Let your Gut be Your Guide to Composition

I’ve seen a tremendous amount of great art in my life, photographic and otherwise. The best touches something deep in me, something I generally have inadequate words for. Then there is a lot of art, or what passes for art, that leaves me cold. I see it, and I have no inner response, no desire to stay with it and keep looking.

When you’re out with your camera, notice your own response to your subject. Are you excited? Are you feeling drawn in? Or is your subject leaving you cold. If your subject doesn’t excite you, chances are it won’t spark something in too many others.

People ask me how I look for potential photographs. What’s the process?

I often look at the world as though I’m peering through a frame. As I’m looking, in my mind’s eye I have a rectangular frame around the subject, seeing what seems to fit together well, and what’s extraneous or distracting. And as I’m doing this, I’m keenly tuned into how I’m feeling, if something is exciting, or affecting me emotionally.

In some ways this inner frame I’m referring to is akin to a physical viewing frame. A viewing frame is a card with a rectangular hole cut out in the center which is the same ratio as your camera’s sensor or film. Ansel Adams and many others have advocated using this tool for gauging good composition.  (See excellent articles on this by Alan Ross and John Sexton.) I recommend taking it a step further and practice using your imagination as an internal viewing frame.

Once I see that something has potential, I like to walk around and see how the various parts of the image fit best together, and of course the qualities of the light. Sometimes there will be a distracting reflection, or an element that needs to be either more prominent, or out of the image all together. Moving around before setting up the camera will help clarify where the camera needs to be.

This quote from my great grandfather Edward Weston is one of my favorites, and encapsulates much of what I’m talking about:

“I start with no preconceived idea – discovery excites me to focus – then rediscovery through the lens – final form of presentation seen on ground glass, the finished print previsioned completely in every detail of texture, movement, proportion, before exposure – the shutter’s release automatically and finally fixes my conception, allowing no after manipulation – the ultimate end, the print, is but a duplication of all that I saw and felt through my camera.” – Edward Weston

It’s important to approach the subject with a mindset of creating a work of art. Everything is keenly felt and carefully considered.

My approach is to choose the camera position first, then the lens. The camera position determines the relationship of the various aspects and constituencies of the image. The focal length of the lens determines the cropping. And it’s nearly always best to crop with the camera, not later with software or an enlarger.  Cropping later is throwing away precious resolution. Why buy a camera with a large sensor, and then use only a small part of it?

I grew up in an era of using film, which was expensive. The ethos inherited from my family was one exposure per subject. And I worked that way for many years. It was important to place the camera right, calculate the exposure properly, and get that one image.

In some ways, digital photography has changed all that. When each exposure is essentially free of cost, now it makes sense to bracket not only the overall exposure, but depending upon the subject, sometimes depth of field specifically. And consider “bracketing” camera position as well. The aim is to come home with an outstanding capture of the subject that fills the frame with your subject, with the best possible camera position, and an exposure that gives you as much to work with as possible.

The downside of all this bracketing is that you can end up with a lot of images to cull through, so it’s best not to overdo it. Sometimes I see people making thousands of images, hoping that somehow magically one of them might be good. Less is more. Fewer images, well considered, yields results that are far more satisfying and easy to work with than the scattershot hopeful approach. As you are working with your subject, notice how it feels to view the subject from each position. Notice if there is a place that leaves you breathless. That’s your shot.

So take your viewing frame, and your camera, as well as the frame in your mind’s eye and your imagination, and see what emerges. Great imagery is more likely to come from your gut than your mind. Notice how it feels. I believe that is your greatest guide.