P#5 Q#2: What's The Single Biggest Thing A Beginner Can Do To Improve Their Photo Composition?

Improving your photo composition by using your camera's LCD

Rob Sheppard: Let's continue on a little bit on what we were just talking about because I think that that whole mindset really is a big deal.

One of the things I think has helped the amateur a lot is if he or she really looks a photograph in terms of the light. I know that you know that expressions, "You need to see the light," it's kind of cliché.

But yet, that's really important and until you can see the light on the subject and what's going on, you're going to have trouble because light can be both flattering to a subject, but it can also be really bad on a subject. It can make your subject stand out and it can obscure your subject so the subject starts to disappear.

Because light is so important, you could spend a lot of time studying it. You could spend the time trying to figure out about all the different kinds of light, there are whole books that have been written on it, and so forth.

Again, going back to the idea of using the LCD, very often, just by looking at the LCD and not now looking at your subject, not thinking subject but looking at the LCD and thinking photograph.

And you think, "All right, what's the light doing to my subject? Is it helping the subject? Is it hurting the subject? Does it make the subject look better? Does it make it look worse? Or is the light actually making it hard to see the subject?"

What really helps is that little LCD actually. Many people say, "Gee, the LCDs are small, even the big ones, they're still not that huge and you can't see everything." In a way, that helps you see the light better because if you can't see your subject well in that little LCD, then there's probably a reason why and it's probably because of the light -- because the light is not doing something to the subject to make it stand out or the light is to harsh, or the light just...

There are a lot of things that can cause problems. Light is one thing that can be really, really helpful. Paying attention to that light and paying attention to what the light is doing to the actual photograph by looking at it in the LCD I think can really help a photographer improve their pictures.

In conclusion

There's a reason whole books have been written about light and photo composition. Pay attention to what the light is doing to your subject -- is it flattering the subject, or obscuring it?