Taking better photos with your DSLR: Series 2

Continuing our series on how to take better photos and improve your photography skills, I will be going over composition. I believe great photography is achieved when you have an understanding of technique and aesthetic quality. Having a strong composition can be the difference between a great image, or a bad one.

Composing an image
You want to make sure elements within the frame are balanced and have a focal point. Consider your point of interest and how to place that within the frame. When shooting photos, I find it helps to: get down low, stand on something and shoot downward, shoot upwards from the ground or, straightforward. These different methods help give perspective in your photos. It's important to keep perspective in mind, especially when shooting landscape photography. It helps to have elements in the foreground and background to give depth. Try shooting subjects at a side angle too, so you can guide the viewer with lines or curves that lead into the picture. Try framing your photo by using doorways or arches as a “border” for your compositions. Cropping can sometimes help too, that's why you should include as much of the scene as you can and then trim things out later.

You may have heard of the Rule of Thirds concept. This is where you divide the picture into thirds vertically or horizontally. The best place to position your subject is a point where the lines intersect. The rule of thirds is something to keep in mind, but not a hard and fast rule of composition.

Rule of thumb
Overall, experimentation and experience will help you determine what works and doesn’t work. I've learned the more photos you take, the better photographer you can become. See what works best and try to understand why. Eventually, composing an image becomes a very natural process.