There are few things that can make or break a photo like composition. If you organize a great composition of a scene, you can turn an average photo into something special. However, on the contrary, if your composition is poor, it can undo a lot of the hard work.
Composition is a complex topic. Unlike some photography professions, it predates the camera and has been haunted for hundreds of years. It’s a deep and nuanced topic and there are a lot of ways you can’t hit the point. As a result, many beginners will largely ignore composition, or they will try to stick to many “rules”, both of which potentially spoil your final image. In this video, brilliant landscape photographer, Nigel Danson, guides you through 7 common composition mistakes that beginners often make.
There’s so much I’d like to say on the subject, that it warrants an article of its own, but there’s a serious problem I see and I ran into when I first started. Instead of focusing on layout rules, take the time to understand why they are the way they are. That is, why do they want the elements in certain places? When you understand what the rules and recommendations are trying to achieve, you can remove their rigidity and work toward the end goal of people liking your work.
When you first started, which part did you make the most mistakes?
