Tom Clark: Digital Photography Composition For Dummies

Studying What the Eye Sees

Your eyes are extremely sophisticated lenses that have the ability to refract light focused onto your retina and interpret it into image-forming signals. Understanding how the eye works and how people see helps you create compositions that show a scene in the way you want people to see it. Your camera and lens were designed to work in a similar way to your eyes, so understanding one helps to understand the other.

You have the option to limit what viewers see or you can reveal everything — it simply depends on your message. When approaching a scene, your eyes scan the area and find certain elements that stand out to you. By noticing these elements, you can figure out what's significant about a scene and why it's worth photographing, and then you can determine how to relay those important elements to other people.

When you look at an object, it's the only thing you see clearly; everything else is out of focus and lacks detail because your eyes set a focus point based on distance. If two objects are at separate distances, you can focus on only one at a time. Figure 2–1 shows how your eye sees and why only one thing can be in focus at a time.

Your eyes are easily distracted because they have to constantly focus on the various elements of a scene in order to take in the whole picture. So once an element is recorded and understood visually, your eyes move on to the next element. When you've looked at all the elements in an area, you have a general idea of what the entire scene looks like even though you only can focus on one element at a time.

Figure 2–1:The human eye focused at different distances.

The following sections outline the different things your eye focuses on when you look at a scene.

Contrast

When you first glance at a particular scene, the first thing you notice is whatever sparkles or stands out the most. Contrast is what causes something to stand out to your eye; it's the difference in visual properties among objects that are close to each other in proximity. In the visual sense, contrast is created by tonal differences (blacks and whites, shadows and highlights, darkness and lightness, and so on) and complementary colors that reside on opposite sides of the spectrum. For more about contrast, check out Chapters 6 and 10.

The area in a scene with the most contrast most likely grabs your eye's attention first. The same concept applies to composition. A viewer of a photograph is naturally and instinctively drawn to the area of the image with the most contrast. When that area also happens to contain your subject or other information relevant to your message, your composition begins to make sense.

distance

The eyes can focus on only one particular distance at a time. So, in order to take in all the information surrounding you, your eyes scan the area and your brain puts the information together. This way, even though you can see only one element at any given time, you still know what other elements exist, so you have a good idea of where you are and what's going on.

A person views your photographs in a similar way. Her eyes go to the area that stands out as having the most contrast, and then she scans the rest of the image to see what the whole story is about, examining everything in the frame. Creating a good composition means leading the viewer to specific areas that support and complement your message.

Patterns

Patterns stand out to your eyes as visual elements. Even in chaotic scenes, you can spot a pattern if it exists. Because they contain repetitive elements, patterns tend to have a visual significance and draw attention. A pattern's visual significance can be used to your advantage when composing a photograph. It has the ability to draw a viewer's attention or to lead his eyes to your subject.

For example, as you look down the hallway in a hotel, the doors all look the same, but they gradually appear smaller in the distance until they lead your eyes to the end of the hallway. (You can find more information on using patterns in your compositions in Chapter 4.)

Relationships between subjects and supporting elements

When you come across a scene, you determine what your subject will be by deciding what you think is the most important or visually striking element present. Some photographers see things differently from one another and may create images with different messages. For instance, when you see a family eating Thanksgiving dinner, you may think the person who's carving the turkey is the subject. Another photographer may think the turkey itself is the subject. A third photographer may think the empty bottles of wine in the background should become the subject.

Because the subject is your main focus in a composition, you place your lens's focal point on the subject when you take an image. By placing your focal point on your subject, you're instructing viewers to look at that area primarily. (For information on how to manipulate your focal point, head to Chapter 3, and for more on using focus as a compositional tool, see Chapter 7.)

Other areas in your composition may contain details that reveal important information about your subject based on your message. These are known as supporting elements in a scene. After you know what your subject is, you can determine what your supporting elements are based on what you see to help tell the story of your subject. Say, for example, you're photographing a leaf falling from a tree. If your viewers can see other leaves lying on the ground, they know this isn't the first leaf to fall from the tree. And if they see other leaves still on the tree, they know this one leaf won't be the last to fall. However, if the ground were covered with leaves and the tree was bare, this falling leaf would produce a different story. You determine what your supporting elements are (and what you will include in your photograph) based on what you want to say about your subject.

You don't want the supporting elements to stand out more than your subject, but you do want them to be apparent enough to draw attention on a secondary level. A good composition draws a viewer in to the subject and then leads her to the supporting elements in the most visually appealing way. Attention to this type of detail is important for making your message as effective as possible.

I took Figure 2–2 during a fashion editorial shoot based on urban camping in Miami. The model, who's the subject, is shown as if she's trekking through the city like a hiker would hike through the wilderness. She wears a hiker's pack, so you get the idea that she's hiking; however, the supporting elements tell you where she's hiking. One look at this image and you know that she isn't in the wilderness. The texture of the ground in the foreground and the bridge overhead confirm that the hiker is in an urban environment. The river, a supporting element, is important in this image because it makes a connection to hiking in the backwoods (hikers typically stay near a water source when going on long journeys through the wilderness).

50mm, 1/60 sec, f/4,400

Figure 2–2:A subject surrounded by elements that support her story.

The relationships, both physical and suggested, between your subject and the supporting elements in a scene help clarify your message. Here are some examples:

" Two elements side by side appear to be equals in a composition; one element in front of another appears to be more important in the composition than the element behind it.

• Sometimes taking out one element makes another element unnecessary to your message.

I•»" An element that stands out (such as a red umbrella in a sea of blue ones), becomes more significant and changes your message.