Latest / Wildlife and Adventure Photography / Observation and Composition Ep 2: Why Compositions Fail (and the fix most people miss)

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Observation and Composition Ep 2: Why Compositions Fail (and the fix most people miss) · Wildlife and Adventure Photography

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hello again and welcome to this second episode in this series of four, which is looking at observation and composition and how they are pretty essential bedfellows if you're going to start creating really effective photographs.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you listened to last week's episode, and what I'm going to do now is talk about the kind of mistakes people make and how to fix them.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever taken a photograph that was technically fine but it just didn't work, hopefully I've got an answer for you.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So please remember to like and subscribe before I uh press on because I'll probably forget to ask you later.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And also remember, if you do enjoy this and if you think I've earned it, please buy me a coffee.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can also do that from uh from the site.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the key thing about creating effective photographs is to really be mindful about what you're doing, what's in the photograph.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I've spoken about Visual Storyteller, I will probably mention it again several times as we go through these um this series of four.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: The key thing though, and the point about this particular episode is to help you to learn to spot composition problems immediately and to know what to do with them once you spot them.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So a very simple question to ask is what is this photograph about?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely fundamental and it it it's in fact it's very powerful because it's very simple.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have an unclear answer to that, if you can't, in a sentence, I would say, summarize it, maybe two at the most, basically you've got an unclear composition.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: This the the story that you're trying to tell as a visual storyteller is not clear, so it should be very, very simple.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you've got multiple answers, you've got too many subjects, you've got too many things going on, I would suggest, uh, to make it an effective photograph.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you need to rethink how you're putting that composition together.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the important thing to remember is that confusion is definitely the enemy of composition, and it's more than the enemy from the perspective of just having a photograph that doesn't really work.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But for anybody who's trying to understand what you were photographing, what what drove you, what drove you to press the shutter button in this particular instance, they're gonna be completely baffled because they just don't know what's going on, and to me, that's not an effective photograph.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: An effective photograph is one where the viewer is drawn in and they see one thing, then they begin to see more.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: But this can be done in a very uh subtle way, and we're gonna explore some of this as we as we move through the series.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, what are the things that tend to kill composition?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one is too many subjects.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that is that each one, sorry, each one carries the same visual weight, so there's no clear subject in this particular image or you know, in the image you're looking at.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's no hierarchy.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: So what I mean by that is with a clear subject, you will have other elements in the composition that can support the subject, maybe help to tell more of the subject's story.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: But if it's not clear that these are secondary to the subject, then you don't have a clear hierarchy.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: These other elements begin to compete as being the subject of the image.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So what happens is the eye of the observer will tend to bounce, there will eye won't settle on something for you to explore more or to look at it in more detail, or maybe to make more of a connection with it.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Your eye is just bouncing around from one element within the photograph to another, and the viewer just isn't clear about what it is they're supposed to be looking at.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you fix that?
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, just have one idea.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got too many, remove them.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you if you've got two, remove one of them, three, remove the others.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: How do you do that in practice?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, change your position, perhaps vary the depth of field, um, maybe change the lighting so that the emphasis is on one element within the photograph much more than any other elements.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, depth of field is very effective because you can put them out of focus, either slightly out of focus, or even go full bokey on them.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: But you can really just experiment and maybe zoom in, zoom out, but think about what's going on in the frame as you're composing it and make sure that you have a very clear subject.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the second thing we're going to look at is backgrounds that compete.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the background is there to support the subject, maybe to add to the story, support the subject's story.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have very bright areas or very high contrast shapes, or lines that point away, or you might have a bright object right on the edge of the frame, these things attract the viewer's eye and pull them away from the subject.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So you're kind of doing the opposite to leading lines.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, leading lines are there to draw the viewer's eye from the edge of the frame into the subject.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: These other distractions are basically drawing the viewer's eye away from the subject.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, as you look at the photograph, if you look at the image, ask what's going on.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where is your eye being drawn as an observer?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, the thing to do here, move your feet, just shift positions slightly, change your height, maybe look for an alignment or wait for an alignment if you're moving.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, often when I'm with um it's so with wildlife photography, I can't always get where I would like to be because I might have to be in a fixed trail, I've got to stay in a vehicle, I might be at sea, somebody else is driving, all these kinds of things go on.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I might have to wait until an alignment is where I want it.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I've I've definitely had that.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, some examples are elephants, for example, that are browsing.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm in a fixed vehicle, but I can see the animal where it's going, and I know that I can get a reveal.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking of one image where I had half of the elements' elephant's face visible, and the other half was behind a bush coming out.