You and Ted Forbes (The Art of Photography) are the two channels that dive into these topics in an approachable way but differently. Thanks for all the work.
Another wonderful video! The “secret” to learning composition is to study the rules, visit museums and dissect the work in your head, then go out and observe nature, architecture, and do the same. Soon you’ll be seeing compositions without thinking of composition. It may not yet be mastery, but you’ll be on the right path.
Thank you for your comment Terry, you do make really good points there, definitely study more visual objects - painting, books, going to museums, observe nature, really helps a whole lot and definitely puts you on the right track!
That's a bit vague and complicated. The most important thing is to look at light, where it's coming from, at what angle, the colour and quality of it (soft or hard) and what effect it has when it hits the subject.
A great topic.don't be afraid of pursuing composition. I am a big fan of photographers of 1900-1920's, when there was a ton of artistic growth. Arthur Wesley Dow personally taught much of the famous east coast US photographers in that time. His book "composition" is a great system based on popular Japanese ideas and it worked well for photographers and painters of that era. It's a cheap classic book now but is relevant if you want an intuitive and eaisier system of composition based on harmony and not rules.
The "rules" are merely guidelines, but important ones that can facilitate learning. When people ask me for advice, I do tell them about the rule of thirds, leading lines, etc. because it helps them gain some idea of what makes a good image. They are good starting points to illustrate concepts that might be harder to explain without them. The emotional connection idea is one that is very much more difficult to convey. Most people connect to a subject, rather than anything about the image itself, and this is an emotional connection. But that isn't the same thing as a good image, otherwise photography school would be "go take photos of kittens, babies and sad people". Teaching people how to see emotion in an image that doesn't have an animal or person or something easy like that is more difficult. And although I like the idea of going by feel, in my experience, this works better if a person has a bit of the fundamentals in the back of their mind. BTW, I LOVE the idea of looking at comic books for compositional guidance. Great tip!
Great video, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree, Edward Hopper is a great painter. In my opinion he is able to create feelings in his pictures, where people often look thoughtful or lonly (even when there are others in the painting), and sometimes sad. Studying his pictures will help you to learn a lot about creating your own photos... I am excited about your follow-up video!
Great video. I like your take on composition, especially the idea of shooting instinctively. My dad was a professional photographer (portraiture, aerial, journalism, landscape) so I grew up looking at lots and lots of photos. So over time, somewhat unconsciously, I developed a personal sense of what seemed good to me. So when I go on a photo shoot, landscape or street, I look until an image strikes me as what I want and I press the shutter button without thinking about rules. Frequently, the image fits a rule. Photography, for me, is more fun that way. Best.
Fabulous proposal T. Hooper, the key words were, The personal thoughts. Personal feelings and learning. Each individual has his own light. Rules are for sports and competing in equal circumstances and predisposes to lack of imagination, photography is not a sport. In fact there is something more typical than they say rules are meant to be broken, this is a double disaster. The human vision system is used to make predictions from what the eyes see, they are used to recognise, imagine and extrapolate. Lastly, what you say, practice is the master it is true to take a lot of pictures. Whenever you go out to take pictures you have to take it as practice.
It certainly helpful and informative . I pay a lot of attention to compositions in my work , sometime too rigid . Yes , that is true that work of art much is about right feelings and express a certain moment of thought . Another lesson I have learned today and it is quite amazing to apply these techniques . Thanks again . Your video is always a pleasure to watch again and again .
My go-to's, are, of course, rule of thirds, good light, a lot of leading lines/perspective and unique framing. Doing street photography in a fast-moving environment is harder to nail and probably the most challenging. Great video, T.
Same here, I'm always fascinated to learn more about it and for sure to learn more by experience, definitely one of my favourite things to talk about, cheers for watching Rich! :)
Great advice. What do you want the photo to be? Why do you like the subject or scene? Then try some other variations and perspectives to see what you get. Try the rules, again, to see what you get.
“The rule of odds.” Never heard of that until you mentioned it. I like that! I will have to do more study on that rule. I really enjoy your videos and love that you shoot with film, which is also my passion for just over a year now! Thanks for inspiring us to go out and photograph! My film SLRs: Nikon F Nikon FA Olympus OM2SP Canon AE-1 Minolta SRT-303 (the European marketed version of the SRT-102)
Another wonderful video! I would say, let your instincts guide you when you shoot, let the rules guide you when you edit. I eagerly await the follow up videos...
Took my granddaughter age 12 to the beach last weekend. She wanted to take pictures so i gave her my little digital Pen F. I was so impressed with her compositions. She just knows it naturally and nailed it.
That's fantastic Terry, never stop encouraging her! Kids definitely need more and more encouragement these days to pursue other ventures rather than the usual entertainments for kids these days (look at me I sound like I'm 50 ahaha) :)
Great, as always. When you mentioned "composing by feeling," I thought of how the knowledge about photography you amassed over the years becomes "instinctive" and is there at your disposal without having to give it much thought. At least that is how it works for me and some photographers/creatives I know. For some photographers, though, thinking about the processes and rules can be an integral (and enjoyable) part of the creative process. I am thinking of Ansel Adams here, since I just rewatched the PBS documentary about him and then found 2 videos on RU-vid, one from 1958. which showed him working in his studio and also discussed his arduous, intricate process. Anyway, thank you for another video that makes me think about this stuff.
