Khara Plicanic - The Enthusiasts Guide to Composition: 48 Photographic Principles You Need to Know

48 Photographic Principles You Need to Know

KHARA PLICANIC

THE ENTHUSIASTS GUIDE TO COMPOSITION:
48 PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLES YOU NEED TO KNOW

Khara Plicanic

Project editor: Ted Waitt

Project manager: Lisa Brazieal

Marketing manager: Jessica Tiernan

Layout and type: WolfsonDesign

Design system and front cover design: Area of Practice

Front cover image: Khara Plicanic

ISBN: 978-1-68198-130-7

1st Edition (1st printing, October 2016)

2016 Khara Plicanic

All images Khara Plicanic unless otherwise noted

Rocky Nook Inc.

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For you, dear reader.

The camera doesnt make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But you have to see.
Ernst Haas

If incredible photos dont owe their brilliance to an expensive camera, then what is it that makes a photo great? Lighting is important, of course, but a bad photo can be lit well. (And conversely, a number of famous and well-loved images have less-than-stellar lighting.) When you trim away the razzle-dazzle of fancy equipment or extreme levels of technical prowess, what is it that truly makes one photo better than another? What is it that enables a single image to convey an entire storyhence the expression, A photo is worth a thousand words? In one word: composition.

MY HANDY DICTIONARY APP defines composition (as it relates to photography) as the artistic arrangement of the parts of a picture. But what does that really mean? Ultimately, it comes down to making choices: where to stand, what to include in the picture (and equally important, what to exclude), how to arrange the objects within the frame (which could be vertical, horizontal, square, or another shape), and even when to pull the trigger. And as it turns out, making good choices is a skill you can learn, and it starts with being able to see how the choices you make impact the resulting images.

Have a look at . Captured from above, it features a tight crop that removes any references to location and other scene-setting information, resulting in a pensive portrait thats as innocent as can be.

Compare that with from a few steps further back and a slightly different angle, we can now tell that Zs in his bedroom. And from the looks of things, hes been quite busy! Here we have a story about the realities of being a parent of a toddler. Some viewers will instantly relate, while others might silently revel in their child-free status. Either way, you can see how a single subject in a single scene can yield two very different storiesand it all comes down to the compositional choices you make.

You may not have studied composition before, but for as long as you have owned and operated a camera, youve been making choices when taking photos. The difference is that now, after reading this book, youll be able to make conscious choices about the composition of your photos. And that changes everything.

Instead of haphazardly aiming and firing, youll be aware of what youre doing versus what you could be doing, so that you can make changes on the fly even before you press the shutter. In a nutshell, this conscious decision-making is the difference between a snapshot and a photograph.

With practice, you will start to make solid compositional choices automatically, and instead of pointing-and-shooting (). Whether snapping photos of your kids soccer game or documenting the trip of a lifetime, your images will improve.

From the use of various guiding principles to the editorial decisions you make after you click the shutter, there are a lot of choices that go into the making of a great photo. And youve already started by choosing to pick up this bookit looks like youre well on your way!

I.1 Captured from above, this tightly cropped portrait captures a pensive moment of my son Z.

I.2 By taking a few steps back and adjusting the camera angle slightly, I am able to tell an entirely different story.

I.3 The simple point-and-shoot approach you may be familiar with often results in underwhelming images with little rhyme or reason.