P#5 Q#6: What Are The Secrets Of Great Photo Composition?

Make an emotional investment in your photo composition

Rob Sheppard: I don't know if they're secrets or not, but I think the one thing that can really help people is when you really care about a subject. I think that's important. I think that you should care about your subject.

I used to say that -- and I think it's still true -- to get a really good photograph of a subject, you really need to fall in love with that subject in some way.

One time, years ago, I had a workshop with a photographer who really had something interesting to say. He was a very, very fine commercial photographer, well known for a lot of the work that he did.

He felt there was no such thing as a poor subject. He thought there were only poor photographs because somebody didn't try to make a good photograph of that subject. (I think sometimes there are some subjects that aren't all that great, they're hard to deal with anyway.)

I think it can be so helpful to instead of saying, "Oh, I love this subject," and just start shooting pictures is to pause for a second and say, "You know, what is it that you love about this subject?"

After awhile, this becomes more intuitive but you kind of say, "What is it that really makes me excited about this subject?" There always can be something.

Or, "What is it about this subject that I can find that is interesting and that I can love about it?"

Even a subject that you don't care about as much, a lot of times you start walking around and you say, "You know what, I like the light, I like the texture. There are some interesting shapes here in a close-up," or whatever it is.

Then you use that care for your subject to influence how you take the picture. In other words, what you're doing is you're not simply taking, again, a picture of the subject but you're finding something within it that is special and unique, and finding a way to capture that through your pictures.

That means you really have to focus. I think one thing that happens is that a lot of photographers simply focus on capturing the subject. They like the subject and they just make sure it's within their viewfinder. They line it up and it's there.

I used to say that people used to use focusing that used to be in film cameras as targeting devices, you know, the circles and stuff. That's the problem if you start doing that but what you want to do is truly look at the subject and say, "What makes this interesting, and how can I create a photograph that will highlight those features, those things from the subject?"

You're focusing not simply on the subject but you're focusing on what it is that you care about on the subject, and finding a way to put that into the photograph.

What's really important about this is that you must look at that LCD, and then look that and say, "Did this photograph capture that?"

What I see happening is a lot of times people look at the LCD and say to themselves, "Did this photograph capture the subject?" That's not what I'm saying. Instead ask: "Did this photograph capture what is really special?" and look to see if it's there.

In summary

A great way to add interest to your photo composition is by examining what it is about your subject that appeals to you -- what you love -- before you start shooting. Then highlight those features. There may be no poor subjects, only poor photographs.