Photography Composition - 12 Composition Rules for Your Photos to Shine By James Carren

Shape
Shape is another great guide you can use to your advantage, to cause the viewer’s eye to
move where you want it to go. We obviously know that everything has a shape, but if you
are a new photographer, have you ever stopped to look around you and really consider the
shapes that are in a room?
Repetitive shapes are especially pleasing, and these can be anything, from lines to
triangles to circles. The repetition can be used to guide the eye in a circle, or in any shape
you want, around the photo. Let’s continue with the example of circles. I have a
photograph of mine which audiences have found especially pleasing due to the presence of
three concentric circles which I didn’t even realize at first. The photograph is of a girl in a
circle skirt. On the circle skirt is a pattern of trees around the hem. And the girl happens to
be sitting in a patch of grass that has been flattened down in a circle. The first circle of
grass draws your eyes to the dress, which in turn draws your eyes to the girl.
Like me, as you become a better photographer, you will learn to actively notice shape
before you take the picture.
Another thing that’s great to consider with shapes is number. If you have a number of
repetitive shapes in a photograph, it’s best if that’s an odd number. It just does something
to help with balance, which at first brush you might think is strange. But symmetrical
doesn’t always mean balance.
Consider not only the existing shapes that are around you (don’t forget about those
polygons), but shapes that you can make with the existing components of your
photograph. If, for example, you have three girls that you are photographing, consider
putting them in a triangular formation to guide the viewer’s eye around the photo. You can
use the point of that formulated triangle to draw attention to the subject of your photo, be
it the third girl or something else entirely.