Camera aside, what helps you learn to compose?

[Heroique]

I’ve noticed a lot of people here enjoy historical painting, and they often apply lessons from the masters – Medieval, Renaissance, Modern – to their LF work. I’ve certainly made that claim about Claude Lorrain, the 17th-C French painter who teaches me a lot about composing summertime trees, heavy with foliage, in the low-angled light of various landscapes.

But maybe what teaches me the most about composition – short of actually using my 4x5 Tachi – is taking a sketch book & pencil into the forests of my region. (I’m not a too-serious sketcher, but I remember enough from my 8th grade art class to get by.)

Sometimes I sketch because carrying camera gear isn’t an option; other times, I sketch for its own sake. It slows me down – even slower than when my camera is w/ me – and at this leisurely, contemplative pace, I absorb lessons about light, lines, perspective, masses, space, and their interaction (but usually not color).

Not all sketched compositions are compatible w/ my camera and three-lens kit, but the lessons do seem to stay w/ me, increasing the diversity of imaginative options.

Short of actual camera work, what has taught you the most about practical composition?

[E. von Hoegh]

"Short of actual camera work, what has taught you the most about practical composition?"

Borderline OCD and a strong visual orientation; an understanding of goemetry and therefore perspective.

[Eric Rose]

There is a great book on the psychology of composition. I'll be darned if I can't remember the name.

[Doremus Scudder]

I think I've mentioned that I learned about using shift/rise/fall to move the optical center of a composition off-center from Canaletto. I studied a bit of art history in my university days and am an avid museum-goer. I have applied things I've learned from Whistler (composition), Turner, David, Picasso and Braque, among others, to my photography.

Also, as strange as it seems (or as synesthetic as it seems) I often correlate elements of visual and musical form. Some of the great symphonists have influenced the way I arrange things on in an image (think introducing an element and then varying or repeating it, or developing it). Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Bach... et al. Having your eye led around an image is a temporal exercise, much like a musical one. I think you can arrange an image to guide the viewer's attention and have him/her take in certain elements of the composition before alighting on another. It's certainly not as precise as music unfolding in time, but seeing one element and then later seeing another and recognizing a variation or repetition of the first lends an otherwise temporally static image some drama and suspense.

Best,

Doremus

[Jody_S]

In my photographic 10-year hiatus, I collected and studied Canadian landscape painting. I started looking at Canadian abstract as well, but I'm reliably informed that I can't tell a good one from something a baby made in his diaper.

[Heroique]

There is a great book on the psychology of composition. I'll be darned if I can't remember the name.

Maybe it’s Perception and Imaging by Richard Zakia?

A great book about what contributes to composition.

Also, as strange as it seems (or as synesthetic as it seems) I often correlate elements of visual and musical form.

Reminds one of the young, budding concert pianist, Ansel Adams.

Later in life, I bet he “heard” music when he composed his best landscapes.

I’m curious, however, if he ever “saw” compositions when he listened to music.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Drawing. It's all I ever used to do.

[sun of sand]

please show me your Joan Mitchell and Sam Francis landscape photographs


I'M CALLING BS ON YOU ALL

-this is so mods know it's meant to be light-hearted




compositon isn't sketchbooks, charcoal, piano, violins or musical notes or whatever notes are drawn on

it's just balance



where do I learn composition from

football


take the time to see space and you're learning composition
no phd or vest needed





PS
Love how you won't take the time to spell WITH but will right afterwards "..leisurely, contemplative pace, I absorb lessons about light, lines, perspective, masses, space, and their interaction "

it's like you're trying to make it not so evident that you're REALLY TRYING HERE

[Vaughn]

By looking at a negative on the light table and realizing, "Well, that did not work like I thought it would." Then I turn it upside down and think, "That's what I saw on the GG and it works!" But alas, upside down landscapes are not considered a new movement in photography.

[Heroique]

By looking at a negative on the light table and realizing, “Well, that did not work like I thought it would.” Then I turn it upside down and think, “That's what I saw on the GG and it works!” But alas, upside down landscapes are not considered a new movement in photography.

Maybe do more of those lakeside landscapes w/ upside-down reflections – that way, your composition has something for everyone, no matter which way you turn it!