This presentation covers ten easy compositional theories that will help you take better photographs.

1. 10 Compositional Theories of Still
Photography
“There is a vast difference between taking a picture
and making a photograph.” – Robert Heinecken

2. Rule of Thirds
Imagine a grid that
splits the frame into
thirds both vertically
and horizontally.
Place the subject
along those gridlines.
The intersections are
especially compelling
places to position
your subject.
Portrait of Tom Kobayashi at Manzanar (1943) Ansel Adams

3. Toward Los Angeles, California (1937) Dorothea Lange

4. Leading Lines
Lines that guide a
viewer’s eyes around,
or through, the
photograph.
Scanno (1953) Henri Cartier-Bresson

5. Monks Along the River Arno, Florence (1935) Alfred Eisenstaedt

6. Strong Diagonal
A form of a leading
line.
It can transform a
boring composition
into a dynamic one.
Female Welders, Gary, IN (1942) Margaret Bourke-White

7. In the Waiting Room of the Union Station (1943) Jack Delano

8. Point of View
Moving the camera
above, or below, the
subject can create a
more interesting,
dynamic photograph.
This is a good way to
transform an ordinary
subject into an
extraordinary picture.
Sisters of Charity (1956) David Moore

9. D-Day Landings (1944) Robert Capa

10. Framing
One way to make your subject
stand out is by finding and
using a natural frame within
the composition.
The frame helps draw the
viewer’s eye to the main
subject.
Framing can also be used to
create a sense of depth in a
photograph, or to provide a
context for the photograph.
Cabaret L’Enfer, Boulevard de Clichy, Paris (1952) Robert Doisneau

11. Paradise Garden (1946) W. Eugene Smith

12. Simplify
Try to eliminate
unnecessary items
from your
composition – they
will only distract the
viewer.
Sometimes, the most
simple of objects
make a beautiful
photograph.
Pepper (1930) Edward Weston

13. Self-Portrait Fay Godwin

14. Depth of Field
The distance within a
photograph that is in focus.
A shallow depth of field leaves
just a small portion of the
photograph in focus, while the
rest remains blurry.
Shallow depth of field can be
used to draw the viewer’s eye
to the main subject.
It also can compensate for a
distracting background.
Come Alice, Julia Margaret Cameron

15. A photograph taken with the macro function, producing a shallow depth of field.

16. Strong
Foreground
When taking a photo,
particularly landscape
photos, that have a
large depth of field, a
strong foreground
element can help
bring the viewer into
the photograph, as
well as provide a
sense of depth.
Canyon de Chelly (1904) Edward S. Curtis

17. Richard Nixon Leaving the White House (1974) Annie Leibovitz

18. Fill the Frame
It is not always
necessary for the
entire subject to be
included in the
composition.
Sometimes it is more
effective, and
interesting, to crop
the edges of your
main subject.
False Hellebore (1926) Imogen Cunningham

19. Samburu Elephants (2008) Michael Nichols

20. Active Space
It is important when
you are capturing a
photograph of an
action, that you leave
space between the
side of the frame and
the subject.
If you do not do this,
the picture will feel
unbalanced.
Walter Iooss Jr.

21. Walter Iooss Jr.

22. Walter Iooss Jr.

23. Tuskegee Airman (1945) Toni Frissell
What Principles
do you see?
1. Rule of Thirds
2. Leading Lines
3. Strong Diagonal
4. Point of View
5. Framing
6. Simplify
7. Depth of Field
8. Strong Foreground
9. Fill the Frame
10. Active Space

24. “Beauty can be seen in all things,
seeing and composing the beauty is
what separates the snapshot from the
photograph.”
– Matt Hardy