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: It was just um browsing, it was grabbing some food, but I could see what was going on, and I deliberately wanted to get a kind of reveal, it felt a bit more intimate as a image.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another one is again with elephants.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had a group of three elephants coming towards me.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: They were on a dried riverbed in Namibia, and there were a lot of sort of bits of bushes and little trees and things in front, and I realized that I would have a moment when all three elephants were visible, as in their heads were clearly visible, their faces are visible, and then one or other would be obscured.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it was it's about observation, uh, which is the whole purpose of this, and to look at what's going on and choose your moment.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So wait until you've got an alignment if you don't have it straight away.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the next one is to look at weak edges.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do I mean by that?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's where you've got limbs cut off, you've got half objects, they can be distracting, bright corners.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, what's happening here is that the viewer, whoever's looking at the photograph, is tending to look at the edges before the centre, and then they're maybe going back to the edges, so they're sort of bouncing from the subject to what's going on in the edges because whatever's happening at the edge is quite distracting.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the key thing to do here is to look at what's going on in the edges.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: So before you press the shutter button, have really have a good look at the whole composition and look at the image as a whole.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Don't just get fixated on the subject, so look at what's happening happening at the edges.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you realize that you've got some something distracting going on, whatever it might be, just do a recomposition.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't have to be a major recomposition often.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: It might be a zoom in, it might be a quick change of position, but it's far better to get the composition right in the first place than rely on cropping.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I spoke about that in the last uh episode.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: That cropping is really there as a fine-tuning uh device, if you like, it's not there as a fix, you don't want to be relying on cropping every time to fix basically fix bad composition.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you're doing that a lot, you need to work on your composition skills, not your cropping skills.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the next thing is static framing.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So this can be where you've centered without intent.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the the classic one here is eye level.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: People just shoot at eye level, they don't even give it a thought.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, if they'd stopped and thought about what they're photographing, looked at what's going on, and and even experimented with what happens if you just crouch down a little bit, or if there's something where you can step up and get slightly higher, what's the difference there?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: You might get a completely different um interaction with the subject just by changing position slightly.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It could be that there's no tension or no flow.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do I mean by that?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a flat image.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: There, if it often if you move to one side, you can use or put the subject to one side, you can use the space.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, some people call it negative space.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like that term because I think it's uh it's a contributing part of the composition.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you can use space to create tension.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: If, for example, you have a subject, it could be um somebody's head or a subject in the frame, they are on the left-hand side of the frame and they're looking to the left.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, they're looking out of the frame, out of the side that's closest to them.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got all this space behind them.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because we're natural storytellers, we will immediately begin to create a story about that composition, and that story could be that there's something behind them that they're not aware of, but is actually relevant to what's going on.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: That could be a threat.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I've actually seen this in television shows.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they will deliberately frame them to do exactly that, they'll have a headshot of somebody on either the left or the right hand side of the frame, doesn't matter.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're looking out of the short side, so if they're on the right this time, they're looking to the right, so they're looking out of the frame, but there's this big space behind them.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And another thing to do that I've observed with um these compositions is they might have a door, so it could be um a doorway that's either has the door closed or open, doesn't really matter, it could be slightly out of focus, but the fact that those two elements are in that composition, you have the subject who is not watching the door and may not even be aware of it, and then you have the door.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately, the suggestion is that something could be happening, somebody or something could be about to come through the door, and this could potentially be a threat.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is what I mean by using space in the composition to create tension.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, just to summarize, shift your position, change your height, introduce space, it could be at the side, it could be in the foreground.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the your subject could be up in the the towards the background, and maybe frame so that then they're maybe even in the upper part of the frame.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that will draw the viewer's eye to the foreground.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Equally, you can do that with the background.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So there's lots of options you can do there, and you start to create an emotional element, it might be some tension or something else.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: So immediately, though, it's uh a more interesting composition because the viewer is starting to get drawn in, even though there might not be that much in there, it could be a very simple composition, but it could also be very strong.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you might be asking, well, why can't I just crop?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason why cropping rarely saves a bear a bad composition is that cropping is really about refining what's already there.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't rescue it in most situations.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, if you set up bad relationships within the frame, they're going to stay bad even if they're trimmed.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it means that you really need to be looking and making a decision on the relationships between elements in the image before you take the shot.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Don't rely on cropping to say them.