5 Photo Composition Hints. The Fourth Element - Space

5 Photo Composition Hints. The Fourth Element - Space

IV. Space Composition

The nature of space composition in photography has analogy with the subject of the theory of music, so it's possible to use a term "visual ear", which is similar to music ear. Its quality lies in the differentiation of harmonious and disharmonious combination in composition. In music it's a combination of notes, sense of rhythm, sequence of chords. In photography these are proportions of forms, color and lighting, the developing subject, different levels of the detailed elaboration.

The Birth of Venus, 1486. Uffizi, Florence. Sandro Botticelli

In the same way as the color is a material for emotional composition, in space composition it's geometry. But on the highest level geometry isn't the only element for space composition, as it is also built with the help of mental forms of subject composition and the combination of emotions and colors.

Behind the Gare St. Lazare, Henri Cartier-Bresson

If we analyze best photo works of all times we can notice that they are created on the basis of gold proportions of geometry. All parts of a photo should be balanced. If you create a central composition, you should know why you do it in this very way. Regular usage of the rule of Odds, rule of Thirds, Golden Mean, Golden Ratio and rules of perspective will allow you to create composition even without thinking a lot. You can read more about all these rules in our articles Composition Photography Rules and  What Everybody Ought to Know About Composition.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

There are three kinds of composition: frontal (2D), volume (3D) and deep space composition (so called four-dimensional). This differentiation is rather relative, because in practice we have various mixes of compositions.
If elements are placed on one surface vertically or horizontally according to the viewer it's a frontal composition, that always looks flat, hasn't got any kind of perspective (linear, tonal, etc.). It's more interesting to examine a three-dimensional shot, which consists of a form, having a relatively closed surface and being perceived from all sides. Its expressiveness and clearness depend on the angle of view, horizon line, surroundings, objects, which build this form. Space composition is formed with elements, volumes, surfaces, space and intervals between them. The feeling of deep space rises if some elements divide the space to the number of planes (the foreground, middle plane, background and so on). It's also considered that one of the main space composition elements is time, or it's more correct to tell "feeling of time", and it's a work of a master if you can feel it in the shot.

Types Of Composition In Comparison

	Frontal Composition	3D Composition	Spacial Composition
Dominance:	object	space	integral whole in space and time
Lines:	parallel, without crossing point	convergent, point-focused lines	spherical perspective, curved lines
Plastic:	geometry	sculpture	structure
Planes:	one plane, as a cutout	linear perspective	color-tonal perspective
Rhythm:	metric order (equal distance	rhythmic order (reducing distance)	max rhythmic order (vanishing distance)
State:	static	movement	action
Geometry:	symmetry	symmetry + asymmetry	asymmetry
Color:	complementary colors (opposite on the color wheel), equal amount	analogous colors (close on the color wheel), unequal amount	one-color tones, tonal softness, color nuance
Space:	closed	limited	unlimited

Be attentive when cropping your shot. Cropping and its proportions is a point of rest in your future composition. If you gained a foothold you've already done half of the work. It's rather important for a novice to learn how to feel the crop, so it's not recommended to use wide-angle lens and telephoto lens, doing first steps in photography, because they distort real proportions of the shot and its perspective. A mistake in space composition is critical for the whole shot as a false note.

We use a lot of terms to describe composition. Among them are lines, shapes, forms, colors, unity, subordination, dominance, coherence, balance, rhythm, positive and negative space, proportions, chaos and so on. We suggest you  reading not a very long article (but rich in content) "COMPOSITION & the ELEMENTS of VISUAL DESIGN" by Dr. Robert Berdan.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

How To Develop Visual Ear?
We should admit that the nature of musical and visual ear is almost not studied as a subject of progress. It's an intuition that helps to create great works in every sphere of Art, from physics to acting, from archery to photography. Every canon, every rule is just a basis of development: using the rules without an intuition, one can possess only technical skills. But it's also a possibility to train to that level, when you don't think about technical side, but allow your mind to make qualitative change.

The Main Tip for the visual ear development is to start taking photo-etudes.

• It's a composition of natural origin, don't manipulate with objects to make it possible to realize and calculate their spacel interaction.
• Exclude subject composition from your shot. Perceive a composition as a combination of geometric forms, not paying attention to the story, color, sense or showy content.
• Try to avoid beautiful, effective or shocking objects. Portraits, nude, glamour models, landscapes are stricken off.

• Don't be carried away, playing with DOF, photo effects here are the unnecessary luxury.
• The main task is the viewpoint that you should "find out" yourself.
• You don't need to go far away for shooting photo-etudes, you can find a good one even at your place.

Paris, 1953. Marc Riboud

Practice makes perfect!
Every learning process is started slowly and consciously. Step by step, through the repetition the quality is born. The feeling of composition is something we can train and foster, so let us do it!