It's lovely to hear you talk about Negative Space and explain that empty space is different to neg space. It really frustrates me to hear photographers and judges, not understand this. I've come to photography from an Art background and was taught that negative space defines the subject. It is a common exercise to draw something ie a pair of scissors, by drawing the shapes around them. Great video today. For me, composition is King, everything else is secondary.
Photography to me is quite a strange subject to try and analyse, more often than not you get images that seem to break all the rules but still somehow work. I honestly have learned more out of my flukes than intentional compositional study.
Even the pictures that you use as examples of what to avoid look amazing, the the good ones look stunning. I think what puts them over the edge for me is the lighting. I recently got into photography, and I find it's fairly easy to forget to consider the shapes the light make, and the pictures you showed here are just amazing.
Nigel, this is one of "those"clips to me: so full of useful advice and examples that it warrants watching again, and making notes. And the way you explain things makes so much sense. I immediately understood and related to the points you were making. I think taking time at a location is something everyone *can* do. Even me. 😉So thanks so much for this.
wow, excellent. Composition in a nutshell - 23 minutes of video consisting of about 23 years of analysis, experience and development in photography. As impressive as it is helpful. Thank you!
Review stage definitely a key component to the learning cycle. In the Fire Service, the process was called structured debrief and same principal as photography i.e. what went well, what didn't and what you would do different the next time. Hope you get your MRI soon Nigel and you can embark on your journey of recovery
Thanks Nigel, super useful tips! Breaking the cycle with a 'why' question is so important as you say, because talent and flukes can only make so many good photos. This is where I think you need a foundation in theory to be able to evaluate, and you do such a wonderful job presenting theory without making it feel like theory.
I think to have the mindset of "how will that look from different perspectives/angles?" is a good one to carry with you whenever you shoot landscape images. This allows for the creative arrangement of the elements within your shot(s). For those who may struggle with getting good shots, it is often a good idea to actually shoot a bunch of images from these different viewpoints/angles and to then critically analyse them once you get back into your editing software back at home. This gets you into the "Why?" area much quicker and as a matter of course.
I value your opinions on composition very much and learn the most when you hop on your ipad and use the pencil to draw out the elements in the photo and really break it down for us in your videos. Thank you for doing that. I don’t see any other photographers on youtube doing that. Great work, as always.
You're BEYOND helpful, your photos are so beautiful, absolutely captivating. I am so grateful for your tips, these videos are so encouraging and helpful!
Taking enough time is the key in creating a compelling art. This includes taking a lot of photos, analysing them, revisiting the same places over again and again, observing and many more.
One of your best yet in my opinion This video really resonated and deals so well with issues that will be common to so many of us. It takes real discipline to avoid being 'lost' in the experience, slow down, and really think hard about the compositional elements. Great piece of work. 👏
Great advice! I should definitely take more time evaluating why some of my images work or don't work. The feeling of being in an incredible landscape but not figuring out a working composition really is a tough one.
What makes an epic photo? Composition, subject, light/weather 1. Give your picture room to breathe 2. Avoid 'dead space' 3. Pay attention to light 4. Connect elements of an image together 5. Pay attention to particular elements of the whole landscape 6. Use the foreground to your advantage 7. Take your time when shooting.
Very useful info about needing to know WHY your photos are unsuccessful to be able to improve. one thing I would add, if your struggling to figure out the why, trying comparing the bad photo to one of your good ones. Or someone else's good photo. This way you can look at the differences to identify elements that make an image look good or bad.
Thank you for this amazing walk through! It explains to me why in a lot of situations, I look at my photo, feel like I captured something important but the picture just does not seem right. I need to think more about light and shape!
a really neat and contraversial lesson that makes sense when you really think about it: In landscape photography, a photo taken with a wide angle lens is most likely going to be worse than a photo taken with a long / telephoto lens (such as a 70-200mm). The reason is just a matter of odds / difficulty of composition when you're on two feet and are limited by where you can physically be relative to a scene and what objects you can work with within the scene you're inside of. With a wide angle shot, it will almost always flop if you don't have a decently sized, well lit, obvious point of interest, with a supporting foreground / background, without a "clean" frame that doesn't have extra distractions in it, with leading lines that lead to the subject... the list goes on and on. With a telephoto zoom (70-200 lets say), you can be much more precise in what you're choosing as the point of interest, you can compress the image and have more control over its layers, the negative space, etc. So is one lens better than the other for landscape work? technically no, but in practice yes, a wide angle lens is rarely going to be the right choice, because of how incredibly hard it is to position yourself to find the right image at the wide end of the range. Of course I take both when I'm on a hike, but the 70-200 get's used about 98% of the time, and when I finally pull out my wide angle and use it, I almost never love the image afterwards (except once in a while of course)
Finally! I found a video about how to actually COMPOSE a photo. I've loved my journey of learning about cameras, photography, and how to edit photos, but finally, I come across a video on what to shoot and why. For the longest time, I've been looking for a video explaining these concepts.
As an amateur photographer, I've always thought of these aspects of the art as "ineffable." That is, certain things work (and certain things don't) for reasons that I was never able to articulate. This video tears away some of that veil of mystery, and I think it will help me articulate some of those "ineffable" elements.
Not to boast, but I feel very lucky to have been able to detect most of these mistakes on my own in my time in photography. Took me a really long time, but it all makes sense, if you sit down and think about it! Negative space, elements agreeing with each other, tying them together... Having someone tell you that this does not look good for this reason, or this looks good for that reason, really makes you realize how right they are, and I finally realize all my ideas really do stand! This really did help me understand that I'm going the right way, and gave me ideas for my future amateur photography. Thank you for this!
