DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

This simple composition advice will completely change your approach to taking photographs

Sep 30, 2021 by Alex Baker Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

The best kind of advice is usually the simplest, like “when spending time with others put your phone away” and “soggy cereal is never as good as last night’s takeaway curry so have the curry for breakfast.” In this latest video, Mark Denney tells us the “best composition advice he’s ever heard” and follows up by saying that it’s so simple that he wished he’d known this earlier.

Walk around a bit first and survey the scene before even getting your camera out start taking a mental inventory and ask yourself what do you love about this scene? What do you like about it and why do you want to point your camera at it? Maybe it’s the waterfall you’re looking at, maybe it’s the light, or the autumn leaves surrounding it. Maybe there are some interesting rocks, basically, the things that capture your eye. Mark even suggests that if you are out with other people you can all do this exercise together and you will most likely come up with different things that you like.

The second step really simplifies composition further. Mark is correct when he says that there are so many rules and tips and tricks out there that it can be a bit overwhelming trying to remember everything when you’re out there in the field, particularly for less seasoned photographers.

Once you have the things that you love from step one, you just put them together like pieces of a puzzle. You’re essentially taking the elements that you like from a scene and begin organising them in different ways. While he acknowledges that some things are out of your control, you can use your camera and the way that it sees to organise those elements. For example, you can get low to the ground, you can make the rocks in the foreground look more dominant in the image, you can compose to include a huge expanse of the sky and just a little sliver of land.

Mark says that he doesn’t usually use a tripod while he’s trying out different points of view, it’s only when he decides on a composition will he get the tripod out and commit to making that photograph, all the time keeping the list of things he loves in the back of his mind. Then when the puzzle is coming together that is when you can start making the minute changes that turn a good image into a great image.

This is a very easy and relaxed way to approach composition, particularly when faced with a huge sweeping landscape. It’s very easy to become overwhelmed and sometimes difficult to home-in on a few features that make the photograph. I will definitely be trying this tip next time I head outdoors with my camera.

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Are you struggling with your photography business? Perhaps you’re taking the wrong approach Nvidia’s new “computational zoom” tech lets you change composition in post A simple setup for taking fantastic snowflake photos Default ThumbnailTaking Multiplicity Photographs

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: composition, landscape photography tips, Mark Denney

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.net

About Alex Baker

Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

« Tamron officially announces new 35-150mm f/2-2.8 and 28-75mm f/2.8 G2 lenses for Sony E mount
Wondering who likes your photography? Who cares! »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Learn photography

Recent Posts

  • Sony unveils three wireless microphones for content creators
  • This is why you should stop shooting music videos
  • First look at the Laowa Proteus Flex interchangeable flare optics
  • The Fotodiox RhinoCam Vertex shoots medium format images on L mount cameras
  • San Francisco filmmaker tracks stolen camera gear, police do nothing

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy