The 10 Elements of Composition in Photography

Spencer Cox 4 weeks ago

Sometimes, it helps to take a step back from broader discussions on creativity to look at the truly
fundamental elements of composition. Although there are countless elements of composition in art
as a whole, this article covers the ten most important that are specific to photography – critical
parts of nearly every photo you take. They’re divided into two main categories: objects, and their
relationships. These are nothing less than the building blocks of creativity.

Before starting, I do want to mention that we just filmed a real-world roundup of these ten elements
of composition. Highly recommended if you like watching photography videos!

I Photographed The 10 Elements Of Composition

Table of Contents
1. Objects
1.1. Points
1.2. Lines
 1.3. Shapes
1.4. Texture
1.5. Color
1.6. Tone
2. Relationships
2.1. Distance
2.2. Balance
2.3. Space (Positive and Negative)
2.4. Patterns
3. Conclusion

Objects

The first six elements of composition are simply different types of objects you may find in a photo,
ranging from simple to complex. These elements do not depend on anything else in a photo, or
upon the borders of your composition itself. Every object in your photograph exhibits these
characteristics to a degree, sometimes obviously and sometimes hidden.

1. Points

The simplest element of composition is a point.

Points are a bit deceptive; mathematically, they have zero dimensions. Photographically, we’re a bit
more lenient. A point is just a small area of interest in a photo, or the intersection between areas of
interest.

Stars in the sky in a photograph are “points,” and so is an out-of-focus light in the background. The
same is true of the spot where two mountains meet one another, creating an intersection that pulls
at the viewer’s eye.

Points matter in photography because they are one of the most fundamental ways to draw our
attention – to add interest to a particular area.

In the photo below, what element draws your eye the most? The answer should be immediately
clear:
 NIKON D800E + 70-200mm f/4 @ 100mm, ISO 100, 1/100, f/8.0

It is, of course, the peak of the sand dune – the point. It has a gravity to it. Our eyes follow the lines
of the slope and end up at the same spot.

If you’ve internalized that points can draw a viewer’s eye and attract attention, you likely have a good
idea of why they are so important in photography; they help give a photo structure. But hold that
thought for a minute, and return to it for the “Relationships” section later. For now, I’ll cover the next
simple element of composition: lines.

2. Lines

In contrast to points, which draw a viewer’s attention, lines are more like a path for a viewer to
follow. Or, they are a boundary: the division between sky and ground, for example.

Like points, lines in photography are not defined as rigidly as lines in geometry. Photographically,
anything that connects two parts of a photo or stretches across your composition is a line. That
includes a curved road or a jagged mountain ridge, for example. Even the fuzzy, lightly defined edge
of a cloud is usually a line.
Lines also serve an important function of connecting two different elements of your photo. They
can give an image structure, which is a crucial part of making an image feel deliberate and
intentional. A path leading from foreground to background has a way of making the image feel
connected.

Sometimes, lines in a photo are imaginary, but they’re still there. Imagine a portrait of a child looking
at a toy truck. The space between the child and truck might be “empty,” but the viewer knows it is
important anyway. There’s a line – a connection between the two elements of the photo that makes
each one more impactful.

Lines don’t have the same weight as points. Instead, they connect points, or divide them, or guide a
viewer’s eye toward the one you want. This makes them some of the most important elements of
composition.

NIKON D800E + 70-200mm f/4 @ 70mm, ISO 100, 1/25, f/11.0

3. Shapes
Now, we move from the simple elements of composition to the complex. Shapes can be anything,
from the crescent moon to the shape of a smiling face. Each variety of shape has its own emotional
impact on a photo, and it’s impossible to generalize. A circle might be peaceful, a heart evocative, a
triangle dynamic, and so on – but the only thing to be said about every shape is that they have the
power to attract our attention.

Sometimes, shapes are just the object itself. If you’re photographing the sun, it makes a circular
shape. Other times, shapes are more conceptual, like a curved cloud over a curved valley that gives
the entire photo a circular composition. Both types of shapes matter. The first attracts attention; the
second gives the photo its structure.

In photography, keep an eye out for shapes in your photo, either obvious or abstract. Remember that
they are very powerful in drawing our eye – particularly simple shapes, as well as those of humans
and animals. Compose your photos accordingly.

NIKON D800E + 20mm f/1.8 @ 20mm, ISO 100, 1/60, f/8.0

4. Texture
The texture of an object plays an important role in determining its emotional impact, as well as the
amount of attention it draws.

What mood do you capture when you photograph smooth pebbles and mist from a long exposure of
the sea? What about jagged, rough mountains in high-contrast light?

Sometimes, textures themselves may be the subject of your photo, like patterns in the sand or
waves of water. More often, though, textures are individual elements of a larger photo – either
giving your subject some dimension or filling in the spaces between subjects.

Areas with more texture tend to draw extra attention. Sometimes, too much texture in “unimportant”
areas of a photo can be distracting, making the overall photo appear too complex. In other cases,
texture gives your subject a crucial sense of dimension, such as filling out the shape of a mountain
landscape.

NIKON D810 + 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, ISO 160, 1/500, f/11.0

5. Color
Other than black and white photography – a creative choice of its own – color makes a big
difference to the composition of a photo, as well as the mood.

Each color brings its own emotions to photography, a topic that could fill far more than the small
space here. Nevertheless, the most important distinction you need to know at the moment is that of
warm versus cool colors.

Warm colors are red, orange, and yellow. They are active, jumping to the front of an image and
conveying more movement and excitement. I don’t just mean that they metaphorically jump to the
front; if you put a vivid red dot against a vivid blue background, many people genuinely perceive the
red dot as nearer to the viewer, almost casting a shadow behind it.

Cool colors, then, are the opposite: green, blue, and violet. These are calmer colors, with a bit more
gentleness to their nature. Blue and green in particular are the most common colors found in nature;
a blue sky or green field convey a reassuring and comforting message. But cool colors also appear
in lower light environments, even shadows on a sunny day, so they do have a sense of darkness to
them – one which can be particularly powerful in photos of a storm, for example.

When you’re composing your photos, recognize the colors contained within, and try to use their
strengths to your advantage. Often, pairing a warm color with a cool color creates an interesting
sense of contrast, leading to an eye-catching image. Similarly, photos with just one or two dominant
colors present a very unified message – a message that can be highly successful if created with
care.
 NIKON D7000 + 105mm f/2.8 @ 105mm, ISO 100, 1/40, f/6.3

6. Tone

Another important element of composition is tone, both for individual objects and for the
photograph as a whole. Although tone can refer to hues and intensity of color, it also relates to the
brightness and darkness of an image, as well as its contrast.

A few other words can describe this same concept, but I prefer “tone” because of its connection to
music. Photographs which employ tone successfully will carry the eye through the flow of a photo –
much in the same way that musical tones carry listeners through the highs and lows of a
performance.

Brighter regions of a photo attract the eye. So do those with high contrast – both low-level contrast
(sharpness) and broader juxtapositions of light and dark.

At a more general level, the tones of a photograph also change its overall emotions. Photographs
which are darker tend to obscure more of your subject, giving it a mysterious, intense, and even
refined appearance. Brighter photographs are more etherial and optimistic.

Of course, you can adjust many of these factors in post-processing software very easily. Personally,
I often darken the corners of an image to attract attention to the center. I’ll also “dodge and burn”
(brighten and darken) individual elements of a photo that I want to emphasize or obscure. If there’s
a distraction in your photo, one of the easiest ways to make it draw less attention is just to darken it
a bit or lower its contrast.

So, pay attention to the tones of your photo, both in the field and in post-processing. They control
how a viewer flows through the photo, as well as the emotions the photo conveys.
 NIKON D7000 + 24mm f/1.4 @ 24mm, ISO 100, 1 second, f/11.0

Relationships

The other elements of composition fall under a different category: relationships. Rather than
applying to individual objects in a photo, the four elements below are all about how the different
parts of a photo interact.

7. Distance

The simplest relationship between elements of composition is the distance between them.

Distance matters for a few different reasons. To start, if some of your subjects are too close
together – or if one subject crosses another – the results can be distracting. I often try to move
around a bit so that every important part of a photo has its own “breathing space.”

Beyond that, distance also applies to the concept of shapes as mentioned earlier, or, more broadly,
structure. The most common compositional structures are simply a line (connecting two areas of
interest) and a triangle (three). But as you add more and more subjects, as well as playing around
with the distances between them, you’ll create compositions with significantly more complex
structures.

The composition in the photo below is, roughly, a pentagon – the result of the sun and different
points on the mountains being the right distance away from one another:

NIKON D7000 + 17-55mm f/2.8 @ 34mm, ISO 100, 1/2500, f/5.6

Also keep in mind the distance between your subjects and the edge of your frame. Often, I see very
good photos harmed by something minor like a mountain peak that nearly touches the top of the
photo, drawing away attention from the rest of the composition. Watch the edges of your photos in
the field; they’re some of the most important parts.