Definitely one of my favorite tutorials.Thanks, Nigel. My personal trick is listening to some music that organizes my mind very well while trying to figure out what is the suitable composition.
What I love from this is how I've realized I've been using negative space Incorrectly as shown, But as of recent after getting tips from some fellow photographers, I've been goinh through images where things are able to breathe, and I've started to see what I'm lining up when I'm shooting. I think by studying my good compositions and making them mental images and going out and practicing to make images that aren't EPIC, but compostionally correct has helped me overall. I still have great takeaways from this, but it definetley confirmed errors I've been making for a long time.
Really useful tips. I really like how you emphasised how you can learn better composition. Just because it doesn't come naturally doesn't mean you can't improve and get better. Good life advice, not just for photography!
Thanks as always Nigel for being the consummate teacher. There are many good points here to consider back in front of my photos in Lightroom. Thank you! One point that stood out for me, near the end, is about taking enough time. Ideally, no question, having a lot of time to size up the environment will help. However, it can be a bit of a geographic luxury. Relatively speaking, the sun rises/sets notably more slowly in England than in the more southerly location where I live. The light is changing much more quickly here, and even when I get to a location well before sunrise/sunset, I often don't have a lot of time to size up a given lighting situation because it's morphing quickly. Getting there early definitely helps, but even then I don't often have the time to sit and have that apple.
Thank you for the samples and analysis, they help me understand why most of my landscape photos don’t work. I might not remember all of them the next time I take photos, but will make sure to keep 1-2 in mind at a time
I often wonder why experienced photographers like yourself and other RUclipsrs never mention or hardly ever mention the rule of the thirds yes I know I am showing my age but it has been around for years and even before that a term of composition called Hogarth's line of beauty, you may remember that yourself but again it's never mentioned, I often wonder why, in both situations they both work in compositions, once you have learnt them they stick in your brain and never forgot! I don't do much landscape photography but I love looking at landscapers on RUclips. I am more of a Illustrative photographer but those rules still apply. I found your subject this week very interesting, and Thank You for telling us your views on this matter. Oh some of those failures got the thumbs up by me, and that one that you liked with the guy on the tip of the cliff, wow! Thank you!
I find using grid lines helps me and using the rule of 3rds. It forces me to think about composition whilst on the ground setting the shot and how elements balance out in the frame.
I started photography as a hobby and new medium for my artistic talents. It has been a slow process for me since I am learning a lot on my own. This video has been very informative and helpful. Thank you for making this video because it gave me a lot to use. I’m saving this as one of my favorites to revisit.
Recently watched a video by Chris Perea, and she quoted Ansel Adams - There's nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. Not sure if that's actually something he said, or if it's just attributed to him. Regardless, those words ring true to what you're saying. Taking time to find your best shot is worth it. I think I read that Ansel Adams spent four nights waiting for his best shot for Moonrise Hernandez.
I would like to thank you. your videos have helped tremendously. have slowed down and started to observe more and I am now noticing small things in my photos that I found myself going back to the location to correct the composition by repositioning my camera then comparing the photos to pin point my errors. once a gain thanks
The standout comment for me is about taking your time! It's so easy to get to a location and be buzzing with excitement because your eyes and brain are taking all the information in and processing it in context of where you are. It makes you believe that what the camera records is exactly what you are feeling in that moment, and it really isn't! You have to take your time (have an apple!) and study carefully and patiently, and judge by the viewfinder and not what your eyes are taking in about the whole experience. You see tourists arrive at a location and immediately start snapping randomly in every direction with no thought of composition, because they are caught up in the moment. Give yourself 15 mins to look at your camera screen and really analyse what your camera sees, not what your stereoscopic eyes and 180 degree vision are telling you.
This is my first time watching, experiancing your video. This is wonderful. It works for anyone to see and learn and not only for starters, it is very very good for experienced ones as well. Thank you.
2 года назад+2
Thank you, Nigel, for such an enlightening video on composition. I fit into that category of those not naturally gifted when it comes to composition. It was very helpful to see your examples of what worked and did not work in your photography. I do appreciate you sharing those mistakes as well as what you got right. For me, although all the tips you gave were extremely relevant, I had one point that I related to quite a lot. It was at the very end of the video when you talked about taking time, "having an apple." I love travel photography. However, I don't always have the luxury to have an apple and take in the scene that is before my eyes. I am often rushed when doing travel photography. It was very refreshing to hear about the problem you had in Antarctica when you didn't have enough time to explore a scene for very long. Thanks for this great video and the tips you gave us.
That was good. There is so much non-information on RUclips. I watched about half a dozen videos on macro photography yesterday without learning anything. Conversely, I got some useful ideas from this video. Thanks!
Very helpful explanation and I think you have developed a natural feel for composing by practice and iteration. There is a big difference between finding reasoning in why a photo works "after" the shot has been captured, and proactively using this knowledge whilst live composing (because one probably does not have the necessary experience, yet). It's good to know the basics, but my advise would be to take as many shots as you can, analyze them afterwards and try to figure out "why" some photos work better than others. You'll gradually start to take less "random" pictures, and you'll get a feel for it naturally. I really enjoyed your video and I also like watching people "explore" their own work from years ago!
