The One Trick to Instantly Improve Your Composition

a big thank you to skillshare for sponsoring today's video arguably the best tool that a street photographer has at their disposal besides their camera of course is the environment that they're shooting in it's one of the many reasons I personally love the genre of street photography the possibilities of what you can make are practically endless and this genre really puts into perspective what really matters at the end of the day you can hand anyone an expensive fancy camera but when it comes to the actual photo making that we do we're theoretically all given the same tool that is our environment and it really comes down to what we make of it over the course of my time learning and progressing as a photographer I feel like I've always tried to incorporate the environment in my work and I think a lot of photographers especially Street photographers can relate to this but I've seen myself involving the environment differently and with more intentionality than how I used to use it I find that I'm using the environment more as a compositional tool to help myself create a complete photo you know typically when we go out on our photo walks when we see something of Interest our first idea is to just photograph it as we see it in the moment I think that's what any photographer would and should do it's what I do as well but if the moment allows for it take advantage of that additional time that you have and look at what is around you see how you could potentially incorporate the environment more in your image because using your environment can be an incredibly powerful compositional tool that can take your storytelling to another level and the simplest way that I do this is by incorporating my environment as a foreground element in my image and it's the one compositional trick that I believe every photographer should know and use [Music] one of the main advantages of using foreground is that it's one of the most simplest ways to make a scene have more depth now here's a recent example from my trip to London I noticed this man across the street he was juxtaposed against this bright red building it's an okay scene for what it is but in my opinion this first image here it feels a bit flat and an easy way for me to make this image feel less flat and have more sense of depth is by incorporating a foreground element into the composition and nearby I saw this lamp post that I could potentially use in my photo and I positioned myself to wear the lamp post is partly in my composition and in doing so I created an image that feels different than the first image that I had as you can see the foreground element in the second image adds a whole new layer of Dimension and that's what's creating that sense of depth that the first one lacks now this is using foreground at its most basic form you know the harder you work at this and the stronger your observational eye is in incorporating things into your composition the more you're going to be able to get out of this compositional trick now this example here brings up one of the other benefits of using a foreground element in your composition using foreground as a framing tool the Lamppost does create this depth effect that I mentioned first but it's also cleaning up the overall composition and I'm using it as a way to frame the guy who's across the street I essentially use the lamp post here to block off a lot of what was a really busy scene and the rest of the building which was actually a different color the more I include the foreground element into the photo the stronger contrast I have and the stronger effect I have of isolating that guy across the street it's sort of creating this Spotlight effect now I wouldn't say this is my favorite use of a foreground element but it is one of the easiest ways you can start incorporating it into your work right now the next time you go out to shoot unless you live in a city with no lamp posts then then I guess you're out of luck foreign [Music] you can use just about any focal length to achieve this effect in an image but with longer focal lengths it's going to be a lot easier for you to work with because you're not taking in so much of what you see you've got some more creative control over what you include and exclude from your composition I feel like I'm a broken record when I talk about longer focal lengths and street photography but it's also one of the main reasons I love to use them for street photography I just have so much control over how I can use my environment as a compositional tool but this isn't to say that you can't use wider focal lengths and incorporate your environment in the same way it'll just mean you probably have to get physically closer and actually probably be a bit more creative in how you look to include your surroundings in an image that's not necessarily the worst thing you know if you're going to challenge yourself I would say try to do this with a wider focal length if you've been following my work for some time you'd know that I love a good reflection photo a lot of the times a reflection can provide an abstract approach to adding a foreground element to an image if you're shooting into a business window and you know there's some kind of text on the window itself that's immediately going to be a foreground element that you can use [Music] thank you foreign [Music] so take this image for example here I'm basically using this poster that's on this window I guess and I'm getting the reflection of Piccadilly Circus which is directly behind me and I'm using it to frame the the cupid statue when you have an interesting foreground element in this case I have these like British soldiers I guess were part of this poster you can create this the image that it feels more like a double exposure than really a reflection photo foreign [Music] you can use the foreground to you know frame up a subject to create depth but you can also use the environment to provide context to the story you're trying to tell in Boston we have these traditional Chinatown Gates and I essentially used one of the lion statues that are there as a foreground element this was the initial scene that I saw and I Incorporated the lion in the second image here and I like the added dimensionality but not just that really like the context it provides to the image and I'm not just using some random lamp post I found I'm actually using something that helps add to the story and provides more context about where we are using it in this way is a lot more complicated and it's going to take a really Keen observational eye but I think when it's done well it's the most powerful use case of using your environment as a foreground element foreign [Music] as you can see your environment is arguably your most powerful tool that you have at your disposal you don't need a fancy camera to do this and really anyone can get started in implementing this into your workflow right now you can use it in its simplest form but you can take it so much further depending on how much uh work I guess you could say you put into it however you want to go about it using your environment in this way is one of those tricks that I think every photographer should know and use foreign a big thank you to skillshare for sponsoring today's video it comes to learning a new skill especially one that you're really interested in learning at your own pace and on your own time is really important skillshare's massive online learning community brings together thousands of students to learn from creators you all know and love from classes about video editing music production running a YouTube channel you can find a class on just about any skill on skillshare [Music] one of my favorite classes on skillshare is a classic and it's taught by photographer Andre Wagner he provides an incredibly insightful look at his own documentary process and it's one that I've learned a lot from Andre isn't just the only photographer whose process you can learn from on skillshare so if you're interested in checking out skillshare for yourself for free the first 1000 of you to use a link in the description will get one month of skillshare Premium thanks again to skillshare for sponsoring today's video and thank you all for watching today's video if you found it to be helpful in any way please like the video subscribe for more and I'll see you all in the next one peace foreign [Music]

Channel: Faizal Westcott

Views: 568,879

Keywords: street photography, fuji, film, fujifilm, analog, rangefinder, pov, gopro, X-E4, XE4, X100V, street photography tips, tips and tricks, techniques, uninspired, motivation, best beginner camera, street photography basics, composition tips, get better at exposing, exposure tips, 35mm film stocks, kodak portra color, shooting manual, point and shoot, scanning photos, street photographers, how to shoot street, Nervous, shy photographer, introvert, composition, environment, how to take better photos

Id: JxFhmFuF_UQ

Length: 10min 15sec (615 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 17 2022