AYWMC: Part 2 Lesson 4: Advanced Composition Techniques

Lesson 2.4 in my own words

Think about what you're trying to say with your photographs. How do you want them to speak to the viewer?
Composition is the language of photography. It's the backbone of a photograph.
Think about:

Where do you put everything in the frame?
What do you leave out?
How do the elements relate to one another?
How can you use these principles to translate the scene you see into the finished image you see in your head?

With practice, composition will come naturally.

This week's project

Answer this question - "Why do you take photographs?"
Try some of these advanced composition techniques:

Visual weight

What elements draw the viewer's attention?
Do they compete with or distract from your chosen focal point?

What's leaving the frame? Don't let cut-off objects on edges distract from the subject.
What's overlapping? Give each element it's own space.

Why do I take photographs? I've been thinking about this and have pinpointed two reasons: documentation and communication. I don't see myself as an artist, so my photography isn't driven by a desire to create. Neither an I trying to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. Rather, my motive is to record the when, how, and why of our lifestyle, including its sorrows and joys. Even so, I want my photos to be interesting to look at and aesthetically pleasing. And I do enjoy the creative challenge to make them that way. So, I suppose I can add "personal satisfaction" to the reasons why I take photographs.

Practicing the composition techniques.

Visual weight: the eye is repeatedly drawn to the subject. I like that
there is good contrast with the background, and that the branches
create diagonal leading lines, all leaning toward the subject.

What's leaving the frame? I understand this concept, but my usual method of
photography is simply to take a bunch of pictures and then crop them in Gimp.