Minimalistics

COMPOSITION – BREAKING THE RULES

“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk…” Edward Weston.

It’s my belief that there are no rules of composition, just guidelines that are used by artists and designers to assist in the organization and creation of their work. And it is critical that a distinction is made between using them as rules and using them as tools. Even then they should be used with discretion, for when we start allowing guidelines to rule our work, images become predictable, which is not what photography is about.

There are times of course when guidelines are helpful, and there are times when they should be modified or ignored altogether. Although knowing when to ignore the guidelines requires experience. More experienced photographers will blend composition with personal interpretation – and sometimes with technical experimentation – to achieve highly creative imagery that goes beyond the rules and guidelines.

There are no formulae for this ability, just understanding. Reducing an art form to a mathematical formula is wrong because there are no rules that can guarantee a well-designed photograph, only thought and imagination. So, it’s up to the photographer to decide when to adhere to the guidelines and when to break them – but they can’t break or follow the guidelines, unless they know what they are.

The rules of composition were developed in Italy during the Florentine Renaissance by artists and for artists. And artists, as we know, can shift viewpoint, omit distractions, add in buildings that were not originally in the scene, without even having to move out of their studio. So likewise, unless a photographer is working in studio conditions where they have total control over every element of the image, the photographer is limited to what presents itself to the camera – and how.

The difficulties of this can arise in street photography, for instance, when there is little opportunity to compose according to the rules, although it may be possible to later modify the photograph by cropping. In this genre, the photographer is working to a different guideline – capture the moment – and it’s that moment that caught the photographer’s attention and caused them to shoot the image in the first place. And it’s at that moment that the intuitive feeling for composition comes from within; although it takes practice and experience, but eventually photographers get to know when it’s right.

The reality is that the way to shoot images that work is to virtually forget about the rules and use your instinct. You can always use the rules to explain why a picture works after taking it.

So in conclusion, you can either be traditional and nurture the rules, or be an innovator. If it’s the latter that you aspire to, then break the rules like you mean it and take photographs that blatantly break all the rules. And work.