For now we have suspended Club Meetings at Caulfield Photographic Society whilst we monitor the unfolding COVID-19 crisis. Club Competitions are continuing under modified conditions. In the interim, we thought we would stimulate your creativity on Composition. We’ve heard of the rules, the most prominent of which is the rule of thirds. There are many more, such as The Golden Ratio, Leading Lines, always leave enough space for a moving object to move through the image, odd numbers are better that evens with 3 being the perfect number; Landscapes must have a foreground, middle ground and background; and many more. Following these rules will give you great results, but of course rules are meant to be broken. For each rule, there are great images that break the rules. We encourage you to revisit composition. An image can be technically perfect, but needs a good composition to hold the viewers attention. Examine each rule, then challenge yourself to take photos within each rule and then break them.

Adobe Lighroom and other editing programs have features that allow you do toggle through different composition guidelines, so see if any suits your image. Try these out on your images.

One of the Crop Guides Available in Adobe Lightroom. Image courtesy of Linda Donald

Have a look at the following resources to get you started on your journey:

Digital Photography School: Beginners Composition

And now to Break the rules, PhotographyLife: Breaking the rules