How to Teach Yourself Photography Composition

The best learning is self-learning. Some practical ideas for you:

1. Find a photo you want to deconstruct

Discover a photo you like, and let’s start to break it apart.

2. Gaussian blur

Apply Gaussian Blur, to abstract the images, to simply think about composition. Procreate and Photoshop are good choices.

3. Fill in

Use the lasso tool to select parts of the frame you find interesting.

Outline of parts of interest

Then fill it in with any color.

Filling with cyan

Cyan overlay, with background still there

Then hide the initial photo, make the background black, and only show the subject.

Then fill in other compositional elements you find interesting, like the yellow divider.

4. Think about sections

Now consider how the frame is broken up, and how it is divided. Keep adding in colors as you go.

The goal is this:

Strive to discover the ultimate simplicity of shapes, forms, and proportions in the frame.

My final result:

And an animated GIF (made in Procreate) to illustrate:

The scene:

And the tension of subjects (Cindy in far left, walking out of the frame to the left), and the square figure in top right:

All the layers as animated GIF:

And a time lapse video of the making of on iPad and Procreate:

Conclusion: Keep deconstructing

Break things apart to understand them!

ERIC

COMPOSITION

Master composition for yourself:

Street Photography Composition Tips

Tokyo, 2017

Photography Composition Concepts

Photography Composition Tips

Color Theory

Color wheel theory: Dynamic tension between opposing colors. Image from CREATIVE EVERY DAY

Learn From the Masters of Composition

Sergio Larrain Compositions

Dynamic Photography Composition 101

Leading lines. ERIC KIM DYNAMIC COMPOSITION

Painting Compositions

Vermeer

Dynamic Photography Composition Tips

Chiaroscuro. DYNAMIC LIGHT AND SHADOW. Hanoi, 2016 by ERIC KIM

Composition Theory

Dynamic low angle composition. Tokyo, 2011 by ERIC KIM

Take your composition to the next level:

Street Photography Composition 101

DYNAMIC REFLECTIONS. Man and three reflections by ERIC KIM

For distilled lessons on composition, read the free ebook: “The Street Photography Composition Manual.”

Further articles to improve your compositions in photography:

Composition Theory

Woman and door. Chiaroscuro. DYNAMIC LIGHT AND SHADOW. Hanoi, 2016 by ERIC KIM

Learn compositional theory:

Compositional lessons from the masters of art

Composition lectures

Composition pictures/grids

Golden Diagonal Composition

Golden Diagonal Composition / Kyoto Station, 2018