By Paul Tyler (March 2001)
This month as promised I am tackling composition. Now I am not just referring to the model, but the composition of the whole scene. I expect you have read many books where they talk about golden thirds and all such almost mystical stuff.
With glamour photography it is very different. The subject will always be the model. The background is in most cases incidental. Obviously on some occasions if you are trying to create a scene and have the model dressed in coveralls holding spanners then she should be placed in a garage and not a hotel room. It sounds so obvious, but I have seen such jarring pictures.
Basically what any picture is trying to achieve is a mood, atmosphere and a good excuse for a beautiful woman to remove her clothes. :-) What you should be trying to convey to any viewer of the picture is an erotic thought. Such as the picture below.
So when does it go wrong? Simply when you don't follow the basic rules of composition. As the examples below show.
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| In all fairness the photographer was trying to create a dynamic view using diagonal framing. | Busy background, folded arms. Cluttered! | My what big feet you have! | Oh cheerio are you off? | Lost the left hand and gave us a wonderful curtain instead. |
As I say time and time again, when you see a picture you like that in your opinion works really well, then emulate it. If a you find when you look at a picture it jars, then recognise why it doesn't work and add it to your bank of "must nots". If like me you experiment then obviously on occasions you will find things that just look awful in finished prints, but other stuff can work really well. If you are beginning then really you should be trying to attain the perfect print for you. See this months gallery for a few stunning examples of great pictures.
©Struthers Web 2001