Composition for newbies

[jiminyClickit]

Jackson,

This page illustrates a number of ways to consider ratios (position or size of one thing compared to another):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

Music, architecture, sculpture, painting and math are influenced.

[Trevor.Dennis]

The eye being drawn to the brightest part of the image, is worth remembering in PP. And not just bright, but a splash of colour away from the intended focus of the image is distracting and can spoil the composition.

Either clone out, or locally desaturate such anomallies.

Having said that, rules are made tobe broken. If not overdone, then areas of coloured bokeh can be very attractive. Purists might still say they confuse the eye, but not evey image has to conform.

[Jim Bryant]

Always shoot one picture vertical and then horizontal. Gives you two different pictures. Use the rules of thirds and try shooting the subject in each.

[morts]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Always shoot one picture vertical and then horizontal. Gives you two different pictures. Use the rules of thirds and try shooting the subject in each.

On the rule of thirds:

I have seen many of my friends who aren't aware of how to properly compose a shot take photos of me (when they get their hands on my camera) with my face squarely in the centre of the photo. And we're talking zoomed out with my upper body visible, not my style of closeup portraits.

When photographing a person, the head/eyes should be around the top third of the frame, unless you're doing a person looking up at something, in which case the eyes go at the bottom. Just never the middle. It just seems to remove any focus from the image instead of adding it!