Take Your Photos to the Next Level with 5 Easy Composition Tips!

I love the clear way you explain how to do these things. You make me want to take my camera and go take some great photos. I'm excited to try out your tips.  I meant to follow you week by week but for some reason I'm not getting notified when your new post comes up so now I'm playing catch-up.  I thought that I had it set to notify me but maybe I didn't do it correctly.  Anyway, keep up the great work.  I love this blog!  You take fantastic photos.  :)

Thank you Joshua for your comments.  You're right about nit-picky comment #1.  His shoulders are more in line with the top 1/3 than his eyes.  I knew that his eyes weren't directly on the line and that's why I used the word 'roughly'.  I find that the Rule of Thirds is great as a guide, however with a some of my portraiture I like to break the rules a bit and bring the eye level above the line to get rid of unwanted space around the head.  Depends on the picture though.

With nit-picky comment #2, allow me to explain why I think the Highland cows photo is symmetrical.  If you draw a horizontal line through the center of the photo and then draw a line from the left end of the center line to the right top corner, and then again from the left end of the center line to the right bottom corner, you will have created a triangle in the square frame.  The horns of the cows follow the top triangular line and the cows' feet follow the bottom triangular line.  -- Basically, there is horizontal symmetry in the photo.

Patterns and symmetry and indeed topics worthy of seperate sections.  In future intermediate and advanced posts I will seperate them.  For this post however, I just wanted people to start adding the element of design into their photography.

Thanks for nit-picking.  I love it.  I look forward to hearing from you in future posts!  ~Eric

This is in reply to JoshuaRose two comments below.

Very cool advice : )

Thank you Kim! I'm glad you like them!

Inly helps if uoi don't already know them! :) Still they are very good tips!

One of my goals as a photographer is to get as technically good as I am with concepts like composition. For me, it's almost instinctual, and I don't know if that has anything to do with my being an artist first. You explained things very well.  I have read explanations on the rule of thirds that weren't as clear.  You gave some great examples, which helps when trying to explain things in a way in which people can understand.  Keep it up.

This is a really great intro to photography post.  An excellent breakdown of the fundamentals for beginners, and a great refresher for those of us who know it but forget to remember it.  Two nit-picky comments, 1- the photo of the man standing on one side of the frame, you say his eyes are at the top horizontal 1/3 line, however it is his shoulders that are at that position.  2- the picture of the cows, at the angle you were at is not symmetrical, as you stated.  It is balanced, by weighting one side with the closest (and therefore largest) highland cow in the right third of the frame and balancing that with negative space ( the empty of focus landscape lacking cows) on the left third of the frame.  (You might have wanted to make it 6 points with patterns as it's own point and bundling symmetry and balance together.)

Wow!! I am in love with some of these shots!!!

Love it!

This tell me that I REALLY should take a photography class!

Great tips! Thanks so much!

I wish I lived in England so I could hire Eric - fabulous shots on your web site!

Thanks for all these tips! I hope I can remember them next time I'm taking photos and can improve my pictures!

Nice post. I like the third photo. The background was great. Thanks for sharing.