Thanks Nigel. Great video! Using examples of bad shots vs great shoots really highlights your tips much more than any other videos I've watched on composition. What would be really great if at the end you put up a picture, pause and asked the viewer to find the mistakes or the what makes the photo great. Sorta like a pop quiz to affirm the knowledge gained. 10/10 video!
Get well soon Nigel. One underappreciated aspect of your channel is just how great your video skills are. While you are at home, would you be able to talk about how you get such great video out of the Nikon z system? What picture profile/ LUTs do you use and what does your editing process look like? There's a dearth of information on RUclips about the Nikon's video abilities, and you have clearly repeatedly demonstrated that you know how to get the best out of the system. Thanks for all the infotainment!
Thank you, Nigel, for another interesting, informative video. I question everything in life, as a normal matter of course. So indeed, the question 'why' in photo compositions should be my priority - why it is working, or why doesn't the same scene work. You are an inspiration with your great information. Hope your knee is less painful, as time goes on. No doubt Pebbles is thinking and hoping the same!
Very very helpful guidance. i am an absolute novice hobbyist photographer who has moved away from mobile phone photography, to what i will call proper photography. I am starting from the beginning & the content of Your videos Nigel is very helpful. I have an old Sony NEX 5R mirrorless camera with kit lens & also 200 zoom. The camera is only 16 mega Pixel & I was going to sell it all & look for a more upto date mirrorless, however after watching your recent video I am going to stick with the NEX 5R for a while until my photography has improved. At this stage of my hobby I don't think having more mega pixels & better auto focus etc is going to be noticeable in my photos. Thanks for creating such informative videos
This is amazing and delaightully clear, this makes me think in all of those things that seems to me noisy in my photos, inspires me to create walls with all of this posibilities and anotations, there are plans for create a photo studio with some folks I know, if that makes somewhere, I definitley will take all this advices to, thank you Nigel!
I really love the way you explain your thinking with regards composition and how you find elements that can connect and tell a shared story. It's something I constantly try to do and hearing you explain your thought process was really refreshing. Great video :)
Shooting in cemeteries can be difficult, just have to allow for a lot of dead space. Sorry Nigel, couldn’t help myself. Great tips as always. Stay safe 🇦🇺
Hi Nigel, thank you for the video. When you're at a location, sometimes it's hard not to overcome by the 'scene'. From now on I'm taking some apples. So hard to slow down. An apple a day keeps the doctors away! . . . . . and makes for better images. Appreciate all the hard work. Jay Maisel (photojournalist) focuses on three elements in a photograph: LIGHT, COLOR, and GESTURE. Landscape photography . . . Gesture? Enveloping fog, rolling clouds, long exposure (ND) seascapes. Learning to not just look but see.
As a beginner, I think my major issue is that I think many of your "mistake" examples look great. If I can't tell what's good from what's bad, how can I improve at all?
I'm a last year photography student in college. The experience of it showed me how subjective it all is. Different teachers will always have different opinions or give different feedback, some of their tips are even the opposite of what I saw in this video. Neither of them are wrong. Art changes constantly. What he shows works for him, take this video as inspiration, not as a set of rules and find out what works for you. When analysing your photos write down what you like and what you dislike to keep in mind during your next shoot. Do what you think is right as long as you try to accomplish your goals.
Great one Nigel. Thanks for all the tips. I’ve got the same shot of the rocks and Mads at Dranganir (of course I was standing next to you!) and converted it in B&W; I like how it emphasizes the shadows and the contrasts in the image.
Definitely the hardest part is composition. I have friends who are artistically gifted, and shoot some amazing shots with their phone. They see the world like that. I don't. I think #7, Time is my biggest challenge, as I shoot the most when travelling/sailing. Not always time to give it my best. Great video, looking forward to Antartica shots!
I am very much a beginner in having my photos assessed in competitions. Some interesting comments I have had: - "Exposure well controlled": the judge did not know that the photo was taken in totally automatic mode with a cheap (about £150) camera. - "not enough space around the main subject; feels squashed": I had not realised the "squashed" issue before, but then I decided I liked it! - another judge, about someone else's photo, suggested cropping the foreground, and keeping the "3 trees" in the background. I thought the foreground was the interesting bit, and that "3 trees" was a cliché. I found that the judges, and the long-term photo club members as well, were often appreciative of unusual photos, because long-time were often "stuck in a rut": comments like "I've taken that photo myself" and "at that viewpoint you can see the 3 marks on the ground of previous tripods [maybe be not literally]".
Thanks for this Nigel. Very informative as usual. The rocks at 20:00 are the Rocks at Ribeira da Janela in Madeira. I have almost exactly the same positioning of my shot, even to the point of the waves hitting the rocks at the same time! But I shot it landscape. A portrait view would have been so much more powerful (as yours is).
I’m studying at college we have to present our photos with some data ie aperture, shutter speed, iso, and focal length. I’ve taken to making a note when taking photos to record this, I know I can get it from the data on screen but the whole process works well for me. We also debrief each others photos . I’m thinking about joining a local photography group as I get so much out of debriefing the photos which is definitely the why phase. I think it’s really important to debrief the photos that were good as well
I was just about to type "try adding human figures in your photos to improve the composition" and then you showed the seaside photo with the solitary person. You go on about shadows and light, but the reason why that photo is great is the human figure. I like straight-up landscape photography as well, but often the most memorable photos include people, animals or birds. I loved the first light table diagram of "epic photo" being derived from the light, subject and weather. I would add to that people or some other living element, at least sometimes. Just my two cents. Love your videos.
