David Brommer Composition Workshop Notes

Notes from this B&H Photo Seminar:

Rule of Thirds

• Never split image in 2 – split it in 3
• Never put important subject right on centre line. If you can’t put on 3rd lines,just knock it a bit off centre
• 3s are generally important. Remember Foreground, Middle, Background. 3s everywhere – 3 light sources, 3 things generally
• Interest in 3s seems to be fundamental – see religious trinities

Roland Barthes – Camera Lucida

• Studium – a general liking, a slight intellectual commitment to an image
• Punctum – transcends studium and punctuates the image into consciousness of the viewer

Directional elements

• Lead the viewer’s gaze
• Physical lines – actual lines, shapes of things
• Spacial lines (positive and negative space rivers)
• Highlights and shadows
• Spacial futures – look where subject is looking, to where the subject is travelling

Anchor Elements

• Stop the viewer’s eye
• Subjects
• Objects – general stuff
• Hightlight and shadow masses: eyes naturally go to brighter bits
• Colour massess and splotches. One red umbrella in a sea of thousands of black umbrellas. The eye seeks out vibrant colour

Sense of Place

• Imbue the image with a sense of the the environment
• Or not – make it completely neutral to put all focus on subject

Image complexity

• Colours contrasting, bits of the same colours setting up a rhythm

Gesture

• Hands, anything… when humans do something
• Could even be just a look in the eyes

Storytelling

• Does the image tell a story?
• Does the image have a voice?
• Wide angle can help tell a story. Telephoto helps isolate the subject
• Gesture
• Environment
• Time – giving a clue to time of day or season
• But also:
  • Where was the subject just before?
  • Where is the subject going next?

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Examples

Robert Frank – Cover Images from The Americans

Cover image from Robert Frank’s The Americans with annotations.

• Tells a story – smug white woman in the front of the bus
• Gestures & Expressions
• Rule of thirds

Helmut Newton – Tuxedo

Helmut Newton’s Tuxedo with annotations.

• Vanishing point 2/3 way to horizon
• 3 lights
• Gesture & body language
• Where has the subject come from?
• Where is she going?

See also the Checklist Page.