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Grab
The Eye:
Composition Techniques For Your Travel Images
by Michael and Allison Goldstein
Do you come home with ho-hum travel
pictures? Do your friends avoid your slide shows like they would the purple
plague? Are you at the bottom of your camera club’s “presenters” list? If
you can expose film correctly, produce a sharp image, and keep your horizons
level, perhaps it’s your artistic eye that needs tuning.
“Cropping in the camera” and luring the viewer’s eye into your
image are the two most difficult aspects of good photography.
What’s the answer? On
your next trip around the corner or around the world, chase “magic hour”
light, eliminate everything in your viewfinder that isn’t important, and use
one or more of the following ideas for each image:
- RULE
OF THIRDS
Place
your subject in one of the viewfinder’s “intersection of thirds.”
That’s where the eye naturally goes when you’re looking into a frame.
Large subjects can be placed in the upper or lower third of the frame or in
the left/right third. Remember to keep subjects with eyes looking into
the frame. Avoid the center of the frame, except for exactly symmetrical
compositions.
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This shot of the famous Bass Harbor Light, on Maine's Mount Desert Island, illustrates the use of "intersection of thirds" composition. The hillside on which the lighthouse sits forms the horizon of the picture, and the lighthouse is breaking the horizon. The pale orange rocks in the foreground contrast nicely against the complimentary blue of the sky. This should be a morning shot, but we arrived in the late afternoon, so some very careful exposure was necessary to obtain detail in the backlit lighthouse! |
- FRAMING
Try
to put a “frame” (not a square frame!) around your subject. An arch in a
building, the curve of a palm frond, the window in a sail, the frame of a
window ... the frame should relate to what is being framed in location,
subject, history, or color.
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This is a good example of framing, where the Spanish style of architecture relates to the sport of riding. Shot at "Rancho de la Osa" in Arizona, we first found the arch, then went looking for a rider! In this image, (almost a "frame within a frame within a frame") the walkway between the two arches forms a nice leading line to the rider. The rider is positioned just a tad above the lower third of the frame. |
- LEADING
LINES
Watch
for any opportunity to use a “leading line” (S-shaped roads or fences are
ideal) that draws the viewer’s eye into the picture, toward your subject.
Your subject may be placed anywhere along the leading line, the start
of the line often being the most effective.
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This entire image constitutes a leading line, with only the stack of cannon balls to break the pattern! The cannonballs relate to the cannons, and the gunners. If a wide-angle lens is used for scenics, such as was done here at Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, you need something very large in the foreground to draw the eye, or the entire image becomes background. |
- FOREGROUND
V-SHAPE
An
unusual application of the leading line technique is the use of a strong
“v-shape” in the foreground, particularly when you’re using a wide-angle
lens to photograph scenics. A fence is the most common tool, but the corner of
a table or anything else that’s square or rectangular may work. Use the
“v” as a frame for your subject.
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This image, made in Wilmington, Vt., illustrates the use of a strong foreground "vee", to create leading lines. This image also uses repetitive shapes, in the form of the roofline of the house, and the crotches of the tree branches. The house and the trees break the horizon, and the orange leaves contrast nicely with the complimentary blue sky. Compositionally, it doesn't get much better than this! |
- BREAK
THE HORIZON
Straight
lines that parallel your frame should be avoided. If you photograph people,
church steeples, flagpoles, or boat masts so that they “break the
horizon,” your photographs will be more dynamic. Remember that the horizon
might be the crest of a hill, the roofline of a building, or some other
straight or long horizontal line in your composition. If you can’t avoid
them, use them to your advantage. Since you must place yourself down lower to
situate subjects against the horizon, this technique is often combined with
that of the “worm’s eye view.”
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The horizon is well and truly "broken" in this image, shot on Kew Beach in Toronto in the spring, late one afternoon. Look how the sweatshirt picks up the colors of the signs on the sterns of the boats! The boats form a leading line, and the figure is at the beginning of the line. Three composition techniques for the price of one. |
- WORM’S
EYE VIEW
Most
photographs are made at eye level, so images of the same location often look
the same. A fresh approach often yields completely different pictures. So, get
down on your stomach, and see how the world looks from there!
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"Get down on your belly", instructed my artist wife, Allison, "...and shoot up the lines of the bridge!". So I did as instructed, as a good husband should, and used this worm's eye view to photograph the Marshal Point Light on the coast of Maine. The horizon is broken, there's no shortage of leading lines, and the great depth of field of a 24mm lens made it all sharp! |
- BIRD’S
EYE VIEW
A
“bird’s eye view” can be just as effective in producing unusual images.
Climb up on a chair, the roof of a building, or even a hill. Taking the high
ground can be visually rewarding. Shoot down on the umbrellas, the restaurant
tables, or the heads in a crowd. This technique often results in great
“pattern” shots.
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The "Metropolitan All District All Star Band" entertains the strollers on Lynn Beach, in the late afternoon. Made up of high school students from across the Boston area, the band assembles each summer to play in the communities along the Boston Shore, in Massachusetts. I had to climb up on top of a nearby roof for this "bird's eye shot", and use my 24mm lens to fit it all in. |
- REPETITIVE
PATTERN
Watch
for repeating shapes in your compositions that you can use to fill the frame.
Umbrellas, flowers, boats in a fleet--the list is endless. You need only train
your eye to see the opportunities.
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This photograph, made in Halifax NS during the Tall Ships Week of 2000, uses repetitive pattern as the primary technique of composition. In addition, all straight lines are diagonals, as I tilted the camera while making the image. Lots of "lines" in the shot, but I'm not sure any of them are "leading"! |
- BREAK
THE PATTERN
If
a pattern is symmetrical, it becomes your background, and you must then
“break the pattern” with a related shape that’s different. Watch for a
yellow tulip in a bed of red ones, a cow with its head up in a herd of
browsers, or a red tractor in a field of freshly mown hay or corn.