1. Look up

Don’t just shoot at eye-level. Look up; there are often very interesting things you can photograph!

Colors-27 look up.jpg

2. Photograph one color

If you want to practice color photography, fill the frame with one single color you find interesting– for example, the nice orange tone I found in this bathroom (orange with gaussian blur added in Photoshop):

Colors-14 orange blur.jpg

The solid color I saw:

Colors-14 orange blur - solid.jpg

3. Surrealism

Classic surrealistic street photograph: don’t include the face of the subject– only photograph their arms.

The surreal image:

This man doesn’t have a face — he is only arms, who is self-wrapping himself.

This can also be done by not photographing people. Photograph surreal in-animate objects.

For example, a spinal skeleton in the doctor office:

Or wax legs (which look pseudo-real):

4. Simple silhouette

the conductor, downtown los angeles, 2009.jpg

Shoot black and white on your camera, and create a simple separation between your subject and the background.

the conductor, downtown los angeles, 2009 closeup.jpg

For example, note the edge detection in the photo– the outline:

the conductor, downtown los angeles, 2009 closeup outline.jpg

5. Threes

three men_square-1.jpg

For more balance in your photos, have three subjects or elements in your photo. For example in this photo, a man crossing an escalator, and two reflections in the photo:

three men_square-1 three .jpg

Related to this notion of threes– photograph triangle street photography compositions >

Conclusion

Screenshot_20181104-182627_Dropbox

Let composition always be one of our obsessions.

I am optimistic: I believe there are still so many new photographic compositions which have not yet been discovered!

Screenshot_20181104-182324_Dropbox

Never stop pushing your photographic composition forward. Keep striving to make new compositions, and new images that the world (or at least you) haven’t seen before!

Cindy Project Monochrome - black and white - Eric Kim18