Photography: Advanced Composition

Train your eye to find better compositions. Learn the theory, practice, and art of photographic composition by analyzing the work of professional photographers.

Introduction

• Welcome

1. Composition Best Practices

• Basics of advanced composition
• Using your sixth sense for composition
• What you need to know about advanced composition
• Best practice: Looking for interesting scenes
• What makes a good subject

2. Looking at a Photographer's Work

• Learning photography through analogue abstraction
• Reviewing the works of photographers who shoot abstract
• Looking at recognizable abstractions
• Looking at a case study by George Byrne

3. Practical Application of Advanced Composition

• Introducing Susan Kae Grant
• Composing a scene for a photograph
• Placing objects in a scene to create a composition
• Recognizing good composition
• Reviewing the portfolio of a composition expert

4. Challenges in Composition

• Composing around light
• Potential light compositions
• Composing around geometry
• Composing around things
• Exploring point of view
• Layers: Foreground and background
• Exploring the ways a composition can be shaped

5. Compositional Exercises

• Abstracting your house
• Semi-abstraction
• Reflections
• Self-analysis

Conclusion

• Next steps