How to make more powerful and compelling images: make DYNAMIC COMPOSITIONS:
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To start off, you want your picture to be dynamic, energetic, and sexy.
You want movement, potential kinetic energy, and dynamism and action.
1. Potential kinetic energy
One of the easiest ways to capture dynamic compositions is potential kinetic energy.
What I mean by that is this:
You want to create “potentiality” in your pictures.
“Potentiality”: the potential for something to happen.
For example, having negative space that allows your subject to move around the frame is a good example of potentially.
For example, the picture above has a lot of potential negative space for the woman to walk to the right side of the frame.
The leading lines in the background add more potential and kinetic energy to the frame. Why? They direct her movement going to the right side of the frame.
2. Dynamic perspective
The boring perspective in composition: eye-level.
Embrace a more dynamic perspective by getting VERY LOW, or by shooting from a perspective that is more dynamic, edgy, and uncommon.
For example, in this photo of mine, note how the low angle picture I shot (with a 21mm lens) emphasizes the lines in this picture. You can see all the converging diagonal lines, that move to the top-right of the frame. There is dynamic movement of the man, and because the silhouette of the man in the suit is all black— he has strong “figure to ground” (contrast) between him and the background. This makes the image more simple, yet powerful and impactful.
Lesson: Shoot with wider angle lenses, I recommend 35mm or 28mm in street photography, or almost every genre of photography for more DYNAMIC COMPOSITIONS.
Crouch down super low, and shoot looking up. Try to find a simple background, with good leading lines, and just be patient, and wait for your subject enter the frame.
3. Dynamic Reflections
The more visual candy you can place around your frame, the more enticing the frame will be for your subject to look around.
For example, this picture I shot of an escalator, I got lucky with two reflections (outlined in purple) of the man in middle of the escalator:
Note all the leading lines of the escalator rails on the left and right of the frame, which CENTERS THE ENERGY. All lines point to the man in the center.
Also note how the man’s legs are split in a “V” shape. Diagonal lines are far more dynamic than horizontal or vertical lines.
Lesson: When you’re out shooting pictures, look for reflections. Look for mirrors, shadows, or reflective surfaces. See if you can mirror your subject.
4. Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro (Italian, DARK-LIGHT): the dynamism of the light and shadows of in a picture.
To make more dynamic compositions, avoid the boring grey in your compositions.
Have more DRAMA between the darks and lights in your picture. That means, use a flash to increase the contrast of your pictures (like I did in this picture of a man next to the Hoan kiem lake in Hanoi).
Or note this picture I also shot in Hanoi—note the drama that the shadow play between the dark silhouette of the woman and the door creates:
To make this picture, I saw a woman coming in and out of a door, and waited for her to exit. I saw her silhouette behind a window. I shot the picture on my RICOH GR II, with a high contrast black and white preview (a good way to visualize chiaroscuro). I also set the exposure compensation in P (program mode) to -1, to better emphasize the darkness of the silhouette of the woman.
Lesson: Shoot JPEG high contrast in black and white using your LCD screen or EVF (electronic viewfinder) to better VISUALIZE chiaroscuro. You want to learn how to see the play between dark and light, shadow and bright. Or if you like shooting in RAW, use free ERIC KIM PRESETS to add more dramatic contrast in your pictures.
Conclusion
PHOTOGRAPHY COMPOSITION 101: How you “compose” a picture is how you put together the visual elements in your frame. How you arrange the visual building blocks within the little rectangle of your camera.
To make stronger compositions, you want your compositions to be DYNAMIC and full of life — because your pictures should be an affirmation of life, of excitement, to encourage your viewer to feel more POSITIVE and OPTIMISTIC about life!
MAKE STRONG PICTURES,
ERIC
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