Composition - A "viewpoint"

Composition of a photograph is highly underrated aspect of design.

With the advent of digital cameras, the importance of composition of a photograph has taken the back seat. Most photographers are eager to take the photograph just because they can preview within seconds.

In the days of the film camera, the photographs would be painstakingly taken peeking in the viewfinder to ensure the subject is covered correctly and completely - a single photograph would take anywhere between a few tenths of a second to a few minutes to compose. What was different back then? ... the exorbitant cost of film. Not to mention the number of pictures would be limited to 24/36, and the only way to see a photograph was to go to a processing lab get the film developed and printed.

With digital cameras, the dis-incentives were eliminated. Very often people have archives of digital photographs whose numbers run into 10s of thousands. The philosophy has become "have camera - will shoot".

So, what is composition? According to Wiki "... composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art. "


Composition has more to do with what's around the Subject of Interest than with the subject itself. Very often we see photographs with an "unwanted" element and subconsciously re-wire our brain to avoid making that mistake. This is the design of the photograph.

Some principles of sound design when it comes to composing photographs are depth of field, limited focus, balance, asymmetry, rule of thirds etc., to name a few. When some of these sound design principles are applied to photographs, the photo looks visually appealing. While these are guidelines, many a times, breaking the rules also helps bring out a visually striking image.

Apart from the usual principles, a good visual art conveys the message via "hotspots" (those are the little white squares in the bing.com photographs).  There is no particular order in which one tends to view the hotspots. To elaborate more, next time you view a photograph, observe where your eyes take you - those are the hotspots. It may be the beautiful green eyes of Steve McCurry's "Afghan Girl" then the torn veil she's wearing, followed by her hair.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words; it is the composition that communicates the story to the audience. Next time you click, think about what you want to bring out, what is your "viewpoint".