How do you compose your image?

Apertome - Great post. I will be curious what other people have to say.

The biggest consideration, I think, is not just about what you’re trying to fit in the frame, but what you’re trying to convey with the shot. The bend in that road? The size of the hill? The rough gravel road texture?

From there, you try to decide how to make that element the focus, while letting other things add context. Try different variations, like portrait vs landscape, zoomed in vs zoomed out, high vs low camera angle, etc.

I shoot a lot while on the bike. It takes practice, but if you get good at it you can take several variations of a photo in just a few seconds and later figure out which one worked better. Memory cards are cheap — use that to your advantage.

Also, I generally try not to center things. The rule of thirds is a good one in most cases, I think, though I don’t live by it blindly.
Apertome recently posted..Snowy mixed terrain in Hoosier National Forest with RCCS

Ryan Schierling - There are formulas out there for photography composition. When you’re beginning, learning, you start with those. After a while, sometimes a great while, you realize that you’ve taken what you’ve learned and incorporated it into what can be considered YOUR photographic style. Your visual interpretation of the world, imprisoned in a 24mmx36mm frame (or smaller, or larger, if that’s your thing, man).

Shift left, shift right, move those feet. I started out as a photojournalist and immersed myself visually in that specific storytelling bent. Moving to magazine editorial and portraiture was another education in composition. Commercial is yet another learning curve.

If you’re not getting what you want from a composition, and you have more than a split second to make the image, adjust.

But there is no right or wrong in photography. Develop, work hard at, and cultivate your personal vision, and then OWN it.

Jonas - I hate to say this, but comp is largely (note that I said “largely”) innate. The rules don’t mean anything. I think it is important to understand how a given focal length affects the photo. Being able to utilize lens distortions (or lack thereof) to create the feel you are after is important. Having said that, I think understanding light is the key. You can have a mediocre composition with great light and the photo works. The opposite is not true.

Phillip Finch - BTW, the question was how I frame my own photos. I try to keep the Rule of Thirds in mind, but depending on the situation I will often push the lines apart a bit so that the proportions are more like 30-40-30. The idea is to push the eye-grabbing points a bit closer to the corners.

In the same vein, I try to crop, crop, crop. Crop ’til it hurts. Crop with your feet, crop with focal length, crop in post-processing if necessary (but if you have cropped well in the viewfinder, you shouldn’t have to do it in Photoshop). Do not pad the edges with visually insignificant areas–that’s what mattes are for.

Jonas - Phillip,

“I think that most people aren’t born with a gut feeling for good composition; otherwise, there would be many fewer poorly-composed photos!”

That is my point exactly. There are relatively few great photographers (relative, of course, to the number of camera wielders. As Eggleston says, there are now more photos in the world than bricks.) Simply following the basic rules (thirds, etc.) only shows that someone followed a prescribed method. If you look at the truly great photographers, you will constantly be surprised by their eye, both in their framing and their use of light. I stand by mty initial point. Light is th most critical element in a photo. I think most photographers would be well served to really study the effect light has on the subject. It’s a lifetime study, but it separates the great photos from the mediocre.

Steve Fuller - The biggest things that I (an absolute beginner) have been concentrating on have been having enough light and just looking around and making sure that there’s nothing lurking in the backgorund that might distract from the shots I want to take. I try to adhere (roughly) to the rule of thirds when possible. I then try and make any last minute adjustments by cropping. Not that this is right, but that’s what I’ve been doing.
Steve Fuller recently posted..Patience