Composition basically means all those elements within an image, and how you arrange those elements, or compose those elements..
Composition allows us to direct the viewers gaze to where we want the eyes to finally rest upon, most typically the subjects main point of focus, and for portraits that generally means the eyes.
There are many aspects to consider, as well as guidelines such as the rule of thirds and other ratios, sounding complex? It's not really!
Aspect Ratio
Some people have no idea about aspect ratios, I mean, have you seen the amount of youtube videos taken on smartphones that are in the portrait format, ie, held upright, and not in the landscape format, in other words horizontally? A frightful amount!
Most portraits are taken vertically, in portrait format, but holding the camera normally in its natural horizontal position willl add a certain dynamic to portraits if used wisely.
You can do this for entire body shots or just upper body shots, it does not matter, it works either way and makes a refreshing change from all the portrait formal portraits out there.
Fill The Frame
Usually step back when your photograph is being taken? Don't worry, so do I!
But filling the frame with just you in the picture makes for a captivating image, just make sure that light is spot on!
Negative Space
The opposite to filling the frame if you like! Negative space just means the area of the image with no interest at all, like a blank background, with room to move within the confines of the image, not only does this add a certain dynamic to an image, but it also looks very contempory right now.
The image at the top of the next page perfectly illustrates the use of negative space, one of the few times when negativity can be a positive thing!
Leading Lines
Train tracks, steps, railings, footpaths, they all lead your eyes to the subject in any image.
Leading lines are mostly used outdoors with environmental portraits, and there are so many of them around, you just need to open your eyes and look for them while out with your camera!
Of course, these are all just giuidelines, these rules are not set into stone, so you are free to play with these as you wish, and often breaking the rules can work to your advantage, depending on what kind of mood your looking for.
Golden Ratio
Golden ratios appear everywhere in nature, and is quite an easy concept to grasp, if the technical aspects themselves require much mind boggling, and my poor little mind cannot take that much boggling,
In laymens terms, the golden ratio in photography is a hypothetical spiral that naturally leads the eye to the main focus point of an image.
Which is why that rather strange pose here, along with lots of blank space, works so well, it is due to the golden ratio.
This composition rule also works well with close up portraits, leading the viewers eyes around the frame before finally resting on to the subjects eyes,
This also works well in either portrait or landscape format, it really doesn't matter, though it has to be said, it is not a popular as the rule of thirds.
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