One Step to Simplify Photo Composition

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why can’t my photo composition look like the professionals who photographed this same area?” In this video lesson, Outdoor Photography Guide’s professional photographer David Johnston narrows the focus of photo composition to help you understand how to capture better images.

One of the fastest ways to get better images is to simplify your composition. David explains that too many inexperienced shooters forget to feature the prominent subject in a scene. A while back, David spent a week in Grand Teton National Park. He was trying to get the ideal image of the Teton mountain range. How did he do that? He simplified his photo composition. Discovering a spectacular scene foregrounded by a fence, valley, and woods and with the Tetons as background, David captured a nice composition.

Soon after, he realized his image lacked simplicity. No central focus point. It dawned on him that the main subject of his image was the mountains. He reframed the scene excluding the fence and leaving only the valley, trees and mountains. It still did not work. On his third photo composition, he included only the mountain face covered in sheer fog. Beautiful simplicity. Now only the mountains filled the entire frame.

Next, David made a wide-angle photograph of a tree root system. An acceptable composition, but when he explored further, he noticed mushrooms growing out of the roots. He reframed his shot and captured the mushrooms in a mossy green field. David believes that too many photographers quickly capture a scene and move on. If you take your time and narrow your focus to feature the main subject, you will be satisfied with your final composition.