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One of the best things a photographer can have is a solid understanding and knowledge of the basic elements of photography. A photograph is not simply the visual record of something that happened, but is actually the result of thousands of tiny variables all coming together at exactly the same time in a very specific way, never to be repeated again. Understanding these different elements and how you can use them to take better images is critical to your success as a photographer. One of the most important of these elements is composition.

The Definition of Composition

Put simply, composition is the way in which the subjects of your photograph interact with one another. You can think of this primarily in terms of where each object in a photograph shows up in a picture frame, however composition can be expanded on to reference things such as focus, depth of field, and zoom.

When a picture has great composition it tells a clear story but when the composition is bad, the picture becomes less appealing. One easy way to see if a photo has poor composition is to see if it looks boring or has nothing of interest in the image.

Elements of Composition

There are a few helpful rules of composition that, once learned, can have an amazing positive effect on the nature of your photographs. Although these composition rules aren’t set in stone, by following them it will help you better understand the impact on your images.

The Rule of Thirds

The Rule of Thirds is based on the artistic assumption that humans are naturally inclined to look at the point of an image that falls about two-thirds up from the bottom. If you picture a photo broken up into nine equal parts, you want your subject to be as close to one of the line intersections as possible. Whenever you take pictures, picture the lines in your image and try to line them up for an even better result.

Image Balance

Although this isn’t an official photography rule, it’s good to remember when taking pictures. Position your subjects off center and use the rule of thirds but be careful of having too much space around the subject. Whenever possible, try to balance important parts of an image with less important parts – for example, a photograph of a child running through grass would be more interesting if they were near one side of the frame, and where they were running was at the other.

Lines

There is something about patterns of lines that naturally draws our eyes. We are constantly tracing images with our minds, and you can use this to your advantage. When lining up a shot, look for lines in the frame and ask yourself if they lead to important parts of your image. If the lines don’t do that, the viewer’s eyes will trace the lines only to be left unsatisfied that the lines lead to nowhere.

Cropping

Sometimes what you leave out of your picture can be as important as what you leave in. You should be cropping in your mind every time you line the camera up for a shot – get rid of the extra stuff that distracts from the subject, and fill the frame with what you want to capture. One trick is to imagine your photos hanging on the wall in some wood picture frames and seeing what could be done to set off the image better. There are methods for fixing this in the darkroom or with software, but it is far better to develop a habit of cropping in-frame.

Composition is one of the parts of photography that really takes years to master. Because it represents the culmination of several other elements, composition is something that will present a constant challenge even to the most experienced photographer. Follow the basic rules until you understand how they work, then dare yourself to break them.

Photography, like drawing or painting, is an art form that requires practice, skill and even a little talent. There will always be those that are naturally gifted in one media or the other, and the rest of us have to work out ways to keep up.  One of the best ways to match the photographs of great photographers is by adopting a few of their common practices.  Here are five habits of great photographers, in no particular order:

Try Bracketing Your Shots

Bracketing is a term for shooting various exposures of the same shot.  Any time you’re taking pictures and the end result is important, you should bracket your shots by shooting one normal photo, then one below the recommended exposure as well as one above.  This will give you more options for choosing the best picture and will also prevent over and under exposure. However, if you’re shooting with a digital camera there is no reason to bracket your shot as you don’t need to worry about burning your film.

Maintain Your Gear

A camera lens will give you a near-exact representation of what you saw when you looked through it, but only if that lens is clean of debris. Although it is easy to touch up your images using a photo editor, it is easiest just to use a cleaning kit and properly clean your gear before shooting. In addition, you should always protect your photo equipment in a bag or case so you can minimize the amount of dust buildup and avoid accidental damage. And, of course, make sure to charge that battery!

Make Your Image Tell a Story

One of the big differences between a good picture and an outstanding photograph is the photograph always has a story to tell.  Every shot you take should convey some sort of narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.  Although this may seem like a daunting task, once you practice, it will become easier to frame your image so the story all comes together. When taking a sequence of images, try to connect them together using a single theme as this will increase their emotional impact. And in addition to tying the image theme together you can also tie them together by framing them in the same exact picture frame.

