Observation and Composition Ep 4: How to build a photograph from start to finish

Great photographs are built through a sequence of decisions. Structure, rules, and techniques only matter insofar as they serve intent.

In this final part, we look at how to put everything together and create compelling images. 

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Transcript

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Okay, well, hello again, and welcome to the final part of this four-episode arc looking at composition, combining observation and composition to produce really powerful images. And in this final episode, we're going to look at how we basically build a photograph from start to finish. So hopefully you'll enjoy that and you'll stay with me. If you do, please remember to like and subscribe, all the usual stuff. You're welcome to buy me a coffee and even check out the online courses. Okay, so the bottom line here is that great photographs are built through a sequence of decisions, and that's really what I've been trying to take you through in the previous episodes. So there's structure, there's rules, their technique, they only matter or they're only applicable to a certain point. Um, but beyond that becomes intent and commitment. So that's what we're really interested in here. So we've looked at rules of composition, but the fact is that some of the most powerful photographs break every one of these rules of composition, and they work because the photographer knew exactly what they were doing when they took the photograph. So if you think of strong images, often they're described as being natural or effortless, but the reality is that they're the result of a lot of very small choices, and I've taken you through a good number of them over the last um three, four weeks. So intent is the difference between a photograph that feels resolved and one that feels lucky. So you know, we all have luck, but you want to if you want to produce things continuously, maintain the standard, then you need to understand what you're doing. So I am going to take you through how to build a photograph deliberately from first glance to final frame. So what we've looked at so far is in episode one, it was learning to basically observe to see what's there. In episode two, we focused more on failure, the kind of things that or mistakes to make that will trip you up. Last week we looked at eye movement and how you once you begin to understand what drives the eye, you can begin to use that so that you guide the eye through the particular image. And this episode is much more about commitment. So this is about moving from noticing possibilities to actually choosing a direction. So scene gives you options, intent turns one option into a photograph, and that's the important thing here. So the first thing I want to talk about is the myth of rules. So I have spoken about some rules, and they're useful as teaching shortcuts, they're useful as guardrails, I suppose, against chaos. They're useful when you don't really know yet what you want, so they provide a level of structure. However, they fail when because they flatten emotional range, they tend to reward predictability and they encourage imitation over decision making. So, for example, with the photography that I teach, I will teach anyone how I shoot the way I do. But my intention is not to have them mimic me or try and be another version of me because that doesn't work, and frankly, the version of me changes all the time, anyway. So that that really wouldn't work. So the important thing is to really develop your own style, it's about learning to make decisions, and as you do that, you'll get other ideas, you'll become more creative, even if you don't think you're creative right now. It generally is quite a short step from being non-creative to being creative, and I think also you'll enjoy it a lot more. So I think this is really powerful. So, I mean, you know, examples of this are dismissing centered subjects as wrong. So I'll often use that as an example of what most people do because I think it's a reasonable comment. But does that mean that I don't shoot photographs with centered subjects? No, it doesn't, because sometimes there's a real power in having your subject in the center of the frame. Um, avoiding empty space, that's classic. Because if you've been listening, you'll know that I view empty space as a really powerful element in photographs, particularly when you start looking at the psychology of it from the viewer's perspective. Um, another one is defaulting to thirds even when symmetry or imbalance is stronger. So, in other words, by all means use the rule of thirds as a way of stepping into a creative environment and doing something you hadn't doing done before, but it is certainly not the end of the journey, and there are certainly times when you will take a step back again because that's more appropriate for the image that you're creating. So, I think the thing to remember here is that rules describe what often works, but it doesn't describe what must work because for a given situation, different things will be appropriate. So, how do we look at structure positively? So, helpful structures are definitely there. We've got rule of thirds, there's symmetry and balance, there's frame within a frame, there's foreground, mid-ground, background um uh combinations, looking at