There are many visual tools in your artist’s toolbox which help create more striking visual narrative. One such toolset includes so called “compositional rules.”

Now, as I am not one for adhering to the rules, I prefer the verbiage ‘guidelines’ instead. So, that’s what we’re going to use from here on out.

By having a solid handle on these guidelines, we can prepare ourselves for whatever scenario we find ourselves in. As a documentary travel photographer, I often find myself in unfamiliar locations with little prep time. Of course I can (and do) research on potential photographic opportunities before arriving, but one cannot simply anticipate every thing - especially if one hopes to put their own unique voice into a travel photograph. With that in mind, having a mental lockbox of compositional guidelines to fall back on allows one to look at a location differently and with intention - and as all of my photography students can attest to, in my book, intention is everything.

Before we get to the guidelines, I want to explain how we will approach analyzing the example images. I’m going to talk a lot about “The Eye” and it’s movements. When you look at an image, try and pay attention to the route your eye takes while viewing. My grandma the talented painter once said to child-me, “the goal of a painter is to make The Eye go on a circular journey, never allowing it to leave.” That’s what you want in your photographs. You want The Eye to be free to move about the cabin frame in with ease.*

*Note: I am not one to speak in absolutes. There are times the artistic vision is to make a viewer feel cramped, frantic, uneasy, claustrophobic, etc. Knowing compositional guidelines, and when to not follow them will help in these situations.

I am also going to challenge you to rethink how you look at a scene. What I mean by that, is to not look at a landscape and see a grassy hill and tree. Instead, you should be seeing curves (the hill), strong lines (the tree and branches), softness (the grass on the hill), sharpness (the leaves on the tree). An easy way to get in to the habit of seeing differently in a scene is to unfocus you eyes (bonus points if all you have to do is remove your glasses) and just take note of the shapes and textures you’re seeing.

With all that out of the way, let’s have a look at some common and master-able compositional guidelines.