Tips on Composition to Enhance Your Candids
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Composition can amplify what you feel about the subject matter or invoke a reaction all on its own. Today I’m going to share with you 5 tips on composition to enhance your candids. These are all tips I use as a candid event photographer in Los Angeles as well as in my street photography.
#1 Use a Dutch Angle.
The dutch angle, also known as a dutch tilt, canted angle, or oblique angle is when the horizontal or vertical lines of an image are tilted. In cinema, it is often used to convey anxiety, tension, or things gone awry, but incorporating a dutch angle into your candid photography you can give the viewer a sense that it was captured in the spur of the moment.
The Dutch angle is an effective tool for enhancing the candid feel of a moment, but should be used sparingly. Especially in a collection of images in which its strength lies in it being an outlier, not a norm
Fun Fact:
The Dutch angle coinage does not refer to holland. It is fact a reference to early German, or rather “Deutch” expressionist filmmakers.
#2 Shoot Through things to Frame Your Subject
When it comes to photographic composition, framing is most often used to draw your eye in toward your subject. But when shooting through things it has the added effect of conveying a shot was made in the spur of the moment or that the photographer was somewhat removed from the moment like a fly on the wall. From my point of view, this has become an increasingly popular technique used by event photographers. I have also begun to see this more commonly used by photojournalists: Think of photographs of campaign rallies in which the photographer shoots through a crowd of people and political signs to get a photograph of a politician on stage.
#3 Use a Tilt Shot to Shoot from Extreme High and Low Angles.
Shooting from high or low angles not only offer varied perspectives but also convey different meaning.
Images made from below convey importance, prominence, power. Try shooting from below when photographing a powerful politician, a local hero, or anyone you want to portray as strong, etc. Personally, I often choose to photograph the downtrodden and disenfranchised this way as a way of dignifying them.
Images made from above tend to evoke opposite feelings about a subject than shooting from below. Shooting from above can convey a sense of powerlessness, weakness, etc. You can use this technique to highlight the downtrodden or perhaps even as a way to visually dis-empower someone whom has plenty of it. The choice is yours. As my lab instructor in college used to tell me, “you’re the artist.”
Carefully consider how you use these angles. Yes, they can be used to just offer something different, but when used effectively they can amplify the feelings already conveyed in the subject matter.
Sometimes I’ll sit on my skateboard in busy places and go unnoticed. I especially enjoy photographing candid moments that look like they could have been posed.
#4 Don’t Be so Clinical with Your Composition.
Rules of composition are excellent tools for creating visual interest and drawing viewers draw your subject matter. But sometimes when several rules of composition are utilized at once, your composition can feel a bit too on the nose. This feels clinical and has the potential to feel contrived or lifeless- not candid.
I recommend experimenting with shooting a bit looser. Try adhering to fewer rules, or make sure the rules you do follow are less obvious.
You can argue that well balanced visual elements underpin the foundation of a strong composition. For example, in a composition using the rule of thirds, the subject matter occupying one third of the frame is balanced out by the two thirds of less important real estate.
Balanced elements should not be confused with symmetry: if, for example, you have an object of a specific size on one side of the frame you mustn’t have one on the other. We are not looking for equally sized objects or like colors to achieve balance. Rather, we are looking at the overall visual weight of things. Certain colors and shades will draw your eye in different ways. Something small but of more importance such as a person can be balanced out by something much larger but less important.
I admit the idea of visual weight can sound a bit murky.
But Try this:
One way to see how things are visually weighed is to defocus your eyes. See where your eye is drawn without the distraction of textures and subject matter.
#5 Be Unconventional. Break the Rules.
There are traditional ways to frame formal portraits whether candid or not. These traditions are in part formed by adhering to specific rules of composition such as the rule of thirds. But beyond rules of composition, we are used to a visual language developed by over a century of image making.
Experiment with breaking these norms. Try unusual cropping or usage of rules. Instead of having leading lines lead toward your subject, have them lead away. Subjects tend to look inward in a frame. Try having them look outside the frame and see how it makes you feel.
If you are looking for an example of how to effectively break rules, one of my favorite examples is Mr Robot. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
Thank you all for your support, I truly hope this helps you on your photographic journey. And as always I look forward to your comments below!