Photography was Hard Until I Learned This!

composition within the world of Photography is one of those things that has absolutely no shortage of opinions and and tips and best practices but like all things some words of wisdom they they stick with you a bit more than others and in this video I'm going to share with you something that completely simplify the way that I look at composition as it relates to I guess where to put things within my frame because at the end of the day space is limited so you've got to use it wisely so this is a a new photograph

from the dolomite right here on the left side of the frame this is the completed image here and then this image right here on the right file is the uh on on the right side of the screen is the raw file now I went back and forth on how best to explain this and I think showing you different crops is a great way to I guess mimic the on location compositional changes that I was thinking about when I captured this Photograph now there is a technique called shooting for the crop which if you're not familiar

with what that is or if it's not something that you practice when you're on location I'll explain to you real quick what it is but I would highly highly recommend that you do it so this right here as I mentioned completed file this is the raw file on the right side here so let's come over here to the raw file if I come over here to the crop tool as you can see this is the entire photograph right here if uh what happens a lot of times is you know I often shoot with uh you

know pretty wide-angle lenses especially when I like to do um a vertical orientation or a portrait orientation as this image right here is but these field of are the uh these wideangle lenses are so wide this is a 14 mm uh image and it creates just overly tall photographs so what I like to do is come over here to the crop tool and drop this down to 4x5 just to kind of shrink that crop a little bit and often times maybe unlock that uh the lock right there and just kind of bring up certain areas

of the scene got there maybe a little bit right here but ultimately what I'm trying to do is determine what areas of the scene add value what areas of the scene are the most interesting these are very important things to consider and shooting for the crop is basically when you get on location you you know you compose your photograph you build your composition and once you think you have it set zoom out just a few millimeters to give yourself some additional breathing room around your frame because you can always crop in to refine your composition

in post but you can't crop out so a lot of times if you get your composition I guess too locked in when you're on location and then you get it back on your computer and you want to make some compositional changes like this right here if you're too zoomed in you're not giving yourself any kind of leeway to to crop in your frame so shooting for the crop is something that has really helped me and it's something that I would highly recommend that you experiment with as well so for this image right here you know

I the light was happening so quickly through here I think I only got one or two handheld images captured but I was wasn't 100% certain what I wanted to do with the bottom of this rock here obviously I like the sky there's a lot of detail in the sky there's a lot of little bit of blue a little bit of gray very Dynamic very mov booody conditions happening here so I knew I wanted to capture that that added value to the scene this area down here I wasn't 100% certain but I wanted to make sure

I captured it in in case I decided later that I do want that in there but now I don't think I do so I'm going think I'm going to bring the crop up a little bit here to maybe something about like that because this area down here I don't believe is adding much value to the scene so we could bring it up there a little bit oops not that far maybe to about right here and then bring this area here because I think that this area adds more value than this area here we kind of

bring the right side over a little bit because there's no not that's this area here is not really adding much to the overall scene maybe bring this area in just a touch and something like this looks much more focused much more dialed in because I was ultimately getting rid of the areas that were not adding value and using that additional real estate to add the area that was adding value into the scene I guess that's a good way to to say it because the Sky up here is more interesting than the area of the rock

down here let me close this down and go to another photograph right here oops hit escape and go back to the library let's go down here to the grid this image right here from the Pharaoh Islands this is the completed image here and then this is the raw file so this is the completed photograph and this is the raw file and I know I mentioned this to kick this video off but in photography space is very very limited and you've got to use it wisely so so if you think about it this area here this

is what the entire scene is that's not a whole lot of real estate right through there so where you put things in your frame is absolutely critical so I'm always asking myself on location does this much Sky add value to the scene is that this area over here valuable should I add this into my scene or should I not add this area into my scene and that really helps me when composing a photograph and this is a very good example of this because I absolutely love this Cloud right through here if I come up here

the develop module let's go down here to crop again let's put on that 4x5 and move this down a touch but as you can see this Cloud deck right here I really really enjoyed that but everything above it this area here how much real or how much value does this add to the scene right through here is there an area of the photograph that adds more value than that that I should be adding into this Photograph and for me the answer is yes absolutely so I wanted to bring this down because I want to reduce

that area of kind of nothingness above that nice Cloud deck because I want to be able to capture this rock right through here let me unlock this real quick and we can bring this down to where I can capture that little bit there because I think that that anchors the the the foreground very very well so for me this area through here this rock added more value to the scene than this area up here above the clouds let me close this down so you can see the uh the final version right through here now although

the foreground is a little bit darker you can still see that rock there and I think that that adds a lot of value in this area up here that that nothing area is no longer there so I was basically swi swapping this for that area up there or to not have that area up there and I think that that was definitely the right decision in this particular scene we got another example of this right here this is a great example of it here but always asking yourself does this certain area of your photograph add value