Work In-Camera

Most professional photographers agree that the less time spent in the editing room means that the better you did using your camera.  Learn to work with your camera to get the results you want instead of depending on the darkroom or software to fix your photographs after the fact.  You should always think of photo editing as your safety net, only to be used if you’ve tried every other avenue.

Spend Time Learning

As with any other skill, if you want to become a better photographer you should do everything in your power to learn about your craft. This means that you should do activities like studying the works of great photographers, practice shooting as much as possible and taking classes or reading books about phtoography.  The more you know about how photos work and what makes one better than the other, the more reliable you will become in creating great work. And this will also open up opportunities to display and frame more of your images in 8×10 picture frames on the wall. Additionally, join a photo club or website and take a look at their forums – there are always useful tips to be found in places like this.

Whether good or bad, there really is not big secret or magic formula for becoming a great photographer.  As you train your eyes to view the world through a frame, you will get better at spotting the types of things that make for amazing photographs.  These five habits can help you to reach this point sooner, especially if you’re shooting as much as you possibly can. With photography, practice may not make you perfect, but it will definitely make you better.

When learning photography, you’ll discover there are lots of different elements that make an photograph appear the way it does. Framing, exposure, film speed, camera quality, printing method and even the type of frame (like a gallery picture frame) all of these have a say in your final product. Contrast is one of the easist elements to manipulate in photography and also one of the most important. When used properly, contrast can take your pictures to a whole new level.

Put simply, contrast is the difference between the lights and darks in your images. In terms or black and white photography, high contrast prints have very dark black and super bright whites with no shades in between, while low contrast images will have more grey. In color photographs, contrast can be used to describe the intensity of the colors and how they stand out in relation to each other. While theres no perfect level of contrast, a good rule of thumb is to try and create images that have pure black, pure white, and every shade in between. However, this is more challenging than it sounds!

Different Degrees of Contrast
As a photographer, youll probably find a set amount of contrast that works for you. Some prefer high contrast, some prefer low, but remember that its all about what works for you. As long as your pictures tell the story you want to share, there is no right or wrong answer.

If you want to see some examples of excellent normal contrast just look at the work by Ansel Adams. His landscape photographs in black and white cover every base possible in terms of greys, blacks, and whites, and are quite powerful because of it. No wonder Ansel Adams images are so frequently seen framed in simple black picture frames in homes and offices - as the contrast black and white tones are exquisite. As an example of high contrast, films like Sin City and The Spirit used high contrast imagery to tell their story.

Adjusting Contrast
There are a few things you can do to adjust the contrast of your images. Different types of film or digital camera settings will give your pictures different amounts of contrast. For example, slide film has a high contrast ratio compared to regular film. You can also increase the time your film develops or “push” your film so that your images will have more contrast. Be careful not to over-develop your film; while you can always make new prints your actual shot film is irreplaceable and cannot be fixed after you break it.

In the darkroom, you can apply a filter to your enlarger to change the contrast of your images. A #1 filter wil be a slight contrast increase, whereas a #4 filter will significantly increase the contrast level in your print. If youre using digital, most photo editing software has a contrast option built in that will allow you to mimic darkroom filters and adjustments for similar results. Contrast is infinite in the options it can provide so take it to the limit and then take it one more step just to see what happens.

Contrast can also change what your viewers look at in your photograph. It can help better define important parts of a picture and creates a better final product when it is present in the right levels. The right (or wrong type) of picture frame can also impact how the viewer looks at your picture so make sure to stick with a frame that has simple clean lines and avoid highly decorative, beaded or jeweled picture frames.

Use the “pure white, pure black” rule in every picture and you’ll see a huge difference in the prints you will produce. Once you figure out what level of contrast works, youll begin to see contrast in the real world and be better prepared to shoot it. As always, the best way to get better is to shoot, shoot, shoot!