Composition

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ComdocUk

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Name
Gareth
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Hi TP members
I am struggling with composition does anybody know of any good books or website that might help me?.
Thank:
Gary
 
I have Bryan Petersons 'Learning to See Creatively'. Which is very good.
 
ComdocUk said:
Hi TP members
I am struggling with composition does anybody know of any good books or website that might help me?.
Thank:
Gary
Click to expand...

hi Gareth

Do a google search for "Rule Of Thirds" and "Golden Section" sure youll find all you want about composition from them :thumbs: dont forget rules are made to be broken so dont be a slave to them
 
The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman.

Get to know the basics of image composition and then practice by analysing how it's used by others as well as taking your own images. Looking and thinking about how composition is used in newspaper and magazine images will help with your own composition, but you need to know the basic components to identify them.

The components of composition are all guidelines rather than rules, applying one might mean rejecting three others..
 
Alastair said:
The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman.

Get to know the basics of image composition and then practice by analysing how it's used by others as well as taking your own images. Looking and thinking about how composition is used in newspaper and magazine images will help with your own composition, but you need to know the basic components to identify them.

The components of composition are all guidelines rather than rules, applying one might mean rejecting three others..
Click to expand...

+1. great book and will help with understanding why some things work and some don't. Worth more than one read.
 
Another vote for The Photographer's Eye, I'm reading through it at the moment and it's helping me to learn a lot.
 
IMHO 95% of all good pictures adhere to just three compositional guidlines -

- Rule of Thirds
- Leading lines (or lead-in lines)
- Fill the frame and centred for impact

All the other 'rules' are so wishy-washy you can make almost any image comply with one or other of them, and they still don't look much.

The other 5% follow no rules, and are all the better for it.
 
I would say a lot of it is inside you.. not somehting you learn in a book... having the "eye" for a good picture :)
 
I'm pretty sure Michael Freeman, at least in the 35mm handbook, had a section of compositional prepositions. Prepositions, rather than guides or rules? Been about 3 decades since I read it, though :)
(No cracks like 'yeah, it shows' pls lol)
 
I have just ordered Michael Freeman's book on composition thanks Alistair and all the others TP members who recommended it.
Gary:thumbs
 
Just Dave said:
Do a google search for "Rule Of Thirds" and "Golden Section" sure youll find all you want about composition from them :thumbs: dont forget rules are made to be broken so dont be a slave to them
Click to expand...

Yup, try that and also look at "leading lines".

With regard to rules, learn them, shoot them and let it become second nature. When you are that intimate with them, then you can "break the rules" intentionally and not just wheel that out as a trite excuse for the battering you (thats "general you" not you Dave :D) are getting in crit on your photos ;-)

Here endeth today's lesson :thumbs:
 
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Carter64 said:
I'm pretty sure Michael Freeman, at least in the 35mm handbook, had a section of compositional prepositions. Prepositions, rather than guides or rules? Been about 3 decades since I read it, though :)
(No cracks like 'yeah, it shows' pls lol)
Click to expand...

funnily enough I'm just re reading this about 15 years after I first got it (handed down from my old man ;) ). There are many of the same discussions/areas covered as in The Photographers Eye (even using the same images) but TPE covers a lot more detail.
 
It's been posted before on here but I'll post it again

I've used http://www.bestphotographybooks.com/ to look for some books, but also it links you to the amazon.com website to buy them so I have a look at reviews on there aswell

I'm not sure if it gets updated with new books or not, so this could be a few years old
 
+1 For The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman. Read it a while back when I was starting out & I found it to be very helpful. Well worth a read :)
 
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