30 Days to Improve Your Photography (Week 3)

30 Days of Composition - Week 3 

Now I have completed the first 2 week's challenge in 30 Days of Composition I was eagerly awaiting the next set of prompts. Some of these are a little more challenging, especially days 18, 19 and 20!

If you don't know about this challenge see my the start of it here.

I am working through this challenge in the month of August while taking part in the A Year With My Camera photography course. It is a great way to improve your photography skills, why not take a look and see what you think?

The list of composition prompts for the next 7 days are below:

16. What's leaving the frame?
17. Depth
18. Movement
19. Perfectly aligned
20. Deliberately discordant
21. Square format
22. Single focal point


16. What's leaving the frame?
If you are going to show just part of your subject in the frame, which parts get left out? Maybe just part of a flower or a person's face. Be careful where the cut off points are, for example don't cut a person off at the knees (keep between the joints for people or animals).

17. Depth
How do you imply depth in a photograph?  Try different ways to see what works, making the image seem 3D rather than a flat 2D.

Day 16 and 17

18. Movement
A photo doesn't move so how can you capture an image to imply movement? Do you capture the movement with a fast shutter speed or allow it to blur, try both and see what works.

19. Perfectly aligned
Are all the elements in the photograph aligned so they allow each element to look good, look for overlapping elements, move around so there is some space between the different areas of interest. Try a few different positions to see which looks better aligned.

Day 18 and 19

20. Deliberately discordant
By using a subject, colours, point of view or tones and textures that are uncomfortable to look at you can emphasise a point, tell a story and get a reaction from the viewer.

21. Square format

Sometimes what you are capturing is better suited to a certain format, such as landscape or portrait. This prompt is to pick a subject more suited to a square format instead of the usual rectangular frame.

22. Single focal point

Use compositional techniques to make sure the image has just one natural focal point, when someone looks at it their eye is drawn to that focal point.

Days 20 to 22

If you are joining in the challenge let me know in the comments below, thanks.