When you’re new to doing photography seriously, among the first things you learn is to be mindful of your composition. There’s a bunch of timeless composition rules — the Rule of Thirds being the most popular — that will serve as your guide. However, it doesn’t mean that these are the only ways you can compose your shots. You know what they say — rules are made to be broken. Once you’ve mastered most of the rules, you might want to try having your own approaches to photography composition.
For inspiration, we suggest taking some pointers from the video above by Sean Tucker. As he said, countless photographers have covered the rules of composition over and over. In fact, we’ve most likely already encountered them in some form. So, instead of rehashing what’s out there, he suggests developing a more intuitive understanding of what makes a great composition.
The foundation of this approach to photographic composition is knowing what draws the human eye to an image. Once we do, we can base our compositions around them and arrange them in a way that maximizes the viewers’ attention. He explained how he achieved this with a couple of street photos as great examples.
Another great point he raised is how we also need to add depth to our compositions. We typically look at the frame as a flat space, whether it’s on the screen of the camera or a printed photo. However, by translating the depth of a scene in our composition, we can effectively lead the eyes around a shot and provide a more immersive experience for viewers.
