Notes to aspiring photographers 3

Ten tips for better composition (not in any particular order of importance).

1. Avoid 'centre fixation', in other words, don't always put the subject (or the area of interest) plumb in the centre of the picture. Familiarise yourself with 'the rule of thirds'.

2. Keep your horizons horizontal. Many beginners (and even some more experienced photographers) seem to have a permanent slight tilt in almost every shot.

3. Don't always shoot from a standing position, and keep in mind that very small changes in camera position can make a big difference to a composition.

4. Turn the camera 90 degrees and shoot one or two 'portrait' frames, even when it is not strictly a 'portrait' shot, and vice versa.

5. Take as much care with the edges of the frame as you do with placing the subject, and always include a little more in the picture than you need to allow for a small crop-down or adjustment of aspect ratio.

6. Don't always try to maximise depth of field and sharpness. Putting a background out of focus or motion-blurred can draw the eye to the subject, even if the subject is small in the frame.

7. Keep it clean and simple. Avoid crowding your image with distracting or irrelevant objects. This is particularly important for stock images.

8. Keep in mind these two questions before you shoot: What does this picture say? What is this a picture of?  Seems obvious but it is well worth remembering. If you are finding difficulty in coming up with a name for an image, it is probably because you don't have an answer to one or both of those questions.

9. Balance your composition, and remember that moving subjects need 'empty' space ahead of them.

10. You have to know the rules of composition before you can break them effectively.