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: So strong compositions, and I said this last time they're built, they're put together deliberately because the photographer has learned the basics and applied the basics regularly so that they become second nature, and that gives you strong compositions.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: You don't get strong compositions by repairing something, you really need to be thinking about that right from the start.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm going to give you um a very simple composition checklist.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's four questions, so you might want to write these down.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, number one, what's the subject?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can't answer that straight away, in what I would say one sentence.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: The answer to each of these is one sentence.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you if you're doing more than that, you're probably overcomplicating it.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because the the you remember with composition, you've got to be often you're doing this quickly.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the rules or the the guidelines, whatever you want, whatever term you want to use, they need to be things you can implement fast.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want to overcomplicate this, and that's what I'm trying to avoid doing here.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's to give you examples, but I don't want to overcomplicate the whole process.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, very simply, what's the subject?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: That should be a quick, easy answer.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, what competes with it?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, as you're looking through the viewfinder, you're looking at the screen on the back, you're looking at your composition before you hit the shutter button.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: What's competing with the subject?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is there a conflict?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Have you failed to get a hierarchy where the secondary elements in the image are clearly secondary to the subject, and they're not competing with the subject as being potentially subjects in their own right.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Where does your eye go to first?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: So just step back and look at it as if you were looking at the composition for the first time.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Where is your eye drawn to?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because you can pretty much guarantee that that's where other people looking at this image are going to be looking.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that needs to be possibly your subject, but you might create the composition slightly differently so that the eye is drawn somewhere else first, but they are drawn to the subject, everything supports the subject.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, are the edges clean?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: So have you avoided having distractions, you know, partial part of a hand, or I don't know, you know, but elements there that are distracting from the subject.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Are there bright elements there that are maybe cut a little bit as well?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: So, and and the really doing that test, where's your eye go-to first, is a great way of spotting those kinds of things.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But again, once you're aware of them, once you've got that checklist, uh, that will definitely be there to help you to start getting into the habit of doing compositions that work, that are supportive and um clean, and allow the viewer to go straight to the subject, get the point of the photo without being really distracted by all this other stuff in the way.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and um finally what I'm going to suggest to you as an exercise that you can do if you want to take this further is to look at some old photos.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: They could be yours or there might be other photos, you know.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: But the but essentially what we're looking at are five weak images.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want you to edit them, but I want you to just be a bit forensic about this, just sit and look at them and ask the check checklist questions for a start.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, what's the subject, what competes with, where does your eye go first?
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are the edges clean?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, any of these, if if there's a failure there, that should become very apparent very quickly.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And also ask what pulls your eye away.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: So this comes back to distractions, and then I'm assuming in this instance that these are photographs of your own, and maybe that's why you're listening to this because you're not satisfied with your composition.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: So just ask yourself what should I have moved, what should I have waited for, or what should I have removed?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: So think about what you would do differently knowing what you know now about composition, that would take that old image, that image that is weak, and turned it around so that it was a strong image, had a good composition, uh, very clear structure, very clear subject, and much much stronger composition.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, this is not about um beating yourself up in any way.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone makes mistakes, everybody learns.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, by making mistakes, that's how we learn.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're the the most powerful lessons.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you I'm sure if you think back in your life, where you've learned important lessons, generally, there's an element of pain to that.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want you to get into that side of it, I don't want you to be beating yourself up, but just learn from your mistakes, it's critiquing, self-critiquing, but against these guidelines, so that you can take away some pointers to help you with your uh future photographs.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so just to recap this episode, so episode um two in this uh sequence, failure will come from competition.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So, where you've got competing elements, that is definitely going to mess up your composition, and the way to create clarity is to remove the composition, so it might be physically physically removing them as in not having in the not having them in the uh frame at all, or by using something like depth of field or some other element, maybe even exposure, lightning or dark darkening the image, to remove them and draw the attention back to the subject.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so looking at um what's coming next, so fixing composition, it isn't really about objects, it's about understanding how someone else's eye moves.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we're gonna look at next time is looking at how a viewer how viewers actually travel through an image.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, what's the route that somebody looking at your image is likely to take, and how can you use that knowledge to create a much stronger composition?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, the thought to leave you with until Friday, till the next episode, is a strong composition doesn't shout, it guides.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope you found that useful.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Please remember to like and subscribe, buy me coffee, all of that is good, and um I'll speak to you again in the next episode, which will be released on Friday.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.