Photographic Composition Course

In this, final episode of our compositional series, (only for the time being we suspect) Len discusses his rules and methods of composition. It acts as a summary of all of the composition series. It is so exciting to have completed this amazing series.

In this episode of the Composition course Len discusses how photographs talk to each other. He illustrates this with dyptiches and tryptiches.

Congruence is about bringing all of the compositional elements together to resolve a photograph. Combining your intellectual intent, your emotional intent with the visual centre matching the language across the whole photograph so that it works. In this presentation Len talks about how to tie all the compositional elements together in a harmonious whole.

Depth of Focus is often lampooned by photographers who say depth of feeling is more important. While it is true that feeling is crucial to an images success, depth of field is a compositional element that needs careful consideration. It can add depth of feeling to your artwork. Rather than let depth of field be an inevitable choice made by the camera, why not consider it as one of your active elements of composition. Len also discusses bokeh and a couple of interesting lenses that play with focus. The video camera struggled to focus during this presentation, which is a fitting tribute to soft focus photography. My apologies for this humorous technical glitch.

Balance is an important element to consider in all artworks. Len illustrates this talk with important artworks in painting and sculpture and shows us how to achieve compositional balance. He finishes the presentation by describing how to judge the weight of various elements in an artwork.

In this episode on composition Len discusses movement and time.

In this episode on composition Len discusses the Gestalt principle of Symmetry, and then goes on to explore the compositional elements of circles and squares. He introduces us to circular photography as a compositional device, and explains his love for the square format.

In this next presentation in the series on Photographic Composition Len looks at patterns.

In this presentation in the series on Photographic Composition Len takes us through the Gestalt Design Principles of Closure and Continuation.

In this episode of the Composition Series Len talks about different vantage points used in life and in our art. He draws metaphors from our language of looking up at someone and down on someone. He also tackles what it is to be an equal. The bottom line of this presentation is to look at the world from a different perspective and see what you can see.

In this episode of our Photographic Composition Series Len discusses how we relate to colours from an psychological perspective. He covers inherent properties of colours and culturally defined ones. Len even delves into sacred knowledge of colours in chakra healing.

In this episode of Len’s Composition Course he discusses colour combinations and illustrates his talk with stills from movies that use colour in their design. He talks about analogous colours and complementary colour combinations in particular.

In this presentation Len discusses how our eyes see colour, how we perceive colour and how we describe colour. A technical presentation that lays the groundwork for exploring photographic composition in the next episode.

In the latest episode from our Photographic Composition Series, Len discusses how repetitions talk to each other. When elements talk to each other in a photograph they often make them stronger and more prominent. We as humans group similar things together.

In this episode of Len’s series on photographic composition, he explores high pitch photography. He encourages you to break the rules, over expose your photographs, explore white paper, learn high key lighting and even eventually offers you some definitions of what ‘High Key Photography’ is.

In this episode of Len’s Composition series he discusses the importance of composing the darks and shadows in your photographs. He talks about blocking in the large shapes compositionally. He illustrates this presentation with the work of Ralph Gibson, who is known for crunching his blacks and the work of Fung Ho who shows us how to get the balance between the highlights and shadows just right.

The dance of the Highlights is an important compositional consideration. Our eyes are often drawn to bright areas of a photograph. We need to use these to strengthen our compositions, other wise they often weaken them. In this the 14th presentation in our series on composition Len discusses how to see and compose the highlights.

In the thirteenth presentation on photographic composition, Len discusses subject isolation using clean backgrounds.

This week Len looks at minimalism.

In this presentation in the Photographic Composition series Len discusses the Point of Power, the Rule of Thirds, Pi and the Golden Ratio. He shows how these are used in photography and art throughout the ages. He describes how these sacred ratios are derived from nature. Len also gives his advice on using them.

In this presentation in the Photographic Composition series Len discusses the Point of Power, the Rule of Thirds, Pi and the Golden Ratio. He shows how these are used in photography and art throughout the ages. He describes how these sacred ratios are derived from nature. Len also gives his advice on using them.

In the ninth episode of the series on Photographic Composition, Len discusses the use of Aspect Ratios, and Cropping of photographs.

Here Len discusses ways in which you can punctuate your photography to great effect.

In the seventh episode of the Photographic Composition series, Len shows us how perspective works. He starts with linear perspective, and continues through to atmospheric perspective. He talks about how you can increase the depth in your photograph by how you process the foreground and background differently.

In Part Six of Len’s series on composition, Len introduces us to Chiaroscuro and how it was developed through optics in the 15th Century during the renascence. This presentation contains nudity and is not considered safe for work,

Len goes on to explain how shadows give shape to round objects illustrating their form. And shows us how this applies to photography.

In this presentation Len discusses the importance of edges in your photographic composition. He reminds us over and over that ‘The edges are always important’ and tells us to actively check the edges of the frame each time we create an artwork. Len talks about how to use the edge of the frame to enhance your photographic composition.

Len discusses how tone is the most important element in photographic composition. He explains how we are attracted to the area of greatest contrast. He goes on to explain how we need to match our centre of intellectual interest with the visual centre of the photograph.

In this presentation Len explores with us the use of the centre of the photograph as a compositional element. He explores the idea that it is a powerful and strong place to use. He also introduces us to Paul Kenny’s work that uses the circle and square motifs throughout his long career as a photographic artist, that celebrates cameraless photography.

Part two in our series on Composition for Artists and Photographers. In this presentation Len discusses how horizontal lines ground the viewer, vertical lines are full of energy and strength, and how oblique lines create movement.

Len introduces us to the 30 hour course on visual composition for artists and photographers. Here he talks about the elements of visual arts and the elements of composition. Hence giving us words to use when we talk about composition.