Photobird Daily

“San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge at 5:30am”
© Copyright Ed Krimen

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A newer version of this article can be found at:

http://www.photobird.com/daily/2009/04/22/composition-is-key-2/

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Composition is the key element for great photos. If everything else with your photo is not correct — such as bad color, poor lighting, image noise, and imperfect subjects — but your photo is well composed, you can usually fix the other things and still come out with a good photo.

If the composition isn’t perfect right out of the camera, you can often crop the photo to get the desired composition, but you must start off with a reasonably well-composed photo. You can find details about cropping photos to improve their composition in the Photobird Daily article “How to Crop Photos to Improve Them“. The photo shown above, “San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge at 5:30am” by Ed Krimen, could probably use a little cropping or editing at the bottom of the photo to remove the pole in the lower left; otherwise, I’m very happy with it.

You’ll continue to see new references in the Photobird Daily about the importance of composition, but for now, please see the articles below about composition; you’ll find them helpful and they have already appeared in the Photobird Daily.

Beginners:

• Great Photos Start with Location and Timing
• Composition: Shoot Better Photographs series introduction
  • Simplify.
  • The Rule of Thirds
  • Lines are Visually Compelling
  • A Delicate Balance
  • Framing Your Photo Before You Take It
  • Avoid Mergers
• Rule of Thirds Redux
• The Rule of Thirds
• Framing, Naturally
• Look for Lines to Create Visual Interest
• The Golden Mean
• Composition Tips

Advanced:

• Get Closer. Closer. Even Closer!
• Portrait Posing Tips and Composition Tips
• How to Crop Photos to Improve Them
• Position the Sun Exactly Where You Want It
• Composition Mastery Workshop on DVD
• Master Trilogy Seminars

Please let us know in the comments if you have any questions or comments about these articles.

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