Photography Composition Rules And How To Break Them
Photography, like any other field of study and practice, has certain rules we can follow to guarantee a beautiful result in an image. Specifically, there are rules about composition that might seem tried and true, but can sometimes be broken as an intentional choice by the photographer.
In this post, you’ll learn a bit about the most common photography composition rules and why sometimes you might want to break them and go in the completely opposite direction.
All of the images below are mine, taken during vacations and showing how I use or break rules at will. Please note that I’m not saying these are some great works of art and I encourage you to Google some of these rules to see other people’s (potentially better) examples.
This photo would fail miserably by not adhering to the rule of thirds in photography, but because my son is truly the center of attention, it works to put him in the middle.
THE RULE OF THIRDS
This most prominent photography composition rule says that you should always put the object of interest in a photograph at the intersection of lines within a grid of 3 horizontal and 3 vertical divisions in a frame. We are basically told never to put anything in the middle of the photograph if we want the image to look professional. While that might be true for some situations, there’s no reason why you can’t break this rule if you decide to do so!
In fact, there’s plenty of times when I’ll put one of my kids smack in the middle of the frame, as shown above. And why not? They’re certainly the center of attention!
Leading lines are perfectly illustrated in this image as the gravel path leads the viewer to the subjects of the photo.
No leading lines here, just two boys taking a break in a photo. This scenario works just as well, I think!
LEADING LINES
This rule simply states that you should use lines to lead the viewer’s attention to the point of interest. While keeping an eye on background elements within your image is always a good idea, you don’t have to rely on leading lines to create a compelling image. In many ways, using lines to lead the eye is expected and you can create a much more unexpected photograph when you intentionally break this rule.
Sometimes it’s more about showing the environment than filling the frame with your subject. Note that this image also uses leading lines to help guide the viewer.
FILL THE FRAME
Photography theory states that your subject should always fill up the frame in order to make the most impact. This means that whoever you are photographing should have little or no space around them. While that’s a really great rule to follow when you’re just starting out, it’s really fun to break when you create environmental portraits that draw more from the background than they do from the person in the image. In fact, you can create some really artistic compositions when you don’t fill the frame as suggested in this photography rule of thumb.
This image shows great symmetry with objects appearing on both sides equally.
This photograph has no symmetry whatsoever, but works on a more dynamic level with composition.
SYMMETRY
Another rule that’s fun to break is symmetry. This one suggests that keeping everything symmetrical will create a better composition than not. And it’s easy to see why symmetry plays such an important part in photography. As human beings, we are naturally attracted to more symmetrical faces and seek out symmetry in our world.. there’s a reason why a lot of houses are the same on both sides. But if you’re trying to make a statement with a photograph, going against this rule might just be a great way to do it. You can put your subject on one side of the image to make it heavier and lead the eye, instead of lining things up perfectly.. or seek out organic and chaotic compositions as shown above.
There isn’t much contrast in this photograph because both the background and all of my clothing is black, but that’s what creates a lot of the impact, too.
CONTRASTING COLORS
The last photography rule we’ll cover is that contrasting colors make for a more striking image. Color theory in general is endlessly fascinating and I encourage you to delve deeper into the topic (especially when it comes to what to wear in portraits), but for this specific rule, colors like red and green, orange and blue, and yellow and purple will create pleasing contrast for a striking photograph. In my own work, I break this rule all the time. In fact, I love my monotone images the most - portraits where the subject and the background are within the same shade. And why not? It’s simply something that fits my personal style more than implementing contrasting colors would. Once again, knowing color theory and being able to use it to your advantage is a great foundation to have, at which point you can start experimenting with color to see what resonates with you on a personal level.
OF COURSE, THERE ARE SOME PHOTOGRAPHY RULES THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER BREAK..
This image happens to be a great example of keeping the background simple so it doesn’t distract the viewer and cropping for biggest impact.. all the rules I try to ALWAYS follow when taking pictures.
DISTRACTING BACKGROUND
No matter what the subject of your photograph is, having a distracting background will always make the image a failure. And in photography, the main subject should always be the focus of the image. Things like lines, patterns, trees, leaves, houses, wires, weird horizon lines, busy streets, cars, etc.. are all background elements that can get in the way of your image telling the story you intended. This is something amateur photographers learn with time, because there’s always so much to keep in mind - but in the end, intentionally looking to see what’s in the background of your shot before you take that picture is an important last step to remember.
CLUTTER
Likewise, clutter in a photograph will always lead to confusion (unless you’re intentionally photographing something to create a feeling of overwhelm). Keeping your images simple and most of all, intentional, is one rule you should never break in photography. Every single aspect of that photograph should be where you wanted it, because it all works together to create the final image for the viewer.
CROPPING
Where you crop a photograph can make or break your image. And a badly cropped portrait is always bad and if at all possible, cropping should be done with intention and following the standard photography rules. This means not cropping at joint points on a person - wrists, knees, ankles, etc - in order to avoid creating an uncomfortable feeling for the viewer or making the person look stocky. You always want to use cropping to flatter the body, to create the illusion of length and slimming. Cropping correctly isn’t really a suggestion like some of the other rules we talked about and isn’t really open to interpretation because it’s based on some very direct results in an image as well as our human psychology.
I hope you enjoyed this rundown of the most common photography rules and how you might want to break them once in a while, just for fun. I hope you go out there and get creative with your picture taking! And don’t forget to leave a comment below and tell me what you think!