as possible is the only way; that could make you master composition.