Hunting for Compositions
The Most Important Skill in Photography You Can Learn
There are lots of things to learn in photography and this is why it is such a great hobby to have. From the day you pick up a camera you will be learning until you put it down … because you are constantly learning, this is what makes it so addictive.
But there is one skill you should be working on constantly, to evolve and develop your photography style, and that is composition hunting.
Now you don’t have to dress up in camo and stalk the composition … although that would be a lot of fun … you just need to keep your eyes and mind open to what is around you …
I went to Wyming Brook in the Lake District recently and this was definitely a case of hunting for compositions … and in this article I show you the photos I took, from the really bad ones to the ones that I quite like and hopefully this will help you see the process I go through to find a good photograph.
My aim was to find some compositions that would work, following the Brook (A brook is a term for a small stream) down the valley.
Kit used:
The main thing is to have an open mind. If you see something that you think might work, take a photograph of it … and then study the photograph. Don’t be afraid of taking bad photos … bad photos will lead you to better ones if you study them and if you work out why they are bad … and no one needs to see your bad photos but you.
So here you will see some of my bad photos, so this shows that no matter what level you are at, you will take bad photos … mine usually go from bad, to ok, to good … not always too good, but I know this is the process and I know that there are some things out of my control that might stop the photo from being its best.
A very bad first photo …
This is my first photo of the day and it is pretty bad … ok it is really bad … the settings were all wrong and the composition is all over the place, but this is me starting the shoot and warming up … kind of getting into the flow of things … and to be fair, I hadn’t had a coffee yet!!
Who’d have thought that the image would be blurry with a 0.8 second exposure handheld … 😆🤦🏻♂️
This was a mistake of mine where I had the settings from the day before still in the camera. I’d forgotten to reset the camera for the new day and it didn’t work out that well.
But this is me showing you that it is ok … and it is very human to make mistakes. Being creative and being good at your art takes time to develop and time to warm up … well for me it does anyway.
If you use a tripod … Start by shooting handheld and don’t even get the tripod out. When the settings are right, you can still get some good photos and when you are shooting handheld you can find so many different compositions in a short space of time.
Tripods are great for photography. They open up the possibilities of using much slower shutter speeds, but they do slow the process down. If you are not sure of a composition, this is not the time to get the tripod out … only unpack the tripod when you are sure of the composition.
These following photos are all handheld. All I am doing is searching for a composition without worrying too much about the quality of the photo. My ISO is high, my shutter speed is wrong for some of them, and this is ok. I am focussing on finding that elusive composition and completely forgetting about image quality for now. IQ comes later in the process.
Low down shot
Standing shot (ok, but average as it is from eye level)
This is ok, and the brown tree above looks good but I am sure there is better
Shooting handheld helps search for compositions quickly
This is ok, but that tall tree is distracting
Getting better, but still handheld
So you can see, I walked passed at least 3 potential compositions before even thinking about getting my tripod out.
The last location looked good to me at the time, so i decided to break out the tripod and slow down the shutter speed and tidy up the noise in the shot with lower ISO levels.
Perched on a rock with the tripod
POV of me building a composition
Looking back at the last two images, they aren’t the best compositions but it shows that sometimes you can see things differently in the field compared to when you are back home in front of your computer.
This is one of the final images from this spot along the Brook. I ended up tilting the camera down so that tall thin tree in the test images above isn’t so distracting.
28mm - f11 - 1/5sec - iso640
I’m quite happy with this photograph, but as the Brook goes on for quite a while and there are some bridges crossing the water, I knew there was a potential for better images.
Another thing I like to do is to shoot photos of waterfalls at much longer focal lengths. The river has to be straight and you need to see quite far along it, but when you can, you can really use that compression to squish up the elements to create a very different looking photograph.
This one didn’t quite work but I am always experimenting
This one didn’t quite work but this shows I am using my creative brain to try different things out … and this is the key to finding compositions that are unique to you. Try different things and use different focal lengths to see if you can find something that works.
A bit further down the Brook, I found three bridges all with potentials for photographs.
You can only see two of the bridges but there is one more a bit further up the stream
I love getting photographs where there is a play between man and nature in the photograph. It could be a person walking, a path that you could imagine yourself walking along, or some kind of human structure … I find it gives scale and context to the shot.
In the image above, I noticed that the stream looked good underneath the bridge with interesting patterns in the river coming underneath it. I tried shooting it at 28mm and handheld, but it didn’t work as that focal length was too tight on the scene. So I decided to break out the 17-28mm to see if something in that focal range worked.
This was another test shot handheld
These next photos were the first ones where I think there is a great shot to be had … I also think it could work a lot better when the leaves turn brown, but if you don’t have that luxury of coming back to a location again, there are always presets … 😁
Click here for my preset pack; the image on the right has the (ETTL brighten version) “Autumn is coming” preset with a bump in exposure after applying the preset … so autumn-esq colours with a click of a button and a swipe of a slider …
This one came out ok, but I do refine this a little
Autumn is coming ETTL preset added
Next I tried lowering the tripod to see if that worked, and I was surprised that it looked a lot better.
17mm - ISO500 - f11 - 1/3sec
I also put a leaf in the foreground of this shot to see if it enhanced the photo, but you’ll have to watch the video to see that one!
So you can see finding compositions is a process of hunting. You might not find a good composition for a while, or you might struggle all day, but keep looking for that elusive beast and when you do find it, you will be hooked.
I remember when I first started out. I was taking mediocre photographs, but when I got that first one that really popped … I was well and truly hooked.
If you have any questions or have any comments, feel free to click on the video link above and comment below the youtube video. This is where I normally hang out and answer your questions or listen to your thoughts and ideas.
Also, if you like the idea of taking photographs like this but don’t know where to start, I do have some 1-2-1 courses available in the uk, as well as some online coaching.
Here are some other photos I got through the rest of the day, before that rain started to really pour down!
15mm super wide photograph from the lower bridge
Wyming Brook - 37mm - f11 - 0.8sec - ISO160
And then some idiot in an orange jacket ruined the shot! 😆
I put the camera on the tripod and on the self timer and walked up to the second bridge for this last one. I don’t normally get in the frame myself but this was a fun one to do … I’m glad there was no one else about otherwise I’d have looked like a right poser!!
I hope this gives you the motivation to get out and shoot with your camera. Photography is food for the soul and in using it to get you out of the house and into nature, you get to visit somewhere new, somewhere different … and who knows, you might even meet some other photographers out there and make some friends … or at least get some great photographs!!
Thanks for reading
Mike Smith