those, there's leading lines, there's lots of other things that you can do with your composition, and I haven't covered all of these, but they're certainly all there. And the reason that they're useful is that they tend to simplify the early decisions when you're starting to work out what the options are, and they help you to organize the visual weight of the frame. So you might try something that's, for example, rule of thirds, but it doesn't feel quite right, or um you're trying to get that foreground, mid-ground, background balance, and it's just not happening the way that you've previously done it. They prevent accidental chaos. So obviously, this is about being deliberate in how you're putting a photograph together. So you do want to avoid chaos. This is about planning, it's not about luck. But the critical distinctions that come into play here are that the structure should support the subject. So that example I gave, or that I mentioned, of having the subject dead center, uh, the one that's in my mind is the portrait I took of a lion, a young male. He was definitely aggressive, and there was a lot of power in his eyes, and I wanted that right and center because that's that's where I wanted people looking. And remember, the subject should never exist only to satisfy the structure. So structure is there to support the subject, but it's not the other way around. And you might start with the structure and you might decide it just doesn't work. The next thing is to choose the emotional outcome. So I spoke about um different types of construction, so calm, tense, dynamic, that kind of thing. So these are the questions to ask. Do I want this image to feel calm? Do I want it to feel tense? Do I want it to feel dynamic? You know, what is it you're that you're trying to convey? What's the image that the emotion you're trying to convey to the viewer? How do you want them to feel when they look at that image? So remember, when you're making that first decision, that will change other decisions. So when you're looking for a calm outcome, you're looking for balance, you're looking for containment, you're looking for stillness. If you want to build more tension into the shot, you're looking for imbalance, you're looking for pressure, you're looking at unresolved edges, you're looking at uh an asymmetrical uh composition. And if you're looking at a dynamic image, something with movement in it, you're looking at flow, you're looking at rhythm, you're looking at controlled movement. So the important point here is that emotion isn't something that you just add on later in post-processing, it's actually fully built into the composition. This is about composition with intent. This this is what it's all about. So when does breaking structure work better? So uh, first of all, if you're thinking about centering for strength or calm, that can be really helpful. So that could be in portraits, minimal scenes, or symmetry. If you want to particularly emphasize symmetry, there is something reassuring about symmetry. So putting your subject in the center when you want to convey a sense of calm with the image is a great way of doing that. If you want um empty space, that could be from ocean, that might be loneliness, it could be scale, you might have a lot of empty space. I remember a photograph I took of an elephant in South Africa, and it was on the other side of a valley, actually, and it was very, very small, and elephants you think of as big. But I really wanted to try and put that elephant in context with its environment and sort of point out that within the context of its environment, it's actually quite a small, it's an individual, it was on its own, so you can start to build in those kind of feelings. So you've got loneliness scale, there might be anticipation, but you let the space speak louder than the detail. That image that I just described is much more about the space. Um, in fact, there's a if if you watch the Titanic film, the um James Cameron movie, uh, there's a long shot where you've got the ship in the ocean, but it's really small in the ocean. And it to me, that particular shot where you've got a very small subject in a large um context, was speaking about vulnerability. Obviously, I knew what was going to happen, but that to me, that was what it conveyed to me. Suddenly, this huge ship that was um you know ahead of its time in many ways uh was suddenly seemed very vulnerable. So these are the kind of things to go for. Now, another thing you can do is tilt or create imbalance for energy, so that might lead to motion, conflict, instability. Again, you need to experiment with these things. You can let the subjects exit the frame, so that can be implied movement, put the story behind the image. So I've given examples of that before, and look at an openness rather than closure, so an open kind of frame where things could freely move in and out rather than something contained. So all of this is about breaking structure and it works when it supports the intent. So this is all about the intent of the frame. What is the result that you're going for? What are you shooting for with the people who are looking at the image? So uh I'm gonna take you through a very simple build from scratch framework, and this is the basically the decision-making process. Now you might need to practice this a bit because there are six steps. Um, but when you're