This article features a selection of handheld images of Bonavista harbour in Newfoundland, captured during a foggy afternoon. This post discusses some of the composition considerations used for these photographs.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

The objective of the image above was to direct a viewer’s eye towards the reddish brown shed doors and deck of the structure on the left hand side.

To accomplish this I cropped the white clapboard building on the left hand side so it would act as a subject bleed and push a viewer’s eye to the right. I positioned the grey footpath as a subtle leading line that enters the composition from the bottom right hand corner.

I used a shooting angle that would allow some visual relief between the two, strong horizontal lines. This helped to accentuate the right to left flow of those lines. I purposely left a visual break between the  pier in the background and the side of the subject shed, and used equidistant composition technique to create some visual balance. These elements all helped direct a viewer’s eye towards the subject shed.

The main composition technique used in the photograph above is a ‘magic 7’ created by the angled rocks in the foreground and the pier that runs horizontally across the upper third of the composition. You will also notice the use of the rule of thirds in terms of the positioning of the boat in the upper right of the image.

The composition above uses a walkway as a foreground element which creates a ‘bottom band’ across the image. This approach is sometimes used when a photographer wants to accentuate a feeling of depth in a composition by creating a visual barrier which helps anchor the foreground,

The image above uses a strong leading line to bring a viewer’s eye into the composition. The posts on either side of the decking form a repeating pattern which also serves to bring the viewer’s eye into the composition. Equidistant composition technique was used to create balance and position the first light standard on the right hand side of the photograph.

The next four photographs all utilize a ‘magic 7’ with the final image using this technique as a reverse ‘7’ angle.

The photograph above also incorporates a corner exit in the bottom left, which also acts as a leading line.

In addition to incorporating the ‘magic 7’ mentioned earlier, the image above uses some geometric shapes to direct eye flow. The two main elements doing this task are the green triangle at the bottom of the composition, and the yellowish square shape on the extreme right edge.

The ‘magic 7’ is augmented by the use of a slightly longer focal length of 31 mm (efov 62 mm) which creates a degree of compression in the composition, bringing various elements in the harbour closer together visually.

The coloured rocks in the bottom right corner act as a corner anchor to visually set the starting point for a viewer’s eye to follow with the reverse angle ‘magic 7’.

The gull in the photograph above is positioned using ‘rule of thirds’ composition technique. Pro Capture H was used to create a range of images with the objective of capturing one just prior to the gull taking flight with its wings extended.

Equidistant composition technique was used to position the doors on the subject shed to achieve visual balance. The pebbles on the shoreline were used as a leading line guiding a viewer’s eye towards the subject shed. Three triangular shapes… beginning with the green triangle in the foreground… are stacked to create a stepped progression leading to the subject shed.

In order to accentuate foreground elements by increasing contrast, I used the Pro Contrast function in the Nik Collection for most of the images featured in this article.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data.  Images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. This is the 1,286 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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