Nigel, you accomplished something here. I actually picked up some new ways to think about composition. My self-analysis will be better now. Thank you. Oh, and your personality comes across nicely here.
Great video Nigel. Due to your fantastic advice, I’ve challenged myself to identify strong elements in other photographer’s images and write positive comments. Using your criteria helps provide specific feedback and hopefully this will help others feel appreciated too.
Great presentation, it’s awesome to learn while viewing stunning photos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise with examples of what to do and not do, much appreciated 🙏
Hey, im a new videographer, and im learning in videographer school! And i understand your thinking process about compozition, but it really is proffesionally talked thru it will be really hard to understand to a new photographer! But thanks you gave me new ideas!!!👍
Thank you! You gave me so much to think about and put it all into context. I now understand the concept of negative space because you explained it so well and showed us the other elements that come into play. I can’t wait to go back out and take photographs exercising the concepts I learned here.
Excellent lecture. Valid and relevant. I can mention another photographer, not competing with Nigel, as he worked in another domain of photography. If you want to see very clear examples of "light" in the composition-subject-light triangle, then look at the work of Fan Ho and it becomes immediately clear.
Thanks Nigel, I think it all comes down to taking your time, reviewing photo's in the field and try to improve. As also Henri Turner points out, Hey you've found a great background, now find a foreground interest to go with that ! How's your knee doing ? I'm also curious when & what photo's people have submitted you're gonna post-process...
Hi Nigel, Great tips. Thank you for putting so much effort into this. I'm just starting out with photography. I haven't developed a creative eye so far. Seeing a good composition is really hard for me. What would help is to see different pictures from the same scenery. A few examples from what works and what doesn't.
Thanks for making this really quick but densely packed informative piece. I just subbed because you didn’t spend half the video telling me about your channel but went right into the crash course. Thanks and will be checking out all your other vids!
Thanks Nigel … Reading through the comments, I’ve not much more to add , other than a massive Thank you for this content .. so useful and looking at ‘simply stunning’ photographs you can see what you say makes perfect sense … I will spend more time looking for these shapes in my photos- Just one question ? What is the tablet you use please and model ? It looks great for travel rather than the laptop - Again thanks 🙏
TLDW, here are the facts: There are no rules, there are no hard mistakes, every situation is different. You have to develop an instinct and a style to take photos you like and you can only do that with experimenting. It's also very much subjective.
Thanks for this great informative video Nigel. I am off to Sutherland and Caithness next week and these tips will come in very useful in hopefully taking better photos! Most of these tips are my failings in getting good photos. Thanks again.
Thank you you are a very good Photographer and you have your own style I can distinguish the above photos from others. Tell me , does the work on mistakes relate to portrait photography ? When you work with people? Health to you
I absolutely appreciate these tips but I find it difficult to realize all this on location. But the good thing is you learn by failing and intuitively get better.
thank you. a real pleasure to benefit from your advice. You are explaining very clearly those details wich distinguish good photographies from excellent shots!
Thank you Nigel very much! I just would like to asking you, what kind of tablet you used to show the pictures? Your work is really big inspiration! Thank you for that🙏🏻
Ah, your photos are so beautiful. The bad ones remind me on my lack of talent. 😀 But there is allot of negative space between your advices and how to see those things in real time while on location, unfortunately only one person is able to transfer that knowledge to us idiots, it is Mike Brown, such a brilliant teacher. 🙂 Thank you, great video and beautiful work. 🙂👍
This is a great video with a lot of potential. I love seeing the notes on the tablet-- that is super helpful. It would be fantastic if you could make a more succinct version of this for sharing with my photo students.
I'm definitely guilty of not taking time when out and about taking photos - I photograph concerts mostly where you only have a few songs and fast moving subjects, so I don't seem to shut that off when I'm photographing anything else. Definitely need to learn how to breath and look at the scene before taking a shot
You are an excellent communicator. I appreciate the quick "inside stories" behind some of the picture. Also your use of the Ipad and the pen is very effective. Btw, i have seen the black church of Budir 4 out of 5 times on trips to Iceland but with this beautiful perspective at 16:00.
It's lovely to hear you talk about Negative Space and explain that empty space is different to neg space. It really frustrates me to hear photographers and judges, not understand this. I've come to photography from an Art background and was taught that negative space defines the subject. It is a common exercise to draw something ie a pair of scissors, by drawing the shapes around them. Great video today. For me, composition is King, everything else is secondary.
Thanks - completely agree
ruclips.net/video/ti611j8pBjo/видео.html
🥺🎥👉💰👉📷
Photography to me is quite a strange subject to try and analyse, more often than not you get images that seem to break all the rules but still somehow work. I honestly have learned more out of my flukes than intentional compositional study.
I got some photos of a song sparrow as a train was going by in the background. The train car was bright yellow, giving the background some cool color.
That's cool
Even the pictures that you use as examples of what to avoid look amazing, the the good ones look stunning. I think what puts them over the edge for me is the lighting. I recently got into photography, and I find it's fairly easy to forget to consider the shapes the light make, and the pictures you showed here are just amazing.
Nigel, this is one of "those"clips to me: so full of useful advice and examples that it warrants watching again, and making notes. And the way you explain things makes so much sense. I immediately understood and related to the points you were making. I think taking time at a location is something everyone *can* do. Even me. 😉So thanks so much for this.
wow, excellent. Composition in a nutshell - 23 minutes of video consisting of about 23 years of analysis, experience and development in photography. As impressive as it is helpful. Thank you!