to the scene is there an area of your photograph that is a little bit more interesting because the space that you have to frame your your photograph in regardless of what focal length you're using the space is very limited so use it accordingly you only have so much real estate in your scene this is another image from the recent trip to the dolomites let me hit the crop tool here and we can bring that 4x5 in if we want to and if we bring it up a little bit so what happens a lot of times

and I do this all the time with Reflections you know it's a common question where do you put the Horizon in your scene if it's a reflection a lot of times I'll put that Horizon dead center of the photograph something like that because reflection scenes it's one of the big benefits of shooting Reflections is it creates a very harmonious a very balanced very simplified photograph and by putting that horizon line in the dead center your scene that just adds to the Simplicity or that harmonious aspect of a photograph so a lot of times with beautiful

reflection photos I will do that let me go back here and just reset this but for this particular image there is a lot of other Beauty that's happening here so if I were to let me bring that back down to 4x5 put that Horizon in the dead center something something like that you can can see I miss out on all that right there and I definitely don't want to do that I love the foreground right through here these leaves so when I'm cropping this Photograph the big question is do I want to add more sky

or do I want to add more leaves and this is kind of where that ultimate question comes in what is adding the most value to your photograph are those leaves more interesting than the top of those clouds or the top of those clouds more interesting than those leaves in my opinion the leaves are the most important part so what I would do this scenario is probably put that horizon line right around that third grid right through there that way I'm still picking up a fair amount of these leaves through here I really like these reads

sticking out of the water right through there so I want to kind of pick those up so I'm getting you know plenty of leaves but I'm also getting the clouds here because I think you'd agree this area up here like how much additional value is that adding to the photograph versus if I wanted to capture all of the sky now I'm losing a little bit of those leaves so I think that asking yourself that question you know where is the most interesting aspect of the scene because at the end of the day when you frame

up your photograph you are going to have to make a decision because your space is limited what is more interesting is it is it item a or Item B or or element a or element B whatever the case may be this is another great example of this here this is from uh recent trip to Colorado earlier this year if I hit reset here you can see that this image there is a lot of information captured in this Photograph here once again a 14 mm lens and a vertical orientation captured a massive area but how much

value is being is is this right here adding in when I first captured the photograph I was like oh I like all of this natural framing right through here but this feels just a little bit messy to me I definitely want to Capt you know I don't want to lose this tree I definitely don't want to lose this Cloud I didn't give myself a lot of additional room in the in the sky here so I don't think I want to make any changes with that but I think that I do want to bring this up

a touch to maybe something about right maybe like this is starting to look a little bit better I kind of like the way that the mountain exits the frame up here versus the way the mount exits the frame here they're kind of at the very very similar positions I'm still able to capture this Cloud able to capture this tree but I'm eliminating a lot of this area down through here where all of this Edge everywhere here how much value is that really adding to the photograph personally I don't think it was adding really any value

to the scene and this right here seems like a much more balanced much more focused and much more simplified composition a little bit cleaner another example right here about Horizon Lines so this is a great example of this where a beautiful reflection photo and putting that Horizon practically dead actually it's almost exactly dead center of this Frame another example of this let me close this down another Horizon photograph putting that or I should say reflection photograph Horizon right in the center of the scene right through here once again so whenever you do have a a

hor a good reflection photograph a lot of times putting that Horizon right in the center of the scene is a great way to do that but when you start getting these kind of photographs where there's just absolutely you know oops let me go back here again no reflection in the photograph at all but there's a lot going on and you come into um you know your post-processing session and you're going to start uh cropping it trying to refine it a little bit more bring this out you have to make decisions as to what is more

interesting what's adding the most value to your scene and by asking yourself these kind of questions it's going to help you to better crop your photographs but most importantly it's going to help you when you're on location to determine exactly you know what areas of a composition should you include in your photograph what areas of a composition should you exclude because I think getting the composition selected you know this scene was very simple beautiful grff Mill little waterfall right through here mountains in the background and trees easy composition right but you got so much other

noise that surround sounds compositions and no matter what you're photographing you'll have your composition then you have a lot of other little external things that are near your composition and that's when you're going to have to start asking yourself what's adding the most value to my seam what is more interesting and that asking yourself that question is going to help you determine what you might want to include and what you might want to exclude but as I mentioned to kick off this video shooting for the crop is an absolutely fantastic best practice to get into

because it's going to give you much more flexibility when you go to edit your photographs remember you can always crop in but you can't crop out so shooting for the crop is absolutely imperative so I do hope that that information is helpful it's something that has really helped me when refining a composition when I'm on location because I always used to struggle with do I want to include this or do I want to include that if I have to pick one or the other which one will I include or which one will I exclude just

asking yourself those quick questions what's most interesting what's adding the most value we definitely help you out at least I hope it will cuz it's helped me out substantially so if you do have any questions please leave those in the comment section below and I will do my best to get back in touch with you as soon as humanly possible and if you did enjoy this week's video if you could give it a thumbs up subscribe to the channel if you're not subscribed already and as always I really do appreciate you carving out a little

bit of time to spend it with me here today and I will see you all next Wednesday bye