What is Composition?
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the art of photographic composition, exploring how photographers strategically arrange visual elements to create compelling images. It introduces the concept of composition as both an art and a science, emphasizing its importance in photography. The script highlights the work of Dutch painter Vermeer, known for his masterful compositions, and uses his paintings to illustrate key compositional rules like the 'rule of thirds.' It also outlines fundamental elements of design, including lines, shapes, color or tone, texture, form, value, and space, which photographers use to craft their shots. The lesson aims to equip viewers with the knowledge to enhance their own photography by understanding and applying these compositional principles.
Takeaways
- 📸 Composition is a crucial aspect of photography, involving the arrangement of visual elements within a photograph.
- 🎨 The definition of composition includes the placement and arrangement of elements, which is key to creating a visually appealing photograph.
- 👨🎨 Johannes Vermeer, a 17th-century Dutch painter, is highlighted as an influential figure in the history of composition, known for his clear and rule-abiding portrayals.
- 📐 The 'Rule of Thirds' is a fundamental principle in composition, where the image is divided into thirds, both horizontally and vertically, to align the main subjects.
- 🔍 Photographers should be adept at identifying and utilizing lines within a scene to guide the viewer's eye and create a sense of depth.
- 🟥 Color and tone are essential in composition, whether in color or black and white photography, they help set the mood and draw attention to certain areas.
- 🧩 Shapes add structure and interest to a photograph, with the human form and geometric shapes like circles and squares being common elements.
- 🖌️ Texture gives a photograph a tactile quality, adding depth and realism to the image, as seen in the example of a hot air balloon's fabric.
- 🏞️ Form and space work together to create a three-dimensional feel in a two-dimensional photograph, helping to convey the size and scale of subjects.
- 🌈 Value, or the range of lightness and darkness, is used to emphasize form and create a sense of depth, with shadows and highlights playing a significant role.
Q & A
What is the definition of composition in photography?
-Composition in photography refers to the placement and arrangement of visual elements within a photograph. It's about how you arrange the photograph to create a visually appealing and meaningful image.
Why is composition considered an important element in photography courses?
-Composition is considered an important element in photography courses because it is a fundamental aspect of creating aesthetically pleasing and impactful photographs. It helps photographers to arrange visual elements in a way that guides the viewer's eye and conveys the intended message.
Who is Vermeer and how is he related to composition in art?
-Vermeer was a famous Dutch painter from the 17th century known for his meticulous compositions. He followed many of the traditional rules of composition that are still taught to photographers today, such as the rule of thirds, which involves aligning subjects along imaginary lines to create balance and interest.
What is the rule of thirds and how does it apply to photography?
-The rule of thirds is a principle in photography where an image is divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines. Photographers align the main subjects along these lines or at their intersections to create a balanced and engaging composition.
What are the basic elements of design and composition in photography?
-The basic elements of design and composition in photography include lines, shapes, color or tone, texture, form, value, and space. These elements are used by photographers to create visually appealing and meaningful images.
How do lines function in a photograph in terms of composition?
-Lines in a photograph guide the viewer's eye and can lead to a focal point. They can be used to create a sense of depth, direction, and structure in an image, contributing to the overall composition.
What role do shapes play in the composition of a photograph?
-Shapes in a photograph contribute to the overall visual structure and can be used to create balance, contrast, and visual interest. They can also help to define the subject and guide the viewer's attention within the frame.
Why is texture important in photography and how does it affect the composition?
-Texture adds depth and dimension to a photograph, making it more engaging and realistic. It can be used to create contrast, emphasize certain elements, or provide a sense of scale and realism to the image.
How does the concept of form relate to composition in photography?
-Form in photography refers to the three-dimensional quality of objects within the image. It helps to create a sense of depth and space, allowing the viewer to perceive the shape and volume of subjects within the two-dimensional photograph.
What is value in photography and how does it contribute to the composition?
-Value in photography refers to the lightness or darkness of areas in an image and is closely related to color and tone. It helps to define form, create contrast, and add depth to the photograph, contributing to the overall composition.
How does the concept of space influence the composition of a photograph?
-Space in photography refers to the perceived volume and distance within an image. It helps to create a sense of depth and can be used to direct the viewer's attention to specific areas of the photograph, enhancing the overall composition.
Outlines
📸 Understanding Photography Composition
This paragraph introduces the concept of composition in photography, which refers to the arrangement of visual elements within a photograph. It emphasizes that composition is a fundamental aspect of the art of photography, distinguishing it from the more technical aspects. The paragraph discusses the historical figure Vermeer, a Dutch painter from the 1600s known for his skillful compositions that followed traditional rules, such as the rule of thirds. The importance of understanding and applying basic elements of design and composition, like lines, shapes, and color or tone, is highlighted as essential for creating compelling photographs. The paragraph sets the stage for further lessons on the specifics of these compositional rules and elements.
