Author:: Scott Robert Lim

Tags:: Photography

Introduction

Composition = creating visual impact. Taking you to the heart of the story.

See your composition in shapes.

Put your subject inside the most obvious shape. (The “Scott Spot”)

A horizon creates two shapes

Don’t place heads on the border of a shape. Rather put them in the middle of the largest shape.

With a higher angle, you see more detail in depth: be a bird & shoot down.

Accentuate height with low angle: be a cat & see the world how a cat sees it. Especially when someone’s jumping.

No clutter behind heads.

Shoot through things to create depth.

With the sun as backlight, it doesn’t matter much how strong it is if the subject’s hair is dark.

“I love preparing my subject by counting off so she knows when to blink. You never know if you never get the chance to get that opportunity again, so make every shot count.”

**Get a routine for shooting, so you always get a variety. So for example do a cat first, then a bird.

When the subject is really small in the frame, make her bigger with her pose.

Foreground and background

Better composition is telling a better story, using both the foreground and background for that.

Have a line leading to the subject and leading away after.

Find something of significance in the foreground, something of significance in the background, and place the subject in the Scott Spot.

The sky is a key clean background.

Leading Lines

When your subjects are small, don’t let them look at the camera.

When subject don’t look at the camera, it tells a story.

Great model? Maximize your time by finding other photos without having her move much.

Creating your Scott Spot with light

You can completely underexpose an image and narrowly light so only the subject is viisble.

Repetitive highlight & shadow

Put the face towards the highlights (so face is brightest).

Subject bright, background shadow. With a longer lens you can compress it a bit more.

You are the subject’s mirror. Tell them when they’re doing something well.

Even in overcast weather with “even lighting,” you’ll see pockets of shadows.

Summary

You have creative control over the shapes in your environment.

Create the size of your shapes by changing perspective.

Learn to see shapes, train this everywhere you go

Shoot from all perspectives

Shoot in portrait and landscape (in portrait, you can fill you the frame with your subject eliminating composition, that’s too easy)

Practice now. Practice in ordinary places. Take all your average pictures around the house, so when you go to Paris you ’ll make amazing photos.

Use your phone if need be

There are a lot of shots you missed because you didn’t change your perspective

Look for the leading lines leading to the scott spot