Photography Composition

Making a good photograph is inherently a creative process, and it's therefore quite hard to say just how to compose a good photograph. Nonetheless there are some basic guidelines that tend to work. Countless books will tell you this, so to boil it down straight and simple:

1. Rule of thirds

Don't place the focus of your photo in the dead center of the picture. It tends to make for boring, static photos. Instead place the focus on a third of a picture -- one third from the right, one third from the left, one third from the bottom, or one third from the top. Placing the central focus in these spots often makes photos more interesting to look at without making the object feel crammed into the frame, which can happen if you place it too close to the edge.

2. S-shapes

S-shaped objects are excellent at guiding viewers through a picture. They can be particularly good in landscape photography to draw the viewer into the picture and give a sense of depth to a scene.

3. Don't take pictures in the middle of a sunny day

Full sunlight generally looks awful in photography: there is too much contrast between sunny and shady areas, and the light is so harsh that it washes out colors. Sunny days are great at dawn and dusk and worthless in between. Cloudy days, on the other hand, are excellent for bringing out colors in landscapes and for giving nice soft light in portrait photography of both animals and people -- just make sure to not include the woeful bright white overcast sky in any of your photos.

4. Use darker objects to frame the focal point

Frame the focal point in your photo with otherwise distracting elements to draw attention to the focal point. Eyes are drawn to lighter objects in a picture, so use darker objects to frame a lighter subject.

5. Simplify your photographs

Photos with less in them tend to be better. Isolate what it is that you want to draw attention to, and don't put anything else in the picture unless it specifically enhances the focal subject. Everything you include in a picture should have a reason for being included. A big reason why people are willing to pay $7000 for a 600mm F/4.0 lens is that it is phenomenally good at isolating subjects, both because of it's narrow angle and because of it's shallow depth of field.

Really the most important thing to do is to provide a unique perspective. The above guidelines can help in making photographs more attractive, but the real challenge in photography is to create something that's both interesting and attractive.