10 Composition Rules in Photography for Better Photos

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🇻🇳 Đọc bằng tiếng Việt

1. Frame Within a Frame – Framing

 
 
 
 
This is a creative way to add a foreground to your photo. Use the objects around you to create a virtual frame for the subject in your photo. This technique is one of the great ways to make a photo more appealing and make it really stand out from other photos.
 
 
 
 

This photo uses silhouettes to create a virtual frame around the Taj Mahal.

Frames don’t have to be perfect or symmetrical; they can be natural, like the 2 trees in this photo.
 

2. Fill the Frame

When you think you are close enough to the subject, try moving even closer. You will get another composition/photo by filling the empty space in the frame with the subject

 
Moving closer and filling the frame with the wolf’s head puts more emphasis on the wolf and adds drama/meaning to the photo. The 2 photos above show the same wolf, but the content of each photo is completely different.

3. Foreground

Most photos devote the larger part to the middleground and background and a small part to the foreground. You can make landscape photos much more beautiful and striking by adding a foreground and placing a few subjects in it. This is one of the skills used to create a sense of scale and depth in a photo, and it sometimes makes viewers feel as if they are inside the photo.

The rocks in this landscape photo give viewers a sense of depth and the scale of the space.

 
Adding a foreground to the photo makes you feel as if you are there.

4. S curve

An S curve is an imaginary S-shaped line in a photo. This kind of composition makes photos look more interesting by leading the viewer’s eye along the imaginary S line in your photo. The S curve can also be used in posing to make the model more expressive

An example of a highway with an S curve.

Another photo of a highway, but it does not look as lively as the one above because it has no S curve

The S curve can also be applied in posing. The earliest examples of the S curve can be seen in sculptures from ancient Greece and Rome.

5. Leave Space – Lead Room

Lead room is the empty space in front of the subject (in the direction the subject is facing). This tip is often used together with the rule of thirds to make photos more appealing. By leaving space in front of the subject, you make viewers feel that the subject is moving into that space.

The snowboarder is placed in the upper third with lead room in front of him, which puts the emphasis on him and gives the feeling that he is flying toward the empty space in the photo

The lead room in front of the runner makes the photo feel more action-packed/active. It also draws the viewer’s attention to the sunset

Leaving the space behind her in the photo gives the feeling that the girl is about to finish her run.

6. Rule of Thirds

This rule is one of the most effective and popular methods used in photo composition. You can easily improve the composition of your photos with this rule, because the human eye naturally notices these points when looking at a photo. According to this rule, a photo becomes more captivating when you place the main subject you want to emphasize at one of the four intersections of an imaginary 3×3 grid over the frame.

In this photo, the boat is placed at the lower-left third point, which draws attention to the boat and makes the photo look more interesting.

When shooting portraits, you can use this rule to put more emphasis on the eyes. Simply by placing the eyes or the eye area at the third points according to this rule, you can get striking portraits.

7. Put the Main Subject in the Center – Centering

Placing the subject in the center of the photo creates balance. This tip works best with simple photos that have only a few subjects.
A driller in the center of the photo puts the emphasis on him, and the photo is more striking thanks to the clean space around him.

In this photo, a simple network cable connector becomes interesting just by placing it in the middle of the photo

8. Simplification

The best way to give a photo a stronger focal point is to take a photo that looks simple. The easiest way to do this is to limit the number of subjects in your photo. You can use tip 2 to blur out details that distract the viewer.

Simplicity makes the meaning of this photo clear, draws attention and makes viewers spend more time on the photo.

9. Limit the DOF – Limiting the Focus

Limiting the depth of field (DOF) of a photo is an easy way to strengthen its focal point. This technique may not be necessary for every photo, but it is useful when you want to draw attention away from subjects you want to hide. The most common use of this technique is blurring the background. Blurring the background makes busy backgrounds calmer. You can minimize the DOF in your photos by using a lens with a wide aperture (for example F1.8), zooming in close (for example a 70-200 zoomed to 135 or 200), or using cameras with large sensors (such as full-frame DSLRs)

If the trees in the background were in focus, they could distract the viewer from the main subject of the photo. By blurring the background, this photo puts the emphasis on the young couple.

Blurring the background leads the viewer’s attention to the eyes of the person in this photo

10. Rule of Odds

Put simply, the “rule of odds” means having an odd number of subjects or objects in your photo. Your photo can have one, 3, 5… subjects. This rule makes the photo more appealing and interesting to the viewer.

This photo with four strawberries looks rather bland and dull. It is hard to find the focal point of the photo.
 

A similar photo with only 3 strawberries, but the odd number of strawberries makes the photo look much more interesting.