7 Easy Composition Tips for Beginners

I believe that good com­po­si­tion can take a pho­to from look­ing like a snap­shot to a look­ing pro­fes­sion­al. That’s why I’ve put togeth­er 7 easy com­po­si­tion tips for beginners.

Com­po­si­tion is just the arrange­ment of ele­ments used in an image. Com­po­si­tion is used through­out the Art world…in paint­ings, tele­vi­sion and pho­tog­ra­phy. A well-com­posed image makes the view­er want to spend more time look­ing at the image. It does­n’t have too many ele­ments to avoid con­fus­ing the eye, and it fol­lows one or more rules of composition.

You can have a per­fect­ly exposed pho­to, but your image will always be aver­age, nev­er extra­or­di­nary if the com­po­si­tion is lacking.

So let’s dive into the 7 easy com­po­si­tion tips for begin­ners and start mak­ing your pho­tos extraordinary!

Tip #1 Learn and understand the rules of composition.

There are a lot of rules of com­po­si­tion, and learn­ing and under­stand­ing those rules, why they make a pho­to great, and why your eye and brain prefers a per­fect­ly com­posed image will help you take your pho­tos from snap­shots to more pro­fes­sion­al-look­ing pho­tos. You can check out The Begin­ners Pho­tog­ra­phy Essen­tials pro­gram, which has the Focus & Com­po­si­tion Essen­tials class to help you under­stand these rules even faster.

Tip #2 Focus on Your Subject

This may sound like a no-brain­er, but I have seen many pho­tos where you actu­al­ly have no idea what the sub­ject is. Remem­ber, you want to avoid hav­ing so many ele­ments or sub­jects in the shot that your view­er does­n’t know where they are sup­posed to look. Clean up things around your sub­ject sim­pli­fy your shot so that the view­er has no doubt what they are sup­posed to focus on.

Tip #3 Use the Rule of Thirds

I am sure you’ve heard of the rule of thirds, and I could­n’t write about 7 easy com­po­si­tion tips for begin­ners with­out includ­ing this. To clar­i­fy, the rule of thirds says that you need to divide your image area into thirds, ver­ti­cal­ly and hor­i­zon­tal­ly, and the most impor­tant parts of your pho­to (the sub­ject) should fall where the lines cross. When pho­tograph­ing peo­ple, the eyes should fall on the inter­sect­ing lines. For land­scapes, you want the hori­zon to fall into one of the thirds.

Tip #4 Change Your Perspective

Some­times I go back through my old pho­tos, pho­tos when I was just start­ing, and I want to go back in time and do them all over! I swear that 98% of my shots were from the same exact position…standing straight in front of my sub­ject! Mix it up shoot from anoth­er angle. Try shoot­ing from above or below. If pho­tograph­ing kids or ani­mals, get down on their lev­el. Chang­ing your per­spec­tive will make your pho­tos look more professional.

Tip #5 Balance

Like in any art form, cre­at­ing bal­ance in your pho­tos helps cre­ate inter­est. If you have some­thing large in the front, and some­thing in the back­ground, bal­ance the images by hav­ing the item in the back­ground be small and vice versa.

Tip #6 Create Depth of Field

I dive deep­er into the depth of field and using aper­ture to cre­ate it in The Begin­ners Photogra­phy Essen­tials Course, but using depth of field is a great way to cre­ate inter­est in your pho­tos. Use a shal­low depth of field when pho­tograph­ing peo­ple or when you don’t want the back­ground to be the focus. Use a deep­er depth of field for land­scapes or when you want the whole image crisp and clear.

Tip #7 Pay Attention to In-Camera Cropping

Noth­ing says begin­ner qui­et like hav­ing your sub­jects limbs cropped in the wrong places. Pay­ing atten­tion to where you are crop­ping your sub­ject is key. Slow down, take a minute to look through the viewfind­er and make sure that all feet, toes and fin­gers are in the frame. Cut­ting your sub­ject off in an odd place stops the flow of move­ment in your photo.

I have just touched on the rules of com­po­si­tion for pho­tog­ra­phy with these 7 Easy Com­po­si­tion Tips for Begin­ners. Learn­ing, under­stand­ing and mas­ter­ing these rules is key to get­ting amaz­ing pictures…because once you under­stand them, then you can learn to “break” them!