This is one of the best talks about composition I’ve seen, and I’ve watched a lot of them! Thank you so much.
Review stage definitely a key component to the learning cycle. In the Fire Service, the process was called structured debrief and same principal as photography i.e. what went well, what didn't and what you would do different the next time. Hope you get your MRI soon Nigel and you can embark on your journey of recovery
Thanks Nigel, super useful tips! Breaking the cycle with a 'why' question is so important as you say, because talent and flukes can only make so many good photos. This is where I think you need a foundation in theory to be able to evaluate, and you do such a wonderful job presenting theory without making it feel like theory.
I think to have the mindset of "how will that look from different perspectives/angles?" is a good one to carry with you whenever you shoot landscape images. This allows for the creative arrangement of the elements within your shot(s). For those who may struggle with getting good shots, it is often a good idea to actually shoot a bunch of images from these different viewpoints/angles and to then critically analyse them once you get back into your editing software back at home. This gets you into the "Why?" area much quicker and as a matter of course.
I value your opinions on composition very much and learn the most when you hop on your ipad and use the pencil to draw out the elements in the photo and really break it down for us in your videos. Thank you for doing that. I don’t see any other photographers on youtube doing that. Great work, as always.
Thanks so much
You're BEYOND helpful, your photos are so beautiful, absolutely captivating. I am so grateful for your tips, these videos are so encouraging and helpful!
Taking enough time is the key in creating a compelling art. This includes taking a lot of photos, analysing them, revisiting the same places over again and again, observing and many more.
One of your best yet in my opinion This video really resonated and deals so well with issues that will be common to so many of us. It takes real discipline to avoid being 'lost' in the experience, slow down, and really think hard about the compositional elements. Great piece of work. 👏
Great advice! I should definitely take more time evaluating why some of my images work or don't work. The feeling of being in an incredible landscape but not figuring out a working composition really is a tough one.
What makes an epic photo? Composition, subject, light/weather
1. Give your picture room to breathe
2. Avoid 'dead space'
3. Pay attention to light
4. Connect elements of an image together
5. Pay attention to particular elements of the whole landscape
6. Use the foreground to your advantage
7. Take your time when shooting.
Very useful info about needing to know WHY your photos are unsuccessful to be able to improve. one thing I would add, if your struggling to figure out the why, trying comparing the bad photo to one of your good ones. Or someone else's good photo. This way you can look at the differences to identify elements that make an image look good or bad.
Thank you for this amazing walk through! It explains to me why in a lot of situations, I look at my photo, feel like I captured something important but the picture just does not seem right. I need to think more about light and shape!
a really neat and contraversial lesson that makes sense when you really think about it: In landscape photography, a photo taken with a wide angle lens is most likely going to be worse than a photo taken with a long / telephoto lens (such as a 70-200mm). The reason is just a matter of odds / difficulty of composition when you're on two feet and are limited by where you can physically be relative to a scene and what objects you can work with within the scene you're inside of. With a wide angle shot, it will almost always flop if you don't have a decently sized, well lit, obvious point of interest, with a supporting foreground / background, without a "clean" frame that doesn't have extra distractions in it, with leading lines that lead to the subject... the list goes on and on. With a telephoto zoom (70-200 lets say), you can be much more precise in what you're choosing as the point of interest, you can compress the image and have more control over its layers, the negative space, etc. So is one lens better than the other for landscape work? technically no, but in practice yes, a wide angle lens is rarely going to be the right choice, because of how incredibly hard it is to position yourself to find the right image at the wide end of the range. Of course I take both when I'm on a hike, but the 70-200 get's used about 98% of the time, and when I finally pull out my wide angle and use it, I almost never love the image afterwards (except once in a while of course)
Finally! I found a video about how to actually COMPOSE a photo. I've loved my journey of learning about cameras, photography, and how to edit photos, but finally, I come across a video on what to shoot and why. For the longest time, I've been looking for a video explaining these concepts.
As an amateur photographer, I've always thought of these aspects of the art as "ineffable." That is, certain things work (and certain things don't) for reasons that I was never able to articulate. This video tears away some of that veil of mystery, and I think it will help me articulate some of those "ineffable" elements.
Not to boast, but I feel very lucky to have been able to detect most of these mistakes on my own in my time in photography. Took me a really long time, but it all makes sense, if you sit down and think about it! Negative space, elements agreeing with each other, tying them together... Having someone tell you that this does not look good for this reason, or this looks good for that reason, really makes you realize how right they are, and I finally realize all my ideas really do stand!
This really did help me understand that I'm going the right way, and gave me ideas for my future amateur photography. Thank you for this!
You really help me with what I think is the hardest part in photography!!! You videos are not only inspiring but soooo informative!!!!
Definitely one of my favorite tutorials.Thanks, Nigel. My personal trick is listening to some music that organizes my mind very well while trying to figure out what is the suitable composition.
What I love from this is how I've realized I've been using negative space Incorrectly as shown, But as of recent after getting tips from some fellow photographers, I've been goinh through images where things are able to breathe, and I've started to see what I'm lining up when I'm shooting. I think by studying my good compositions and making them mental images and going out and practicing to make images that aren't EPIC, but compostionally correct has helped me overall. I still have great takeaways from this, but it definetley confirmed errors I've been making for a long time.
I'm going over countless videos right now, these pointers are amazing, thank you.
Not once held a decent camera, can't wait to get practicing!
Really useful tips. I really like how you emphasised how you can learn better composition. Just because it doesn't come naturally doesn't mean you can't improve and get better. Good life advice, not just for photography!
