Photography is an art form. Good photographers use rules of composition to create a compelling photograph people will want to look at. Here's how to visualize your image, arrange what’s in the frame, and then use rules of composition to create an interesting photograph.
Use natural frames
You can use natural frames to draw the viewer into your image. Tall trees can frame a waterfall or sunset. In many cases, such as natural arch stone formations, the frame and the subject matter are one and the same. When you see an interesting subject or scene for a photograph, look around to see if anything nearby can serve as a frame.
The frame should be darker than your subject matter and not powerful enough to distract from it. If you’re photographing a sunset, the frame can be in silhouette. A frame can also be something like dark green leaves surrounding a colorful flower. You can find natural frames just about anywhere. Just look for them.
Use selective focus
If you use a lens with a large aperture (small f-stop value), you can then focus on one part of the scene; the rest of the scene will be soft, which means the rest of the scene may or may not be recognizable and will not distract from the focal point of your image.
Use selective focus when you want to draw the viewer’s attention to a specific part of the image. For example, if you’re photographing a fence post in a field, use your largest aperture and then focus on the fence post. Everything in front of and behind the fence post will be a soft, out-of-focus blur (see the figure).
