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Basic Photographic Composition Techniques

If you think that photography is all about learning how to use a camera or how to do the post-processing then you are wrong. The composition is a very important factor to become a good photographer. Through a good composition, you can express the specific emotions, any story or any unique perspective to see a subject. There are many techniques of compositions in photography. But it is not compulsory to follow any of them. As I always say ‘think out of the box” because maybe you get the more appealing picture by mixing different techniques or by trying something new. So, before experimenting anything new you should know few basic photography composition techniques.

Rule of third

It is very important and famous technique of composition. In this rule, you place your main subject to the one side of the picture in such a way that when you put the grid lines on it, the main subject should be at the intersecting points of vertical and horizontal lines. Also, the subject can be at two intersection points as well.

 

Leading Lines

In this type of technique, the photographer tries to shift the attention of the viewer to a specific point by lines. As the eyes follow the lines in photography. It’s a very useful technique in the landscape photography. Especially when we try to capture the wide shot. 

 

Framing

In order to get a creative picture, some photographers love to follow this technique of composition. It is understandable by its name that you capture the subject through a frame. By this technique, you can get some very beautiful and appealing effect in the pictures but you need to be very careful while using the technique.

 

Fill the frame

Sometimes we get the appealing effect in the picture by just getting a closer shot of the subject. Which means in the picture most of the space is covered by the subject in order to get more focus on it and reduce the distractions from the picture. Filling the frame gives you the more details of the subject. 

 

Pattern and Repetition

On such technique, you focus on the natural pattern and repetition which gives a pleasant effect to the picture. Many photographers first focus on the pattern and repetition, then try to add something which interrupts that pattern and repetition in order to get the attractive and appealing picture.

 

Symmetry

When you find symmetry in the picture which means that if you divide a picture into two equal parts and then if you see a mirror effect like both parts are identical then that means that the subject is symmetrical and the line which divided the subject into two parts is known as symmetry.  Mostly you can get a symmetrical effect by showing the reflection of the subject in water.

 

The techniques of the composition are not limited to these six. There are many other effective techniques as well. But before using any technique you should have to imagine the picture that which composition suits best to the specific subject. In the start, you might don’t get the proper results, but you have to keep trying in order to get used to the following technique(s). So, you could get the more appealing and emphasizing picture.

 

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