🎨 Exploring the Elements of Design in Photography
The second paragraph delves deeper into the elements of design that are crucial for photography composition. It discusses the significance of lines, shapes, color or tone, texture, form, value, and space. Each element is explained with reference to a hot air balloon image, illustrating how they contribute to the photograph's composition. Lines are noted for leading the viewer's eye and creating focus points. Shapes add structure, while color or tone and texture provide visual interest and depth. Form gives a sense of three-dimensionality, value helps define form through shading, and space creates a sense of scale and distance. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing that these elements can be found in everyday scenes, not just grand subjects, and are tools that photographers can use to enhance their work.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Composition
💡Rule of Thirds
💡Lines
💡Shapes
💡Color or Tone
💡Texture
💡Form
💡Value
💡Space
💡Visual Elements
Highlights
Photographers use composition to decide how to set up their photographs.
Composition is defined as the placement and arrangement of visual elements in a photograph.
Photography is both an art and a science, with composition being a key part of its artistic aspect.
Johannes Vermeer, a 17th-century Dutch painter, is noted for his influential compositions.
Vermeer's works often follow traditional rules of composition, such as the rule of thirds.
The rule of thirds is a fundamental principle in composition, dividing the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically.
Basic elements of design and composition include lines, shapes, color or tone, texture, form, value, and space.
Lines in photography are important for leading the viewer's eye and creating a sense of direction.
Shapes add structure and form to a photograph, contributing to its overall composition.
Color or tone is essential for creating mood and depth in a photograph.
Texture adds visual interest and can convey a sense of touch or surface quality.
Form helps to represent the three-dimensional aspect of a subject within a two-dimensional photograph.
Value, or the range of light and dark areas, is crucial for emphasizing form and creating a sense of space.
Space in a photograph can be used to create a sense of depth and scale.
Everyday moments can be captured with strong composition, making ordinary scenes visually compelling.
Understanding and applying these compositional elements can elevate the quality of photographs, even of simple subjects.
Transcripts
do you ever wonder how photographers
decide how to set up their photograph so
what to put where and why this process
is called composition and it basically
is how you put together a photograph and
the definition as it would be found in
maybe most um sort of dictionaries would
be something along the lines of the
placement and arrangement of the visual
elements or the ingredients in a work of
art or the or photograph um but I put
down here uh putting together as well
would be another way of defining
composition it's basically how you
arrange the photograph and we'll talk a
little bit about some with some examples
here in just a second but um first of
all it might just be good to set this
definition up because this is going to
be an important element of this course
so we're going to have we have sections
of this course called composition and
other courses that are more Technical
and cover some of the more technical
aspects of Photography again photography
is it's both an art and a science and so
um this composition bit is a little bit
more the art of photography now let's
take a look at one of the fathers of
kind of modern composition in the sort
of in the western Tradition at least not
necessarily everywhere in the world um
but this guy his name is
vermier vermier was a very famous Dutch
painter I'll put Dutch right there and
he lived in the 1600s so in the 17th
century in the 1600s verir was really
famous for his compositions he was he's
he has many much more famous images than
even this one here to the right um but
vermier is famous for choosing the way
that he portrayed his people would be um
very clear or the way he portrayed
scenes was very clear and set up and
followed many of the rules that you
would um now follow as as as a
photographer this P this is actually a
self-portrait of sorts right here where
he and I think he called it the art of
painting um and he's just actually it's
just a painting of himself painting
someone and here to the right you've got
an image that follows many of the kind
of traditional rules of conver of
composition you can see here it actually
follows What's called the rule of thirds
and we'll talk about that in a separate
lesson you can see the Horizon is on one
of the thirds in the image we can divide
this up here and also these people fall
on a thirds line as well so there's a
lot to talk about we'll get more into
the details of of the different rules a
little bit later but for right now we're
going to stick to the basics the basic
elements of design and composition which
are really important to understanding
the things that we'll talk about in
later lessons
now this image has just about all of the
elements of design in them and there are
there are quite a few there's something
like seven or so and we're going to
start out by talking about lines so one
of the most important things that you're
going to need as a photographer you're
going to need to be able to look for
lines so you can see in here lines are
all over the place and we're going to
write it right here because I've got a
dark color so lines are really important
you're going to want to watch when
you're taking photographs to to find
lines that are interesting and appealing
uh along with that your your lines are
often going to lead to a focus Point
that's something we'll talk about
separately in another lesson but you'll
want to keep pay attention to the way
lines um kind of interact with Focus
points and and with your the way that
you read a photograph you also want to
look for shapes so here for example
you've got a circle in the middle um you
also have all these really great spokes
in this image so you've got lots of
different shapes going on here you've
got the shape even of a human and you've
got this line across the bottom as well