This finally made some sense to me how important composition is and what it is thank you very much for your time I really appreciate it
Thanks as always Nigel for being the consummate teacher. There are many good points here to consider back in front of my photos in Lightroom. Thank you!
One point that stood out for me, near the end, is about taking enough time. Ideally, no question, having a lot of time to size up the environment will help. However, it can be a bit of a geographic luxury. Relatively speaking, the sun rises/sets notably more slowly in England than in the more southerly location where I live. The light is changing much more quickly here, and even when I get to a location well before sunrise/sunset, I often don't have a lot of time to size up a given lighting situation because it's morphing quickly. Getting there early definitely helps, but even then I don't often have the time to sit and have that apple.
Thank you for the samples and analysis, they help me understand why most of my landscape photos don’t work. I might not remember all of them the next time I take photos, but will make sure to keep 1-2 in mind at a time
Nigel, thank you so much, this was terrific. I am a landscape painter rather than photographer, but good composition is the same across all media.
I often wonder why experienced photographers like yourself and other RUclipsrs never mention or hardly ever mention the rule of the thirds yes I know I am showing my age but it has been around for years and even before that a term of composition called Hogarth's line of beauty, you may remember that yourself but again it's never mentioned, I often wonder why, in both situations they both work in compositions, once you have learnt them they stick in your brain and never forgot! I don't do much landscape photography but I love looking at landscapers on RUclips. I am more of a Illustrative photographer but those rules still apply. I found your subject this week very interesting, and Thank You for telling us your views on this matter. Oh some of those failures got the thumbs up by me, and that one that you liked with the guy on the tip of the cliff, wow! Thank you!
I find using grid lines helps me and using the rule of 3rds. It forces me to think about composition whilst on the ground setting the shot and how elements balance out in the frame.
I started photography as a hobby and new medium for my artistic talents. It has been a slow process for me since I am learning a lot on my own. This video has been very informative and helpful. Thank you for making this video because it gave me a lot to use. I’m saving this as one of my favorites to revisit.
Recently watched a video by Chris Perea, and she quoted Ansel Adams - There's nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. Not sure if that's actually something he said, or if it's just attributed to him. Regardless, those words ring true to what you're saying. Taking time to find your best shot is worth it. I think I read that Ansel Adams spent four nights waiting for his best shot for Moonrise Hernandez.
I would like to thank you. your videos have helped tremendously. have slowed down and started to observe more and I am now noticing small things in my photos that I found myself going back to the location to correct the composition by repositioning my camera then comparing the photos to pin point my errors. once a gain thanks
The standout comment for me is about taking your time! It's so easy to get to a location and be buzzing with excitement because your eyes and brain are taking all the information in and processing it in context of where you are. It makes you believe that what the camera records is exactly what you are feeling in that moment, and it really isn't! You have to take your time (have an apple!) and study carefully and patiently, and judge by the viewfinder and not what your eyes are taking in about the whole experience. You see tourists arrive at a location and immediately start snapping randomly in every direction with no thought of composition, because they are caught up in the moment. Give yourself 15 mins to look at your camera screen and really analyse what your camera sees, not what your stereoscopic eyes and 180 degree vision are telling you.
This is my first time watching, experiancing your video. This is wonderful. It works for anyone to see and learn and not only for starters, it is very very good for experienced ones as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Nigel, for such an enlightening video on composition. I fit into that category of those not naturally gifted when it comes to composition. It was very helpful to see your examples of what worked and did not work in your photography. I do appreciate you sharing those mistakes as well as what you got right. For me, although all the tips you gave were extremely relevant, I had one point that I related to quite a lot. It was at the very end of the video when you talked about taking time, "having an apple." I love travel photography. However, I don't always have the luxury to have an apple and take in the scene that is before my eyes. I am often rushed when doing travel photography. It was very refreshing to hear about the problem you had in Antarctica when you didn't have enough time to explore a scene for very long. Thanks for this great video and the tips you gave us.
That was good. There is so much non-information on RUclips. I watched about half a dozen videos on macro photography yesterday without learning anything. Conversely, I got some useful ideas from this video. Thanks!
Very helpful explanation and I think you have developed a natural feel for composing by practice and iteration. There is a big difference between finding reasoning in why a photo works "after" the shot has been captured, and proactively using this knowledge whilst live composing (because one probably does not have the necessary experience, yet). It's good to know the basics, but my advise would be to take as many shots as you can, analyze them afterwards and try to figure out "why" some photos work better than others. You'll gradually start to take less "random" pictures, and you'll get a feel for it naturally. I really enjoyed your video and I also like watching people "explore" their own work from years ago!
Thanks Nigel. Great video! Using examples of bad shots vs great shoots really highlights your tips much more than any other videos I've watched on composition. What would be really great if at the end you put up a picture, pause and asked the viewer to find the mistakes or the what makes the photo great. Sorta like a pop quiz to affirm the knowledge gained. 10/10 video!
Get well soon Nigel. One underappreciated aspect of your channel is just how great your video skills are. While you are at home, would you be able to talk about how you get such great video out of the Nikon z system? What picture profile/ LUTs do you use and what does your editing process look like? There's a dearth of information on RUclips about the Nikon's video abilities, and you have clearly repeatedly demonstrated that you know how to get the best out of the system. Thanks for all the infotainment!
I am not a photographer but this video is still really interesting to me. You are very good at taking pictures!
Super cool that you use what did not work in your photos to explain composition. It's a great lesson and will help me!
