Cropping and composition are two essential tools for enhancing your location photos. They can help you highlight the most interesting elements, create a sense of balance and harmony, and tell a story with your images. In this article, you will learn some tips and tricks on how to use cropping and composition to improve your lifestyle photography skills.
Cropping is the process of removing unwanted or distracting parts of your image, either in-camera or during editing. Cropping can help you focus on the main subject, eliminate clutter, and adjust the aspect ratio of your photo. For example, you can crop a portrait to emphasize the eyes or the expression, or crop a landscape to create a panoramic view. When cropping, consider the rule of thirds, which divides your image into nine equal parts and places the most important elements along the lines or intersections. This can create a more dynamic and balanced composition.
In my experience, I feel the cropping to simplify the image and cropping to create more importance through composition, has helped the most and creating effective imagery. You can do this by eliminating random parts on the outer edges and creating a rule of thirds or placing important subject at intersections of a grid.
Lines are powerful compositional elements that can guide the viewer's eye, create depth and perspective, and convey mood and emotion. Lines can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved, or implied. For example, you can use horizontal lines to create a sense of stability and calmness, vertical lines to create a sense of height and strength, diagonal lines to create a sense of movement and tension, curved lines to create a sense of flow and elegance, and implied lines to create a sense of connection and direction. When composing with lines, try to align them with the edges of your frame, or use them to lead the eye to the focal point of your image.
Shapes are another compositional element that can help you organize and simplify your image, create contrast and interest, and evoke different feelings. Shapes can be geometric, organic, or negative. For example, you can use geometric shapes to create a sense of order and structure, organic shapes to create a sense of naturalness and fluidity, and negative shapes to create a sense of space and balance. When composing with shapes, try to arrange them in a way that creates harmony and rhythm, or use them to break the monotony and add variety.
Colors are another compositional element that can help you enhance the mood and atmosphere of your image, create contrast and harmony, and attract attention. Colors can be warm, cool, or neutral. For example, you can use warm colors to create a sense of warmth and energy, cool colors to create a sense of coolness and calmness, and neutral colors to create a sense of balance and subtlety. When composing with colors, try to use a color scheme that matches the theme and tone of your image, or use complementary colors to create a striking effect.
Light is another compositional element that can help you create drama and depth, reveal textures and details, and express emotions. Light can be natural or artificial, hard or soft, direct or indirect. For example, you can use natural light to create a realistic and authentic look, artificial light to create a creative and dramatic look, hard light to create strong shadows and contrasts, soft light to create smooth transitions and softness, direct light to create a clear and bright look, and indirect light to create a diffuse and subtle look. When composing with light, try to use the direction and quality of light to enhance the features and mood of your subject, or use light as a source of interest and focal point.
Space is another compositional element that can help you create a sense of scale and distance, show the relationship between the subject and the environment, and convey a message or a story. Space can be positive or negative, open or closed, deep or shallow. For example, you can use positive space to show the presence and importance of your subject, negative space to show the absence and contrast of your subject, open space to show the freedom and movement of your subject, closed space to show the confinement and restriction of your subject, deep space to show the depth and perspective of your scene, and shallow space to show the flatness and simplicity of your scene. When composing with space, try to use the size and position of your subject to create a sense of balance and proportion, or use the background and foreground to create a sense of context and narrative.
All you read already is not possible if you are standing still at one location, Keep change your perspective until you find the right spot, considering all you read above, sometimes you need to record that photo for reference and come back to the location at better light or better time of the season.