this very strong line um which also
creates a sort of positive and negative
space which we talk about in a little
bit of a second so in a second here so
I'm going want to write shapes on here
somewhere I'll put it right here I don't
I hope that you guys can all read this
because it's hard to write on a rainbow
background actually it's hard to find a
color to match you also need something
speaking of colors you need color or you
need tone so if you don't have tone or
if you don't have colors then you'll
take tone so in case when you're in case
you're uh shooting in black and white
you'll then be using tones so color or
tone are also important you need texture
which you're kind of seeing down here on
the bottom with this this is actually an
image of a hot air balloon in turkey
that's being uh inflated I believe and
this person is standing here sort of
picking up the lines and getting it all
ready um and here on the ground the the
the tarp or the the um the balloon part
of the balloon is is laying on the
ground and it's all ruffled up and
you've got a really cool texture so
texture is another one this is um this
is number four so we've got there we got
four one was our lines two was
shapes three is color or tone four was
our
texture we've also got form so form is
basically kind of it's trying to show
the 3D uh element of something so here
for example this image is kind of hard
to tell what form it has and actually
you're inside of this um you're inside
of this hot air balloon I believe so
when you're looking at it it's actually
kind of hard to tell that but one place
where you do see form is right here in
the foreground you can kind of see that
there is a little bit of space here at
the bottom and it's kind of giving you a
sense of space and the size of the human
is also an example of form you can kind
of see that he is not all the way inside
of the space he's not all the way at the
back but he's also he's also not close
to you he's quite far away and it also
gives you a spe an idea of the size
because you know okay this unless this
is a really small person this is a
really big space this is huge so you
want to uh think about ways of using
form and I'm just going to put 3D next
to that you want to try to show the
shape or the space that you're working
with so that was number
five now next thing you want to cut want
to be looking for is value so value is
related to color we'll kind of put it
over here in the color side of our image
put value oh that is the wrong color
we're going to have to see if I can find
a better color let's see here I'll go
with a red and I'll put it on Blue
value so this is number six value is
again related to color and it has to do
with sort of the tonal range of
something so it has to do with um not
even the tonal range how do I put this
value has to do with um H it's I guess
shading so it's kind of emphasizing form
and so value kind of is a space that
fits between color and form so maybe for
example value a good example of value is
down here you can kind of see as the as
the hot air balloon is expanding it's
kind of getting a little bit more it's
kind of bowing right above the Earth and
you can kind of see that there's this
sort of dark spot right here and this is
kind of showing that the balloon is sort
of bending at the edge in a way the
color gets a little bit darker as it
gets closer to the ground because it's
just lifting off the ground it's not
getting as much light as this up here
which is getting full sunlight for
example up here at the very top I'll
Circle it in red I need to keep pay a
lot of attention to what I'm using here
for colors you can also see here these
wrinkles are actually an example sort of
of value the the the color changes
because the wrinkle is catching
different sort of pieces different sort
of directions of sunlight and creating
little Shadows that kind of give you an
idea of your form so the value the color
value is sort of is sort of defining
your form and giving you an idea of the
space um form is also um form and value
are also sort of evident here where you
can see that it actually is getting
darker as you're moving back into the
balloon you can see that less light is
making it back you can see in the front
the colors are tiny bit brighter than
they are back here and these are
naturally darker colors blue and purple
and things like that but um they're also
just a little bit l lit and you can see
that according to the value and then
there is space which we've talked about
a little bit here with form you can kind
of see that the the photographer used
form and and and space kind of together
in this instance to create the the
feeling of massiveness that that is the
the feeling you would have if you were
inside of this of this balloon so we're
going to write in space as our number
seven so you've got all these things
let's do one more quick review we've got
lines is number one we've got shapes
color or tone we've got um that takes us
down here to number four of texture then
we've got form and we've got value and
we've got space so these are all things
that you're going to be using when
you're taking a photograph um and things
that you're going to want to use as
Tools in your
toolkit now your image doesn't have to
be anything particularly massive or
expansive or or special like a hot air a
balloon blowing up to have all some of
these elements or all of these elements
you can see here that we've created you
know a line for example and we've
created we're following What's called
the rule of third so we've got here um
elements that are falling on these sort
of lines right here and you've also got
um you've also got some some texture
here you've got these trees all in the
background you've got texture you've got
shape obviously just like with
everything you've got boxes and and
things like that you've got space you
can kind of see the distance and and um
from here in the foreground to here in
the background so you've got lots of
different things happening and these are
all part of composition they're all
things that you can use to make strong
photographs even of everyday moments
like looking out over the
city all right that was your
introduction to composition we're going
to be doing a lot of other lessons about
composition and getting more into the
details of that here at alvers
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