A Guide To Landscape Composition

[Goofup]

Disclaimer: I went to the local lake and popped off all these shots within an hour specificially just for composition examples here, ok? Also, I wrote this with the beginner in mind- for someone trying to get a handle on basic landscape composition.

To me, a beautifully exposed picture with bad composition is no different than a beautifully composed picture with bad exposure. But get both right and you got a winner!

There’s lots of Rules Of Composition. Using:

Leading lines. They lead the viewer’s eye down to you main subject.


S-curve. Another way to lead the viewer’s eye through your picture (sorry, best S-curve I could find at the time).


Color. Bright colors can be used as a focal point in an image. Reds, yellows, and even whites tend to stand out.


Geometric shapes (Now you know why some have a fascination with doors and windows).


Repetition. A repeating pattern also tends to guide the viewer through the picture.


Diagonals. They just have a more dramatic impact that pure horizontal or vertical lines.


But that’s not all! There’s the Golden Mean, the use of framing, selective focus, Golden Triangle, Golden Section, etc., more composition rules than you can snap a shutter at!

But the main one most photographers must be familiar with is the Rule Of Thirds. Or, to put it very simply, “Don’t center it!”. We’ve all seen the Rule Of Thirds grid- a couple of horizontal and vertical lines placed at 1/3 and 2/3 down and across the “canvas”:



The Rule Of Thirds simply says that what we should be doing is (usually!) placing the main horizontal or vertical lines of a picture on about one of those lines instead of the centerline. Why? I could go on and on about how man has studied good looking paintings in the past and found out they all pretty much had the same things in common, so we’ve come up with some “guidelines” for composition. Nice to know, but so what. All you need to know is: you need to use them whenever possible because they will just plain make your pictures look better!


The Horizontal Thirds Rule

To me there’s actually 2 “Thirds” Rules. One is for horizontal lines, one for vertical lines. we’ll get to the latter in a minute.

Here’s an example of the horizontal rule. It’s a shot where the thin strip of land splits the picture in half.



Yes, it’s dull, boring, no subject, horrid, I know- I took it on purpose that way so we could concentrate on composition. But it’s even more boring and dull and funny looking because the picture is split in half! Let’s move that shoreline up to the upper Thirds line (1/3 down from the top):



Better. Still a goofy picture that needs a boat or something in the water, but come on, it just looks “better“, doesn’t it? Let’s try the bottom Thirds line (2/3 down from the top.



Better. Now we’re accenting the sky more. Still a lousy picture, but it’s a better lousy picture cropped so the shoreline isn’t cutting it in half anymore. Get the idea?

Let’s get something a little bit more interesting to look at. Here’s shoreline cutting it in half, upper third, and lower third:







See how simple cropping (or better yet, framing in-camera!) can make a picture look?

Here’s another Rule Of Thumb for you that you probably won't see anywhere else: Look through the viewfinder. If what you see would look good as a painting, click the shutter. If not, try it a different way.

The Vertical Thirds Rule

On our Rule Of Thirds grid above there’s also a couple of vertical grid lines, about 1/3 and 2/3 over. Just as it works for horizons, shorelines, etc, the Rule Of Thirds also applies to vertical lines (buildings, standing people, trees, etc.)

Here’s a silly silo abandoned out in the middle of a field all by itself. Nothing special, but it will do for “teaching” shot. Here I centered it. (Yea, I know, power lines! You can handle it, right?)



See how “off” that looks? It ain’t right. Let’s move it over to the left to 1/3 line:



Better. Doesn’t look so “static” anymore. Let’s try the 2/3 line:



Just a simple cropping in this case made a big difference. You can do this Rule Of Thirds thing in post process, or, even better, do it in-camera when you take the shot.

Of course some of you Rebels out there thinking “But Rules are made to be broken!” Absolutely. The Rule of Thirds can be broken for effect, and once in a while it even works! It’s ok to break the rules, just be sure you’re breaking them for a reason- to make the picture better rather than just to be different.

