Comm1316 News Photo 1 Journalism-Photography Department San Antonio College Instructor: Edmund Lo

Composition in Photography

Composition in photography means to actively frame or arrange the elements in a photo to achieve the photographer’s purpose.

In photojournalism, photos always have a clear and designated purpose – to tell a story, to communicate a message. Composition is a mean; not the final goal.

Composition alone cannot produce a good communicative photo. It has to be developed on a well-exposed, technically-sound image. 

Berlin1

“Like water and music:
A sense of Flowing and Dynamic is the key. Static and monotone is dead art.”

Composition as in forms and shapes

 
A dominant focal point in the frame (If the viewer has to search for it, there’s a problem). Tang
Rule of third – need to know and worth a try, but not always true. Computer
Clean background, clean foreground (If something is not helping, it’s going to hurt you). egret
Include contributing background (Show relationships, sense of locations). Berlin2
Include contributing foreground (Framing always yields a 3-dimension effect). daffodils
Avoid camera tilt, keep horizon straight. tilted
Vertical framing sometimes is “the better one.” Always worth a try if situation allow. Jump

Composition as in content

  

Composition in photojournalism has no definite rules.
The nature of the news event determines the way we compose our photos.
However, there are some general guidelines for better composition:

 

Relationships or Interactions
Elements in a photo seldom exist in a vacuum. Try to relate them with some other things in the environment.
E.g. a student is making a clay pot.
A crowd of fans screams as a celebrity walks by.
One person is giving while another is receiving.
An evacuee is examining his destroyed home.
* Always consider showing the action and reaction elements.

arrest

What and How
Show “what happened” and also try to show “how it happened.”
E.g. someone had fallen to the ground from a high ladder. Don’t just show how badly hurt the person is on the ground, you should try to show in your photo the injurer’s position in relation with the ladder, where and what the person was working at the time of the accident.

flood

Faces and Emotion
 Show people’s faces and emotion unless you have a good reason showing their backs and butts instead. We all so used to read facial expression to get to understand people.		 untouchable


Decisive Moment
Pay attention to the rapid change of positioning of the elements in your photo. Look for the best critical moment to press the shutter.

kickboxing
 

Steps of photojournalism composition

  
  1. What are the important messages you want to tell (people, place, things, symbols, actions, procedures, events)?

  2. Which 2 or 3 important elements should I include in one single photo?

  3. Among the 2 or 3 elements, which one is the most important?

  4. Every photo has to have a focal point (visual center of interest), how should I place my most important element as my focal point?

  5. How should I display my second or third important elements to work with my most important element? That means to passively arrange them in a hierarchy order (passively means move yourself, not the elements). 
Israel
 
sun bathing
 

Assignment 4:

Turn in 3 photos to demonstrate the good use of composition guidelines from above, all photos have to have people as a main or secondary subject.

Write a critique to explain your composition using the terms we discussed.

Deadline is next (Mon/Tue) when class starts.

 tansvestist