Excellent set of tips, Nigel. Giving yourself enough time to be able to take your time is a big one.
Thank you, Nigel, for another interesting, informative video. I question everything in life, as a normal matter of course. So indeed, the question 'why' in photo compositions should be my priority - why it is working, or why doesn't the same scene work.
You are an inspiration with your great information.
Hope your knee is less painful, as time goes on. No doubt Pebbles is thinking and hoping the same!
Very very helpful guidance. i am an absolute novice hobbyist photographer who has moved away from mobile phone photography, to what i will call proper photography. I am starting from the beginning & the content of Your videos Nigel is very helpful. I have an old Sony NEX 5R mirrorless camera with kit lens & also 200 zoom. The camera is only 16 mega Pixel & I was going to sell it all & look for a more upto date mirrorless, however after watching your recent video I am going to stick with the NEX 5R for a while until my photography has improved. At this stage of my hobby I don't think having more mega pixels & better auto focus etc is going to be noticeable in my photos. Thanks for creating such informative videos
This is amazing and delaightully clear, this makes me think in all of those things that seems to me noisy in my photos, inspires me to create walls with all of this posibilities and anotations, there are plans for create a photo studio with some folks I know, if that makes somewhere, I definitley will take all this advices to, thank you Nigel!
Fantastic video! I love how you are interactive and draw on your photos and really explain it, makes it easier to follow! Thank you!
I really love the way you explain your thinking with regards composition and how you find elements that can connect and tell a shared story. It's something I constantly try to do and hearing you explain your thought process was really refreshing. Great video :)
Thanks so much for this video Nigel. So helpful, it's almost criminal that we get videos like this for free!
Thanks, Nigel for showing a super great video, this video teaches and explains a lot about how to take better landscape photos, very cool video!
Shooting in cemeteries can be difficult, just have to allow for a lot of dead space.
Sorry Nigel, couldn’t help myself.
Great tips as always.
Stay safe 🇦🇺
Hi Nigel, thank you for the video. When you're at a location, sometimes it's hard not to overcome by the 'scene'. From now on I'm taking some apples. So hard to slow down. An apple a day keeps the doctors away! . . . . . and makes for better images. Appreciate all the hard work. Jay Maisel (photojournalist) focuses on three elements in a photograph: LIGHT, COLOR, and GESTURE. Landscape photography . . . Gesture? Enveloping fog, rolling clouds, long exposure (ND) seascapes. Learning to not just look but see.
As a beginner, I think my major issue is that I think many of your "mistake" examples look great. If I can't tell what's good from what's bad, how can I improve at all?
I'm a last year photography student in college. The experience of it showed me how subjective it all is. Different teachers will always have different opinions or give different feedback, some of their tips are even the opposite of what I saw in this video. Neither of them are wrong. Art changes constantly.
What he shows works for him, take this video as inspiration, not as a set of rules and find out what works for you. When analysing your photos write down what you like and what you dislike to keep in mind during your next shoot. Do what you think is right as long as you try to accomplish your goals.
Great one Nigel. Thanks for all the tips. I’ve got the same shot of the rocks and Mads at Dranganir (of course I was standing next to you!) and converted it in B&W; I like how it emphasizes the shadows and the contrasts in the image.
Definitely the hardest part is composition. I have friends who are artistically gifted, and shoot some amazing shots with their phone. They see the world like that. I don't. I think #7, Time is my biggest challenge, as I shoot the most when travelling/sailing. Not always time to give it my best. Great video, looking forward to Antartica shots!
Thankyou Nigel..great revision and reminder to be intentional when viewing potential landscape scenes.
I am very much a beginner in having my photos assessed in competitions. Some interesting comments I have had:
- "Exposure well controlled": the judge did not know that the photo was taken in totally automatic mode with a cheap (about £150) camera.
- "not enough space around the main subject; feels squashed": I had not realised the "squashed" issue before, but then I decided I liked it!
- another judge, about someone else's photo, suggested cropping the foreground, and keeping the "3 trees" in the background. I thought the foreground was the interesting bit, and that "3 trees" was a cliché.
I found that the judges, and the long-term photo club members as well, were often appreciative of unusual photos, because long-time were often "stuck in a rut": comments like "I've taken that photo myself" and "at that viewpoint you can see the 3 marks on the ground of previous tripods [maybe be not literally]".
This is my first Video Ive watched from you now and Im impressed how much I need to think about when I take a photo. Thanks for this🙌🏼
Thanks for this Nigel. Very informative as usual. The rocks at 20:00 are the Rocks at Ribeira da Janela in Madeira. I have almost exactly the same positioning of my shot, even to the point of the waves hitting the rocks at the same time! But I shot it landscape. A portrait view would have been so much more powerful (as yours is).
I’m studying at college we have to present our photos with some data ie aperture, shutter speed, iso, and focal length. I’ve taken to making a note when taking photos to record this, I know I can get it from the data on screen but the whole process works well for me. We also debrief each others photos . I’m thinking about joining a local photography group as I get so much out of debriefing the photos which is definitely the why phase. I think it’s really important to debrief the photos that were good as well
Really useful content. I get such a lot from this sort of review of what works and how to make your photos better. Thanks!
I was just about to type "try adding human figures in your photos to improve the composition" and then you showed the seaside photo with the solitary person. You go on about shadows and light, but the reason why that photo is great is the human figure. I like straight-up landscape photography as well, but often the most memorable photos include people, animals or birds. I loved the first light table diagram of "epic photo" being derived from the light, subject and weather. I would add to that people or some other living element, at least sometimes. Just my two cents. Love your videos.
