Adventurer and award-winning photographer Chris Bray shares five great composition tips to help you improve your ratio of successful shots.
01 ON THE EDGE
Try to use a visual element to mark the edge of a
photo (see below). A tree or building bordering one side perhaps, or something up
close in the foreground of landscape scenes. Doing this can add a great
feeling of depth, fill in some otherwise useless parts of the photo, and
help to draw viewers’ eyes towards your subject.
(Photo: Chris Bray)
02 KEEP IT LEVEL
Check that the horizon is level before you take the photo! It’s an easy
one to forget – but it is important. You can always straighten a horizon
in post-production, but you’ll lose more of your image than you’d think
when you have to rotate and crop later!
(Photo: Chris Bray)
03 PORTRAITS, ZOOM IN
When shooting portraits stand back and zoom in. This will help you blur-out distracting backgrounds and make your subject stand out. To increase background blur use a wider aperture, for example f/2.8 or f/4. While you’re at it, put the subject in the shade rather than harsh sun to avoid dark shadows.
(Photo: Chris Bray)
04 RULE OF THIRDS
We've said it before but it's worth saying again. Try to avoid putting your subject in the middle of the
frame. Just because your autofocus point is in the middle of the frame,
it doesn’t mean your subject has to be there too. Half-press the shutter
with your focus point on the subject then recompose before firing the
shutter. Even better, if your camera has a separate focus-lock button
(AF-ON, AF-L, etc.) learn how to use it. Images often work better when
the subject is off-centre. The rule of thirds says to mentally divide
the scene into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) and position
key parts of your photo on thee intersection points. Give it a go, it
will give your photos a much more balanced feel.
(Photo: Chris Bray)
05 FILL THE FRAME
If there’s something interesting in a scene, don’t be afraid to fill the frame with it. Zoom-in or move closer so that the interesting stuff fills the entire photo. You paid for the zoom on your lens – so use it! Don’t always think that you have to try and ‘fit the whole thing in’ – just get the important bits!
(Photo: Chris Bray)
Chris Bray is an adventurer, author and award-winning photographer. He shoots for Australian Geographic and is a Canon ambassador. He runs one-day photography courses around Australia and photo tours around the world. He is running two two-week photo tours to Kenya in January 2012. For more information about his courses and the tours go to www.chrisbray.net