Creating better Compositions
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I look at photographs all day long. Some good, some…less good, and some are simply AMAZING! When I start to analyze each type of image and why they “work” (or don’t), the distinguishing factor is almost always the same: The Composition.
Some images can be misleading. Bright colors, heavy saturation or striking imagery can make an image resonate with you emotionally, for a moment, but usually that feeling is temporary, and you and your eyes move on. A strongly composed image locks you into it and holds you. Your eyes wander, you feel a range of responses, and at the end of the day, a well composed image is probably one you would rather hang on your wall than a color blast of indiscriminate shapes. How does one sift these tricky eye candy images and distill them down to compositional truth? Easy. Black and white can’t lie.
Looking at an image in black and white (or grayscale) will strip away all the distractions and expose (no pun intended) the compositional quality of the image. Try this for yourself. Find a photograph (or painting) and change the image to black and white (you probably have a B&W filter on your smartphone). How does the native image look? How does it make you feel? Is it “good”? Now turn it to black and white. Does it still have the same strength? Does it still please your eye? If so, it probably has good composition. If not, it may have been getting by on peripheral merits.
“How does this help you?” You ask. This process is the secret to creating good compositions in your photography and cinematography. You don’t have to start shooting everything in B&W, but certainly pass it through your B&W filter if you are not sure about the strength of your composition. Why does this work?
I don’t want to get into the long and (boring) history of how mankind went from caves to paintings to B&W photography to color photography. You will need to take my word in this case. This is how our visual language has “evolved,” and it is rooted in how our brains interpret information at a primal level. You can learn about it here Eye and Brain and A Thousand Brains. Or, you can trust me, and we can move on to the primary reason this process works:
Value and Contrast
These tandem aspects of design are key to creating strong and meaningful compositions that will appeal to viewers at a fundamental level.
- Value: The range of light and dark areas of an image. Think of value as being a scale from white to black. A complex image has a broad range of gray in between white and black.
- Contrast: Describes the amount of gray between the lightest point and the darkest point in an image. High contrast images have many gray steps between the lightest and darkest points. A low contrast image has a narrower value range.
I have taken a few pictures to demonstrate value and contrast range.
Notice how each image uses the typical compositional tools. Yet, the first two look flat and less interesting.
When all the elements in an image are in the same value range, this tends to flatten out the image.
The yarn, the tablecloth and the excess of light from back and top all make the image’s value range less dynamic. A similar approach flattened out the elk. The darker table top, curtain and flat overhead lighting all contribute to a dark, flat image. The headphones were photographed with three light sources, with a middle range curtain, a dark cloth underneath the two-tone headphones. This combination of elements with different light and dark characteristics help to make a higher contrast image with a broad value range.
How can this help you with your photographs?
Understanding value and contrast can help you by:
- Controlling where your viewers’ eyes are led to in an image.
- Using a restricted value range can also create mood in a photo.
- High contrast images are typically more visually interesting.
Now, it is your turn
Try experimenting with value. Right click on the value range scale image here.
Save a copy to your computer. Use the scale to estimate the value range of your photographs.
Set up some simple photos and try to make;
- A low range, bright (high-key) photo like the yarn image.
- A low range, dark (low-key) photo with a similar value range to the elk picture.
- A high contrast image like the headphone picture.
I suggest you use controlled conditions, indoor with your own lights or some window light, simple stuff is good to photograph. (There is a whole branch of photography where you can get paid to take pictures of household stuff. It’s called product photography. If you can make a simple ball of yarn look interesting, think of what you could photograph for payment!) Try NOT to do any image adjustments. Once you have taken a photo of each value scale image, I would love to see your results. You can share your photos with me in the comments.
Stripping away unnecessary distractions and focusing on making better compositions is a fun and worthwhile exercise to help you understand value and improve your photographic compositions. For some great examples of this approach in action, checkout these books.
Roger A. Deakins’ photography book, Byways, is an exemplar of black and white photography with emphasis on composition and visual storytelling. If you would like to dive deeper into the canon of black and white photography, you may enjoy Ansel Adams’ The Camera. Adams demonstrates and explains photography in the context of black and white image capture. He writes about film (cellulose) photography, but the principles of the book are completely transferable to our modern day media.