Thank you so much Nigel - killer tips ( much needed by myself !) I will be practising these for years to come.. Kind Regards from Ireland !
Nigel, you accomplished something here. I actually picked up some new ways to think about composition. My self-analysis will be better now. Thank you. Oh, and your personality comes across nicely here.
Very generous to share your experience to all of us. Thank you with feelings..🙏
Great video Nigel. Due to your fantastic advice, I’ve challenged myself to identify strong elements in other photographer’s images and write positive comments. Using your criteria helps provide specific feedback and hopefully this will help others feel appreciated too.
Great presentation, it’s awesome to learn while viewing stunning photos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise with examples of what to do and not do, much appreciated 🙏
Hey, im a new videographer, and im learning in videographer school! And i understand your thinking process about compozition, but it really is proffesionally talked thru it will be really hard to understand to a new photographer! But thanks you gave me new ideas!!!👍
Thank you! You gave me so much to think about and put it all into context. I now understand the concept of negative space because you explained it so well and showed us the other elements that come into play. I can’t wait to go back out and take photographs exercising the concepts I learned here.
Thank you for inspiring me and probably a lot of us regular viewers. Great examples
Excellent lecture. Valid and relevant. I can mention another photographer, not competing with Nigel, as he worked in another domain of photography. If you want to see very clear examples of "light" in the composition-subject-light triangle, then look at the work of Fan Ho and it becomes immediately clear.
Thanks Nigel, I think it all comes down to taking your time, reviewing photo's in the field and try to improve. As also Henri Turner points out, Hey you've found a great background, now find a foreground interest to go with that !
How's your knee doing ?
I'm also curious when & what photo's people have submitted you're gonna post-process...
Hi Nigel,
Great tips. Thank you for putting so much effort into this. I'm just starting out with photography. I haven't developed a creative eye so far. Seeing a good composition is really hard for me. What would help is to see different pictures from the same scenery. A few examples from what works and what doesn't.
Like you did here 17:51
Another cracking video! I do admire how you analyse a photograph and draw out your advice and tips.
always liked your shot at 7.31 , quite graphic with the 3rds rule (square for the grasses) and a the lines. Thumbs up 👍👍
Thanks for making this really quick but densely packed informative piece. I just subbed because you didn’t spend half the video telling me about your channel but went right into the crash course. Thanks and will be checking out all your other vids!
Thanks Nigel … Reading through the comments, I’ve not much more to add , other than a massive Thank you for this content .. so useful and looking at ‘simply stunning’ photographs you can see what you say makes perfect sense … I will spend more time looking for these shapes in my photos-
Just one question ? What is the tablet you use please and model ? It looks great for travel rather than the laptop - Again thanks 🙏
Great talk about photos. Not many people critique photos. Thank you so much
TLDW, here are the facts: There are no rules, there are no hard mistakes, every situation is different. You have to develop an instinct and a style to take photos you like and you can only do that with experimenting. It's also very much subjective.
Really enjoyed this. Great tips & easy to understand explanations. Thank you
Thanks Simon great advice as usual . Can't wait till next week.
Some more really useful tips there, thanks Nigel. One question, what is the graphics tablet you use?
Thanks for this great informative video Nigel. I am off to Sutherland and Caithness next week and these tips will come in very useful in hopefully taking better photos! Most of these tips are my failings in getting good photos. Thanks again.
Thank you you are a very good Photographer and you have your own style I can distinguish the above photos from others. Tell me , does the work on mistakes relate to portrait photography ? When you work with people?
Health to you
Fantastic video! Very helpful tips for some self-reflection and to improve my compositions. I'll absolutely be putting these into practice.
I absolutely appreciate these tips but I find it difficult to realize all this on location. But the good thing is you learn by failing and intuitively get better.
Very helpful and thoughtful, Nigel. Thanks!
thank you. a real pleasure to benefit from your advice. You are explaining very clearly those details wich distinguish good photographies from excellent shots!
Thank you Nigel very much! I just would like to asking you, what kind of tablet you used to show the pictures? Your work is really big inspiration! Thank you for that🙏🏻
Great advice on composition. Thanks Nigel!
Killer video Nigel and some goregous images, I really liked that one from Madeira.
Ah, your photos are so beautiful. The bad ones remind me on my lack of talent. 😀
But there is allot of negative space between your advices and how to see those things in real time while on location, unfortunately only one person is able to transfer that knowledge to us idiots, it is Mike Brown, such a brilliant teacher. 🙂
Thank you, great video and beautiful work. 🙂👍
This is a great video with a lot of potential. I love seeing the notes on the tablet-- that is super helpful. It would be fantastic if you could make a more succinct version of this for sharing with my photo students.
Absolutely amazing video! Nigel you're amazing
I'm definitely guilty of not taking time when out and about taking photos - I photograph concerts mostly where you only have a few songs and fast moving subjects, so I don't seem to shut that off when I'm photographing anything else. Definitely need to learn how to breath and look at the scene before taking a shot
Terrific! You've just taught me a lot in a little time. Thank you. Subscribed. 😉😉
I think all your pictures are fabulous!
You are an excellent communicator. I appreciate the quick "inside stories" behind some of the picture. Also your use of the Ipad and the pen is very effective. Btw, i have seen the black church of Budir 4 out of 5 times on trips to Iceland but with this beautiful perspective at 16:00.