looking at a subject, when you're thinking about taking a photograph, the first question is what caught my attention? Um, I've used a sort of shorter version of this, excuse me, in other um composition webinars I've done and and uh workshops. But the first question is what caught my attention? Second question, what am I actually trying to say? So I something's caught my attention. What am I trying to say about it? Third question, where do I want the eye to enter the frame, move and settle? So, what's the visual journey? What's the journey that the eye will take when it encounters this photograph? And then once you decided on where you want the eye to enter, move and settle, what supports that path? That's question four. What supports that path? And then number five, it's to do a check, what competes with it? Do I have competing elements? Do I need to think about reframing, changing position, changing light, changing setting, whatever it might be? And then what happens if I remove or change one element? Will that make the overall image more powerful? Or will it take away from the story? So the point about this is that this is something that you need to practice. You might not use exactly those questions that you don't have to use these, but this is essentially the flow. These are the important elements of the image and the important aspects, the important elements of intent that you need to be clear about before you press the shutter button. So the goal is clarity, it's not perfection. So ultimately, we can get away with images not being technically correct, um, but they can be really, really powerful, and that's what we're going for. So, what's the difference between being intentional or intentional images and accidental images? Well, accidental images are in the it just happened bucket. Um if you're not sure if you've done this or not, if you find yourself defending your choices after the fact, then I would say that's more likely to be an accidental composition than a deliberate one. And if you're relying on either cropping or explanation to tell the story, then yeah, you've kind of uh missed a boat there a little bit. Intentional compositions can be explained simply again. Keep it to it's just one sentence, keep it really simple. They feel resolved, even when they're unconventional. The the thing as a as a whole it feels like it has integrity, there's incompleteness to it. It doesn't need justification, it stand it stands on its own merits, it stands alone. So the thing to remember here is if you can explain it, you probably uh meant it, and that's what we're shooting for. You want to be intentional. Um, you're gonna mess up from time to time, you all do, that's fine. Uh, but do be intentional about it. And then once you've if you've tried a particular um composition and it hasn't worked, because you know what the steps were that you took, you know what to change next time or where to begin to experiment. You'll know which questions uh which answers worked for which questions and which ones didn't. So I am gonna suggest um an exercise for you to finish with. So find a simple scene and take one photograph using a familiar structure, so whatever you're used to, it might be rule of thirds, whatever it might be. And then take a second photograph and deliberately break that structure. So do something that is completely not that structure. So, I mean, rule of thirds is a good example, I guess, where you ideally have your focal point on one of the four crossover points or one of the uh four lines, or pop it down in the bottom left-hand corner, right in the corner and see what happens. Or, you know, wherever else, whatever takes your fancy, but be you know, break that um structure, step out of the structure. And I I also say to people, you know, the important thing is rules are there to be broken, and good photographers will break the rules, but the important thing is you need to know which rule you've broken, and that builds consistency. If you accidentally break a rule and you don't actually quite know what you did, then that's not consistency, you're that's just luck. So, with those two photographs, I just want you to look at the emotional impact of the two, look at the eye movement that you have. So I gave you an exercise for that last time, and just ask yourself what feels more honest, which is the more honest image. Might might be the might be the one, might the rule of thirds one, you don't know. But this is the point to just experiment. And frankly, this is in my opinion, one of the key things about photography. It's about continually experimenting. I've been doing this for half a century, and I'm still learning, I'm still experimenting, and I, you know, when I stop doing that, I think I'll stop photography because that to me is what it's all about. Okay, so the final thought I would like to leave you with is that composition isn't about following rules, it's about choosing on purpose how someone experiences your photograph. And it's about the emotional connection as much as anything else that they have with that photograph. So that is it for this um four part arc. I hope you found it useful, interesting. There are some things there to go and try. I will be back on Friday with something new. And um, until then, please remember to like, subscribe, buy me coffee, do whatever. And uh I will see you on Friday. Bye for now.