If you created a Rule of Composition.....

[Jeff1546 46]

Rules are meant to be broken.....

 

[jcdeboever]

I consider the theory almost every time I look in the view finder but my late mentor harped and harped on me to fill the frame...look at the edges of the frame then work your image inside that box. He was also harping on the negative space. So he constantly barked, frame edge and negative space, IDIOT! He literally forced me to shoot with his Nikon F and a nifty fifty because he was so frustrated with me and my Nikon D3300. He thought that the viewfinder on the D3300 was working against his guidance. He also yelled, your not a painter anymore! Get with the program idiot and then you can implement your gay painting into your photography.

 

[PixFixer]

Is this like a new rule of thermodynamics or a new rule in mathematics? I would wager to say that there is no such thing as a rule of composition; composition is actually done by utilizing the elements and principles of design. I do not think it is possible to come up with a new rule of composition, unless you are talking about some sort of Fstoppers or Clickin' Moms type of lame hack. I would encourage you to teach your students about the elements and principles of design, which are the true foundation of the visual arts.

I really do agree with what you say here. If I were teaching a photo [or graphic] design class I would go basic: The rule of thirds. You don't have to be exact but close works. pretty good. That ancient rule works well with just about anything, vertical or horizontal. It's a great starting point. While there are no single rule for comp, this one is as close as you can get and it's been around for a few millennia. Oh, there is one rule that fits everything.....Nature abhors imbalance.

 

[fmw]

The best composition is the one that makes the subject the most interesting. Love the image of the typewriter above, by the way. It does exactly what I said.

 

[AlanKlein79 18]

One guideline I think you should work on is the choice of orientation, horizontal or vertical. In this era of the cell phone the new Norm is vertical video. And I think that vertical photos typically look the best on cell phones, since they are displayed larger in the normal use of the phone. But for still photos I see many people shooting horizontal portraits and cropping people off at the collar bones, Or on close-ups,creating basically floating heads with very little means of support shown in the photo. This is one of the biggest areas that beginners have very little awareness of.

The basic idea is that if the subject is taller than it is wide you should orient the camera in a "portrait" direction or a vertical orientation. If the subject is wider than it is tall, then horizontal is the natural camera orientation that one should use. As far as I am concerned,this is one of the most-basic fundamentals that many beginners do not understand.

That's generally correct. However, it could be because most people shoot other people. So they keep the camera in portrait mode. Also, that's the natural position for use as a phone.

Me? I shoot landscapes a lot so I turn it 90 degrees to shoot. I also might shoot videos clips which are better in landscape mode. Since I display still and video clips on TV's, again, I turn the phone. I will also shoot all my portraits in landscape mode when I travel to be consistent. That way, when I make a slide/video show, the entire TV screen is filled in rather than having a narrow portrait picture in the middle.

You have to think about what you're going to do with the final results. Most people with cells, just look at or show their phone screens. So again, portrait mode works best for them. The rest are lazy or really don't think or care about it.