For instance, the “horizon or shoreline splitting the picture in half” rule can, and usually should, be broken if there’s a reflection involved where the top half and bottom half are the same, like this one:



One other thing. We’ve discussed moving the horizional or vertical lines off center to the Thirds lines, but what about moving them even further than that, like real close to the edge of the picture? Usually that’s about as bad as centering. It just doesn’t work good. The viewer thinks something is cut off by mistake and wants to know what it is.

So no more centered pictures, right?
Good.

Further reading:
KODAK:Beginnings of Photographic Composition
Learn Composition

[New England Moments]

Doctor Goofup, OUTSTANDING JOB!! or Simply put, You Did Great! Great shots for samples!

[kenwae]

Excellent tutorial with very effective visual aids.

[Bodak]

Thanks for your efforts on this.

It's probably the only rule I really know or should that be, understand.

[notsotechie]

yes true its a good idea to follow rules but sometime we forget.
good info and tutorial.

[psguru]

Always good to go back to the basics. Good examples for the tutorial...

[Medowlark]

Really a nice job Goofup!!

[Carla_]

Thanks! I love the simplicity of those examples to show your point!

What about the old 'boring sky" issue? Is it okay to crop a plain blue or overcast sky and break the rule of thirds or would you just come back when there are a few clouds? Personally, I find it looks like something is missing when I put the skyline at the top of the photo to hide a boring sky. But then here in SoCal it's rare to find an interesting sky!

[Goofup]

First off I want to thank each of you for you kind comments! I had fun putting the guide together.

That's an interesting question, Carla. And the answer is "it depends!" I'm just thinking out loud here, ok, but if 1/2 of the picture is "boring sky", why wouldn't it be ok to crop it off? I say that because I'm assuming that you have an interesting subject (the city) that should take up roughly 2/3 of the picture, right? But, again, you don't have to strickly adhere to the Thirds Rule. If you think the picture looks better 1/2 sky and 1/2 city, that's ok. (Or cheat! Replace the sky! Tee hee).

[Fusion]

Good to follow the 'rules' but great when you get away with breaking them and it works. Well put together..

[Not4wood]

Very nicely explained, thank you.. We could actually keep posting the other composition rules as well.

Funny how you showed by example but there actually is a simple definition as to why. In nature there is absolutely nothing found that is equal equal. I've never seen it, but maybe theres a chance no matter how slim. Look at a tree or anything made by mother nature, do you see two leaves in a group or make that even numbers in a group? Or are they in groups of odd numbers? This would explain the 2/3's idea. Also, take a picture of 2 people in the center of your shot. Now, shoot the same shot either side using the 2/3's rule. But, try the same shot but with 3 people in it. Now, shoot a couple different ways, the first in the center and now try this one using the 2/3's rule and lets see how this works??

In art class, granted I haven't taken an art class since College days but we were always taught this to not make anything equal equal. Its more pleasant to the eyes.

[JDArt]

Very nice work.

[Paul Meusburger]

Hi all,
I am new to this site and would like to get your opinion about this composition. I live in Cape Town (South Africa) and took this picture with my 5D on a 24-105 mm lens. Should I change the sky?
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z.../CampsBay2.jpg

I apologize if I have posted on the wrong forum.

Paul

[Goofup]

Welcome to the Camel! I think the composition is fine, and I wouldn't change the sky.

[Paul Meusburger]

Thanks for your reply Goofup

[Will85]

very nice write up! things become second nature after a while and you dont have to think you just see

[morrow47]

I just found this thread, well put together, even I could follow. Thank you

[Kan Win]

Good post "Goofup",

and sorry, but I disagree sometimes with the “Rule Of Thirds”. Take this photo for instance



would you cut the top off the second tier of the clounds or the fisherman at the bottom?

or in the next photo what would you cut off



or



I try to show folks the "Full" picture and not “Rule Of Thirds” in me photos, but then each to their own.

Kan Win from Thailand

P.S. three photos are panoramic BTW

[Bozzzzz]

An interesting and thoughtful post done very nicely.

[cedric_r]

There is an old general post about composition that is partly relevant to landscape here.