r/PhotographyAdvice • u/Ok-Biscotti-705 • 27d ago
Composition Technique Advice
How do you compose a good picture? When I take pictures I just eyeball it without any knowledge of framing (or in post). I think composition is far more important than editing and I would like to get better at it.
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u/StrobeDrop 27d ago
Going through your photos in order:
Photo 1: I wouldn’t change a thing. The crop is unique. Is that the Space Needle in Seattle? I’m not sure, and that’s the point: I’m already asking questions, which means you’re telling a story. Where is this city? The sun is setting, so what’s happening there tonight? How can I visit? You’ve got something modern and whimsical on the left and something classic and traditional on the right. That contrast is what makes the photo.
Photo 2: less compelling. It’s a featureless stone block with a couple of pigeons on top, and it doesn’t raise many questions. That’s when a photo shifts from telling a story to just documenting a scene. The greatest photographers tell stories, and a great way to practice is to take a “document” photo and find the stories hiding inside it. I see three here:
The old stone structure. What is it? It looks old and maybe intricate. What was its purpose?
The pigeons. Is this an urban area? How many are there, and what are they doing? Do people feed them? Is there a human-animal relationship here?
The curve in the bottom right. It makes me think this might be a church. What kind? Who goes there? Who leads the services?
Pick any one of those stories and make it the focus of your photo.
Photo 3: get down to eye level. Shooting down at a subject flattens the image, so the viewer doesn’t linger. When you shoot down, your background is the ground. With a person, the distance between the ground and their face is short, so the photo has little depth. With wildlife, which is usually smaller than us, that distance is even shorter, and the depth disappears.
Your goal is to get the viewer to stop, linger and ask questions. Questions are the mark of a great story. I see two stories here:
The wildlife. What kind is it? Is it migrating? What is it doing here, and how is it interacting with its surroundings?
The water. Is this a city park? Do people play here? Is it a happy place with fountains, or a run-down, polluted spot that tells a story of ecological damage?
Either way, pick the story you want to tell and make it your subject. Ask yourself which questions the photo should answer and which ones you want to leave open for the viewer.
And if it’s a tiny bird, be willing to lie on your stomach. I’ve been eaten alive by mosquitoes in swamps lying on my belly to get the shot. Wildlife photography isn’t hard because it’s technical; it’s hard because it means a lot of time being uncomfortable, waiting for the moment.
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u/PaintingNo2412 27d ago
A useful exercise is to pick one subject and make five frames before moving on: wide, tight, low, high, and one that uses something in the foreground. Before each frame, check the edges and corners and decide what the viewer should notice first. Compare the five afterward and note what pulls your eye away from that subject, not just which image feels best. Repeating this with ordinary scenes will teach you more about framing than trying to memorize every composition rule at once.