Hey there, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, really appreciate it. And yes you're definitely right while for some rules are everything, to others its all about being in the moment and feeling the surroundings. And yes composing by feeling is definitely somewhere along the lines of instinct and letting your experience guide you too! Cheers for watching!
This is my new favorite channel. Love your content, advice, and analysis in photography. Also, your content covering other photographer's work is top notch.
Thank you so much! Appreciate it although I do have to go back to my deep dive videos into specific photographers I do miss those! Cheers for your support!
This is the best photography video I have watched today on RU-vid Really good topic to talk about Thank you so much for sharing this with us Greetings from Germany
Hmmm, When I photograph or paint, I don't always think about rules of composition. I have at times included even numbers of subjects instead of odd. Some times I photograph in a square format (1 x 1) with a subject in the middle. Thanks for your outlook on the subject of composition. I apreciate artsts that make videos on the how, why and reason of the art rather than the equipment. Thank you
I want to get into my mobile photography a lot more this year, I think at times we underestimate the power in our pockets and day to day life, I mean I shoot normally with the GRiii. Their are alot of photo snob's out there that say " mobile phone photography isn't real photography" far from the truth....
Great show here. I study alot, and try to shoot alot. Black & White, and color movies. Comic books! Museum art. On-line museum art is great. I can really take alot of time to study a paintings subject; and all the fine details. Maybe read about what the artist was doing/ expressing. Composition rules. Tone, shading, colour. All that stuff; combined with being instinctive; sometimes results; with a great picture; shinning through.. For me. I look for the feeling; that other people get from an image. I take alot, & alot of pictures. I get a couple, maybe a few that I really like; every year.
Great survey! Thank you! "The rule of odds," interesting! I wonder if I do that intuitively? When I got my Miranda Sensorex back in the seventies, I used to go to the photography section of my Alma Mater's fine art library and just pull a mess of monographs out and rummage through them hoping some osmosis would occur. I wonder if H. B-C learned his method of graphic balance first by using the view camera or medium format w/o the prism so the image was always reversed? Apparently H. B-C flips his prints upside down to see if there is any visual integrity in his photograph. That was a section quiz question in the 'Seeing Through Photographs' course given through Coursera, Sarah Meister, at MOMA. Thanks, what a great tutorial here!
You've been to Saltburn!?...I live next to it, and photograph surfers there all the time. Small world. I hope you enjoyed it like I do. Keep up the great videos. 👍🏻
I guess, in music you have to learn scales and chords. And in my view it's sort of a necessary step to learn and internalize the rules to a point where they disappear inside of you such that harmony, with its necessary disharmony, flow from you naturally.
I dont think taking pictures while constantly focssing on the rules of composition will work out, as you said. But if you look at an nice picture you will notice that the picture often appears nice because somehow the rules are applying to the compostion even if the photgrapher did not had them in mind while compositing the picture.
I am only an amateur photographer, and although you admit to not having a degree in photography, I have never had the sense you are incorrect in your analysis. Your admission of the lack of a degree, however, allows me to have an inner debate about what you say. I find when I go by feeling instead of intentionality, my favorite photos just happen to obey one of the “classic” rules (usually thirds, leading lines, or odds)
That's fair enough, for me degrees mean nothing as in life I've learn the most with people that had none, I think society places too much importance on papers and numbers that in grand scheme of things hold no importance at least in my eyes, all the best! 😊
I like "the rule of does it look cool"!! seriously, composition is something (I think) that can only be taught to a degree. a lot of it I feel comes naturally - it's like you have to "feel" a scene. I studied landscape artists like Turner before taking photography up seriously. there is so much to earn from the great masters as well as photographic pioneers and greats.
This video is neither long nor boring, but quite the reverse. I prefer to follow the flow in the field. Like in sports, if you wonder how to make your forehand at the last second, you'll probably miss your shot... I believe there's too much to take into consideration to control everything consciously and enough options to get lost. So it's certainly worth to think about it before....
It's human nature that we want to break rules - so as soon as we hear about rules in photography we want to ignore and break them. I think a better approach is to think of them as tools that we can use to construct a better photo, you don't have to use all the tools but there might be some to think about using as your framing a photo.. the tools are there to be used, as opposed to rules that are there to be broken
I’ve loved this channel for so long. If anyone has any photography,sewing or art related Twitter spaces or discord’s please link me. I’m trying to break into those kinds of spaces but I’m having trouble finding any! Peace
Don't let us control by roles. They slow down our creativity. It's enough, when the rules are stored in our minds to unconsciously improve our compositions.
Yes, I didn't want to go full on because it can easily be a topic that has way too many things to mention, things that need their own video - negative space, contrast, golden ration... and the list goes on.