The good news is that you almost always have a lot of control over the distances between objects
in your composition. Just move around; get closer to your subject or farther away. Put effort into
capturing the emotional message you have in mind, and you’ll naturally end up with strong results.

8. Balance

The next element of composition is balance, related closely to the concept of visual weight. Visual
weight isn’t complicated; it’s just the amount of attention each object in your photo attracts. Every
part your photo has some amount of visual weight to it.
Which elements attract the most attention? More than anything else are faces and eyes, particularly
of people but also of animals. Along with that, bright areas, sharp areas, regions of high contrast,
vivid colors, unusual objects, and interesting textures also attract attention.

Balance is about the arrangement of visual weight in a photo. A balanced photo has similar levels of
visual weight between the left and right halves; an imbalanced photo has more weight on one side
or the other.

Sometimes, a “lighter” element can balance a “heavier” element simply by being farther from the
center of a photo – like balancing a child and an adult on a seesaw. To check the balance of your
photo, imagine putting the visual weights of every item in your photo on a fulcrum. Which way does
it lean?

It’s worth noting that you don’t always want your photo to be perfectly balanced between the left
and right sides. Although balanced photos often feel more natural and harmonious, imbalance is
more dynamic, with a sense of tension that works for certain photos. So, when you’re arranging your
composition, focus on balance or imbalance only to the degree that their emotions match your
intended mood.

NIKON D800E + 20mm f/1.8 @ 20mm, ISO 800, 1/30, f/5.6

A balanced composition, where the mountain and the lake have similar levels of visual weight, and both are
equidistant from the center of the image

9. Space (Positive and Negative)

Islands and water; clouds and sky; ink and paper. Positive and negative space.

Positive space is any part of the photo that attracts attention. Areas with significant visual weight
are usually positive space. The same is true of areas with high levels of texture.

Negative space is the “filler” between regions of positive space. It doesn’t necessarily fade into the
background like cool colors tend to do, but it isn’t the portion of the photo that attracts the most
attention.

Photos with high amounts of positive space feel crowded, while photos with high amounts of
negative space feel empty. Neither of these sounds like a particularly good emotion, but both can be
very powerful in a photo. I’ve taken cityscape images with a sense of business and urgency because
of their high positive space. I’ve also taken the opposite – photos of a tiny subject in a grand scene
to convey a sense of isolation and immensity.

Positive and negative space depend quite a bit on other elements of composition, such as visual
weight and distance. But even a photo of a single subject – say, a portrait – can have different ratios
of positive and negative space depending on your composition. Just change the size of your subject
in the frame, surrounded by greater or smaller amounts of background. The emotions of the photo
will change significantly.

NIKON D800E + 105mm f/2.8 @ 105mm, ISO 250, 1/800, f/3.5

10. Patterns

In photography, patterns are everywhere. This isn’t just something small like a texture that repeats
itself throughout the photo, but really in any repeating element at all. Even the reflection of a
mountain in a pool of water is a pattern – one which should not be underestimated, since it ties the
photo together.
That’s what patterns do, really. They tie photos together. They give photos a reason to exist – a
strong statement for why the photographer took this photo and not some other.

Patterns are arguably more obvious in manmade scenes, like architectural photography. But even
natural scenes and living creatures have patterns, like feathers on a bird or waves crossing in the
sea.

Not every photograph you take will have an obvious pattern, and that’s not a problem. But when you
do see some sort of repetition or interconnectedness in the world, take note. It could make for a
very strong photo indeed.

NIKON D810 + 70-200mm f/4 @ 100mm, ISO 64, 4/10, f/16.0

Conclusion

Most other techniques in composition – from simplicity to emotion – start with the elements of
composition listed above. Although there are more than just ten elements of composition, these are
the most important for photographers to know.

They’re also some of the easiest to implement in your photography, so it’s worth the effort to think
about them while you’re taking pictures.

Take
Take me
me to
to Chapter
Chapter 4:
4: Light
Light

1 Introduction to This Guide

2 What is Composition?

3 Elements of Composition (You Are Here)

4 Light

5 Color

6 Simplicity

7 The Refining Process

8 Composition Tips

Ad

Shop International Brands

ZALORA Open

Categories: Composition and Art

Tags: Composition, Creativity, Photography Tips, Tips for Beginners

Leave a Comment
Photography Life Back to top