The Perfectly Composed Photograph

January 20, 2012

Anyone can take a photo. Most of us carry more sophisticated photography technology in our pockets every day than existed 20 years ago. That doesn’t mean all of the photos uploaded to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or your next direct mail campaign, are taken thoughtfully. Taking a photograph that will represent you and your company professionally is easy to do, if you follow these three simple rules.

1. Compose Your Photo Before You Take It – Seems like common sense, doesn’t it? In today’s world of digital photography and manipulation, the thought required to make a great photograph is sometimes ignored. Have a vision for your picture before you even pick up the camera. With vision comes purpose.
2. Rule Of Thirds – Imagine your viewfinder is a Tic-Tac-Toe board. You want to place the most important elements of your photograph along these lines or where they intersect. These are the lines and intersections a viewer’s eye is naturally drawn to and will help to bring balance to your photo as well.
3. Lines – Beyond the Rule of Thirds, our eyes follow lines through photographs. A road, the edge of a piece of paper, a door frame, whatever line it is, we are naturally drawn to it. Place these strategically in your photo and draw your viewers eyes through the photo. Lines that flow diagonally tend to flow better through a photograph than horizontal or perpendicular lines.

Take the photo in this post. There are several different lines that draw your eye through the photo. The lines of the highway in the background, the lines of the branches in the tree, the lines of the cliffs. All draw your eyes through the photo. The Rule of Thirds is shown with the tree meeting the background directly along those lines, and the photographer obviously composed this in their head before taking the photo. This is a well crafted and thought out photo.

What tips do you subscribe the most to? Tell us in the comments.

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