500 Composition Hints, Tips and Techniques for Photographers [BOOK REVIEW]

I could not find the word ‘digital’ in Lee Frost’s book – 500 Composition Hints, Tips and Techniques for Photographers. Anywhere … and then it popped up in a chapter on the type of camera you should use. There, the point is made that “it doesn’t matter whether you shoot digitally or expose film, the same rules apply”, then this is followed by the recommendation that it’s a better practice to compose the picture when shooting and not fix it later.

If you’re talking composition, I guess the ‘d’ word need not enter the argument at all. It matters not what camera you use: a Linhof 4×5, Rolleiflex, Leica, disposable … whatever. Framing the shot, composing the elements is to organise the building blocks of a successful photograph.

Author Frost discusses the framing options: landscape or portrait format, square or panoramic. He also touches on the choice of camera: SLR, TLR, large format, pinhole, etc. There are essential, but often forgotten tips on how to hold and support your camera … and the contribution a decent tripod can make.

Lens choice is included, with a helpful table giving conversion factors for digital to film SLR lenses. Depth of field gets an airing, along with rarely discussed subjects like hyperfocal distance and how to focus manually.

Then it gets serious: the rule of thirds is touched on, along with the positioning of focal points in the picture, placement of sky, etc.

In thorough fashion, colour temperature, the use of filters and treatment of colour is given a chapter. In similar fashion, perspective, lighting, choice of time of day, use of high or low angles are allotted space.

For me, a particularly satisfying chapter is “Break The Rules’. The topics? The benefits of using a central horizon, a wide angle lens for portraits, tilting the camera, chopping off part of the subject are all in the list and bring a breath of fresh air into the whole subject.

There’s much more: the contribution of weather; appeal of hard and soft light; shooting against the light, including reflections in a scene, etc.

The book just doesn’t let up and what would otherwise be a tutorial that would eventually bore your socks off succeeds because of the freshness of the author’s ideas.

Everyone can benefit from ‘500 Composition Hints, Tips and Techniques for Photographers’: expert or raw amateur. The lessons are there for the taking. Like your pictures!