Thoughts on Composition by John M. Grzywacz-Gray

Photographs from Sketches of Poland, by John M. Grzywacz-Gray

"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs."  ---Ansel Adams

TAKE YOUR TIME! When making photographs be patient. Sometimes silence helps.

"There is no such thing as taking too much time, because your soul is in that picture." -Ruth Bernhard

If your goal is to appeal to a broad audience keep the composition simple. I tend to agree with Ansel Adams that, “Good composition is the strongest way of seeing the subject,” Sometimes the composition will need to be complex. Be patient. Don’t rush and if you want to take photographs that look like the slides in the tourist stores … buy them … use your camera to find something different. A piece of advice that was given to me many years ago was to visit the picture postcard/slide section of the store and look carefully at the photographs and then go out and make photographs carefully avoiding similar images that were on the postcards or slides.

"Consulting the rules of composition before taking a photograph, is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk." ---Edward Weston

Another suggestion is that you should take a beginning drawing class, a beginning 2D Design course and I suggest a 20^th Century Art History class. The drawing and 2D design classes will help you to see the structure of images based on the formal properties of light, line, plane, perspective and color.

When you photograph look for lines that lead you into the picture … or that keep you focused on the subject.

Good composition is connected to what you are feeling, thinking and seeing.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,; what is essential is invisible to the eye."-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Consider the basic techniques of Photography to be compositional strategies.

Depth of Field

Motion Interpretation

Quality of Light – include texture

Closeness to the subject

Point of View

Lenses

Perspective / Space

Scale

"For me, the creation of a photograph is experienced as a heightened emotional response, most akin to poetry and music, each image the culmination of a compelling impulse I cannot deny. Whether working with a human figure or a still life, I am deeply aware of my spiritual connection with it. In my life, as in my work, I am motivated by a great yearning for balance and harmony beyond the realm of human experience, reaching for the essence of oneness with the Universe." -Ruth Bernhard

Remember that if objects are moving you want to leave space around them so they can go somewhere. At the same time remember the wonderful photograph of Jacque Henri Lartique where the car is cut in half … or the Eliot Porter photograph of the hawk exploding from the frame. Sometimes moving in closer on a fast moving subject that will not be complete in the photograph is the best approach.

A photograph is neither taken nor seized by force. It offers itself up. It is the photo that takes you. One must not take photos. -Henri Cartier-Bresson

Another possibility is to consider the Rule of thirds guideline

that basically says that you should avoid … if it doesn’t work … placing the subject in the center of the frame. Photographs of landscapes often have low or high horizon lines, depending on where the emphasis is … sky or land. The four intersections of the vertical and horizontal lines marked by the circles are dynamic positions for photographs. The horizontal and vertical lines are also dynamic spots to arrange subject material.

"There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants." -Arnold Newman,

Remember to consider moving the camera to a vertical position. Too many photographs are made horizontally when they would be more interesting and dynamic if they were made vertically. Move your camera around … look for interesting angles.

"I just walk around, observing the subject from various angles until the picture elements arrange themselves into a composition that pleases my eye." -Andre Kertesz

Move in Close to your subject … fill the frame with what is interesting to you. Did you ever stop to think how much television is built around the close up … the long shot is too small and it is difficult to see what the photograph is about. That of course will change as more and more of us watch HiDefinition television.

"It is essential for the photographer to know the effect of his lenses. The lens is his eye, and it makes or ruins his pictures. A feeling for composition is a great asset. I think it is very much a matter of instinct. It can perhaps be developed, but I doubt if it can be learned. To achieve his best work, the young photographer must discover what really excites him visually. He must discover his own world." -Bill Brandt, "Views on nudes" by Bill Jay

Think in terms of a cinematic sequence. Start with the Long shot, move in for the medium shot, move in for the close up and if possible do an extreme close up. Remember to explore subjects this way and you will come up with some interesting photographs. Change a lens, move from the wide angle to the normal lens or the telephoto lens or vice versa.

" What my eyes seek in these encounters is not just the beauty traditionally revered by wildlife photographers. The perfection I seek in my photographic composition is a means to show the strength and dignity of animals in nature." -Frans Lanting, Vision - Lowepro 2004/2005

Look carefully at photographs that you like. Put a piece of tracing paper over the photograph and look at the lines … draw the lines on the tracing paper so that you can see what is working. Draw the shapes of the dark values … we call these Shadow values. Draw the shapes of the middle range values on a separate sheet or in a different shade of gray and finally draw the shapes of the highlights, the brightest values in the photograph. That will help you to understand how your photographs and other’s photographs are composed.

" To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event, as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression. I believe that through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us which can mould us, but which can also be affected by us. A balance must be established between these two worlds- the one inside us and the one outside us. As the result of a constant reciprocal process, both these worlds come to form a single one. And it is this world that we must communicate. But this takes care only of the content of the picture. For me, content cannot be separated from form. By form, I mean the rigorous organization of the interplay of surfaces, lines and values. It is in this organization alone that our conceptions and emotions become concrete and communicable. In photography, visual organization can stem only from a developed instinct." -Henri Cartier-Bresson,

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Ask yourself what are the elements that attract you? Is there an entry point where most people’s eyes will gravitate to … is there an exit point where they will leave the composition … is there a sense of balance? Are there elements in the photograph that have nothing to do with what you were seeing? They just happened to be there and you didn’t notice them or how distracting they are. Are there elements that just appear on the edges for no useful pictorial purpose?

"With a short lens I can reveal the hidden things near at hand, with a long lens the hidden things far away. The telephoto lens provides a new visual sensation for people: it widens their horizons. And, conversely, the things under our nose invariably look good when blown up really big." -Andreas Feininger,

Photographs generally have at least three planes, a foreground plane, a middle plane and a background plane. Pay attention to each of them and see if they work together and what happens if you are patient and all the planes come together for a fraction of a second. The foreground can be emphasized with a wide-angle lens. What happens when you use the telephoto lens?

"I don't know what good composition is.... Sometimes for me composition has to do with a certain brightness or a certain coming to restness and other times it has to do with funny mistakes. There's a kind of rightness and wrongness and sometimes I like rightness and sometimes I like wrongness." -Diane Arbus

Examine the image in the viewfinder for points that for some reason won’t be separated in space … it could be the branch of a tree that is the same value as the background, that is called a merge and it can throw off the spatial qualities of the photograph.

Squint your eyes and look for the brightest points in the scene … do they distract you from the important elements in the photograph? If you move to the left or the right can you minimize their affect.

"Don't shoot until you feel it in your gut." -Lisette Model

Does the subject of the photograph stand out separately from the background? Sometimes we use the expressions negative space and positive space. The negative space is the area around the object. Is the background distracting? What can you do about it? Move to a different angle … wait for a different light… there is no single answer to the question. It is easy if you have a light subject against a dark background or vice versa.

"And that desire--the strong desire to take pictures--is important. It borders on a need, based on a habit: the habit of seeing. Whether working or not, photographers are looking, seeing, and thinking about what they see, a habit that is both a pleasure and a problem, for we seldom capture in a single photograph the full expression of what we see and feel. It is the hope that we might express ourselves fully--and the evidence that other photographers have done so--that keep us taking pictures."-Sam Abell, "Seeing and Shooting Straight"