Recommend a book on Composition?

[Chicken Pox]

I'm sure it's been covered before but any recommendations welcome for birthday present for:
-general composition (something a little further on than 'rule of thirds' etc)
-composition for landscapes
cheers
Pox

Edited by Chicken Pox on Tuesday 21st September 16:32

[clk55pete]

How about "The Photographer's Eye (Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos)". By Michael Freeman.

I like it and found it useful.

[Nick M]

clk55pete said:

How about "The Photographer's Eye (Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos)". By Michael Freeman.

I like it and found it useful.

+1


I also found "Learning to see creatively" by Bryan Peterson quite useful too. It goes well with his book "Understanding Exposure".

[xrrr]

clk55pete said:

How about "The Photographer's Eye (Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos)". By Michael Freeman.

I like it and found it useful.

+1 I found it useful but personally found it a bit dull to read!

For landscapes I try to make sure there is something in all of the 'rule of thirds' boxes. Meaning that if you drew the rule of thirds lines over the image it would create 9 boxes on the screen. Make sure there is something different in all of the boxes.

So...
sky with interesting clouds in the top 3 boxes is fine as the clouds will be different shapes
flowers in the bottom 2 or 3 are fine as the flowers will add colour and interesting patterns
Grass in the bottom 3 boxes with nowt else going on is not fine.

For e.g. in this pic of mine:

Dawn on the Jurassic Coast by xrrr, on Flickr

Going from top left along the top I have:
Sun, clouds, clouds
cliff, bay, cliff
grass, hump, grass

The 3 grass boxes are a bit lacking and could have done with something more exciting going on in them.

and in this one:

Frosty Fence by xrrr, on Flickr

I have:
Sky, sky, sky
fence, trees, distance view
fence, frosty post, frosty fence

If the sky had been a bit cloudier then it would have made the image a lot better as it would have made the top 3 boxes sufficiently different to make things interesting.

Another tip is to choose one box and then look for lines that point to it. So in the image above I have the fence, the line of trees and the horizon all pointing to the top left of the image. Shame there is nothing interesting happening in that box!

These rules of thumb work reasonably well for me but they are there to be broken.

[fathomfive]

Nick M said:

clk55pete said:

How about "The Photographer's Eye (Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos)". By Michael Freeman.

I like it and found it useful.

+1


I also found "Learning to see creatively" by Bryan Peterson quite useful too. It goes well with his book "Understanding Exposure".

+2 on The Photographers Eye

[Major Bloodnok]

fathomfive said:

Nick M said:

clk55pete said:

How about "The Photographer's Eye (Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos)". By Michael Freeman.

I like it and found it useful.

+1


I also found "Learning to see creatively" by Bryan Peterson quite useful too. It goes well with his book "Understanding Exposure".

+2 on The Photographers Eye

and from me, although I disagree with him about square format being 'difficult'.

[Chicken Pox]

Thanks gents Photographers Eye it is