Photobird Daily

Photo © Copyright Yanik Chauvin

I’m a big fan of photos that are composed well. I think excellent composition makes a huge difference in making photos look “correct” — even though there may be more than one way to capture a specific scene. Excellent composition demonstrates to me that the person snapping the shutter knows what he or she is doing with the camera. And maybe I might be able to learn something from that person or that photo.

Composition is the single most important element to great photos. Many of the technical characteristics of the photo can be less than perfect, such as wrong ISO setting, incorrect white balance, and imperfect light, but if the composition is great, then it might be able to make up for the photo’s deficiencies. Some of those deficiencies might even be able to be fixed in the computer later.

The article “Composition Is Key” includes a list of the articles in the Photobird Daily that focus on composition. You can find a link to the “Composition Is Key” article as part of “Photobird’s Simple Guide to Great Photos” in the right column on the front page of the Photobird Daily.

I found another great article on composition to add to the list. “An Introduction to Photography Composition” at Yanik’s Photo School covers many important topics and includes a lot of excellent examples.

In his article, Yanik covers these important composition topics:

• The Rule of Thirds
• Simplicity
• Leading Lines
• The Natural Frame
• Contrasts
• Point of View
• Rhythm

I strongly encourage you to read Yanik’s article on composition and see his examples. Then, take a look at the additional articles in “Composition Is Key” in the Photobird Daily. Yes, some of the topics are identical, but each article has a different way of explaining each topic and the various example photos help reinforce each topic.

Yanik’s photo of the peacock shown above is a great example of the Rule of Thirds and is also a great example of filling the frame, another important composition technique.

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