Lesson 6: Basic Photography Composition

[charitymiles]

Your eye takes you through the story of the picture. First you see the photograph being taken, then the faded background you see the children playing at the beach. This photo covers a variety of different actions, but focuses your attention first on one, then the other.

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Beautiful photograph.

The design element that jumps out at me most in this image is your sense of depth and framing. Every object and person that makes it into the 4 walls of your photograph seems to be a calculated decision. Your photograph abides by the rule of thirds, has a strong sense of depth with a pronounced foreground object and it also has a great sense of balance.

You’ve used informal balance in a unique way in this photograph because you’ve essentially split your photograph in half with the foreground subject being on the left and the kids being on the right. However, because of the distance the ‘weight” of the children in the background is much less exaggerated. This allowed you to use space wisely by avoiding having too much negative space, but it allowed you to maintain a sense of informal balance which gives your image a more dramatic and interesting look in my opinion.

That being said, your use of negative space is great. Both the ground and the bushes in the background provide texture and context without upstaging the importance of the ‘event” that is taking place within the frame.

Great work. This is one of your strongest photographs yet.

[Author]

Posts