The most interesting thing about photo composition, I think, is that there is no general rule.
Or, are there? Why does composition get talked about so often then?
A more meaningful thing to do, therefore, is to frame our discussion - what type of portraits? What’s the purpose of the portraits?
So in this series of blog posts in relation to composition, I will be sharing specifically on composing ARTISTIC PORTRAITS for the purpose of making INSTAGRAM POSTS. What I mean by this are portraits shot with the primary aim of depicting the model’s beauty and charm - it’s not about the garments, nor the makeup. It’s ultimately about the model.
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The theme for today is:
Align your subject’s eyes to the upper 1/3 of the frame
See the example below - it gives you a brief idea. And FYI, I picked the one on the left at last.
Specs: 1/160s f/2.8 ISO 1000 Gear: Canon 5D Mark IV EF 24mm f/2.8
In frame: Sheryl Leung Location: Quarry Bay Park, Hong Kong
Composing portraits with the help of grids.
It doesn’t strictly have to be the eyes; it can be the brows. But you get it - the top line would at least be across the subject’s face, not above. Horizontally, I usually place my subject in the middle of the frame, so that the two vertical lines roughly sandwich the model. (Sounds funny I know but that’s what goes through my head when I shoot)
There are a THREE reasons why I do this, if it sounds arbitrary at first.
Fills the frame with the subject adequately
“If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough”. This is a famous quote from Robert Capa (he is best known for shooting documentary for that matter but this is quite relevant here imo); if you have the grit to study composition, I bet you would have heard of his quote.
I can’t stress enough how important this is!
As a photographer, we easily get carried away by the exciting locations we choose to do the shoot at. This results in images with a noisy background and that diverts attention away from the model.
At this point you would probably be thinking, ‘so how close is close?’
This is exactly how this (I don’t want to call it a rule) idea or practice has you covered. The 1/3 proportion is a helpful yardstick to keep in mind. It ensures that you utilise the pixels you have as much as possible to compose a flattering story of the subject.
Allows enough room to tell a story
The first thing you notice in a portrait is most likely the model’s face. But the final thing you take away is usually a feeling - a feeling that is a crystallisation of the rest of the image, including the posture, the garments, the background, the attitude etc.
If you pause for a moment to think about the feeling you want to create, it will naturally occur to you that certain elements need to be in your portrait.
See the below as a demonstration.
Specs: 1/125 f/2.8 ISO 100 Gear: Canon 5D Mark IV 50mm f/1.8
In frame: May Chu Location: Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
What I wanted to capture was a snapshot of the model and her flying scarf against a gust of wind. I also wanted to impress upon the viewer that she was on a city’s-backyard type of getaway.
What I considered to be essential elements here included the scarf, the leaves and the pavilion.
Composing portraits with the help of grids.
By placing the subject’s eyes right at the upper horizontal gridline, the essential elements mentioned above took up approximately 2/3 of the pixels. This should be more than enough to complete a narrative.
As you can see, the two photos were taken from slightly different angles, but the ratio still holds - Congratulations! You’ve found a rather dummy-proof way to composing story-worthy portraits!
On the side note, Instagram’s optimal crop for photos shot in portrait orientation is 4x5 (or 8x10 if you would). Based on my experience, this works on a 4x5 crop 99% of the time.
Creates a consistent Instagram feed
Anyone in the Instagram game would know the importance of consistency. An unofficial investigation (done by me) suggests that your feed has around 3 SECONDS to convince someone to follow you.
What? 3 seconds?
Sadly, that is how it is.
And worse still, consistency isn’t something you can fabricate as you will.
At the end of the day, consistency in your feed is a reflection of your own defining style. And this isn’t a technical matter that can be turned around in days; it is an expression of something internal.
There can again be no surefire ways to find a style. But one of the ways to begin with is to pay attention to how much space your subject is taking up within the frame.
Taking an example of Sebastian’s Instagram page.
Clearly, from Sebastian’s (go check him out I love the mood in his portraits) feed, we can see that there is a consistent theme that underlies every photo.
Taking an example of Sebastian’s Instagram page.
Consistency, of course, involves a whole lot of other things. But one way of seeing it, to begin with, is that most of the subjects take up a similar part of every grid.
You can’t force your way into finding a style. But it is also naive to assume that your style will eventually dawn on you without you deliberately carving it out.
Summary
To wrap things up, we talked about composing portraits so that the subject’s eyes/ brows is at the upper 1/3 of the frame. And here are THREE reasons why I do this:
Fills the frame with the subject adequately
Allows enough room to tell a story
Creates a consistent Instagram feed
More sharing coming soon!
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Keep shooting, keep creating!
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