So what do you think when someone says 'Composition'?
Do you think of the old masters paintings like the Mona Lisa, do you think of stories, writing types or something completely different?
As a photographer, I think of the 'rules'. There are so many rules, do this, don't do that, turn around three times with a spoon in your ear. For new photographers and artists, the rules can be a huge stumbling block to creativity, on the other hand they can be liberating, freeing the newbie from having the stress of failed pictures due to a poor composition.
There are roughly two main compositional rules.The rule of thirds is pretty much the easiest rule to grasp for the new photographer and we'll discuss this in the next post, the golden spiral rule it similar to the rule of thirds but is a little more esoteric and takes a lot longer to grasp fully.
- The Rule of Thirds.
- The Golden Spiral.
There is one other rule, but it is for landscape photographers mainly. It is called the rule of fifths, we will touch on that later on in this particular series subsection.
So what exactly is composition?
Composition
Com`po*si"tion\, n. [F. composition, fr. L. compositio.]
1. The act or art of composing, or forming a whole or integral, by placing together and uniting different things, parts, or ingredients. In specific uses: (a) The invention or combination of the parts of any literary work or discourse, or of a work of art; as, the composition of a poem or a piece of music. "The constant habit of elaborate composition." --Macaulay. (b) (Fine Arts) The art or practice of so combining the different parts of a work of art as to produce a harmonious whole; also, a work of art considered as such. See 4, below. (c) The act of writing for practice in a language, as English, Latin, German, etc. (d) (Print.) The setting up of type and arranging it for printing.
- Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.




