British photographer and author Michael Freeman is back with a new book, On composition, Set for release March 10, 2022. Brand new content from the photography guide expert, the book is designed to be the ultimate photography masterclass featuring practical composition templates.
On the composition is designed to detail both how and why composition works, from an image’s initial perception to a photographer’s visual imagination, illustrated with concise how-to guides and examples of composition used in practice.
• Learn more: 6 ways to improve your composition
Fifteen years after writing his bestseller, The photographer’s eye, Freeman is back with what will be the first in a series of five new guides to important elements of photography; in particular the application of compositional techniques.
Freeman’s books have sold over 4 million copies worldwide, with over 60 titles based solely on the practice of photography, translated into 27 different languages. His work bore fruit and earned him the Louis Philippe Clerc Prize awarded by the French Ministry of Culture.
On the composition has a concise, easy-to-follow format while demonstrating the key elements of composition. Unique visuals and illustrations are used to cut through the jargon and simplify the topic, making the concept of composition easier to grasp for those who may not be familiar. Freeman also reveals the secrets of creating impactful images through composition adjustment.
Considered the most powerful tool in a photographer’s arsenal, the use of composition can be a pure expression of the photographer’s own individuality, especially when creativity is unconstrained by outside influences and that all decisions are made with careful consideration and thoughtful insight.
Freeman describes how different scenes have different needs, with order, direction, or interest being the dominant factor. The use of lines to direct the attention is only a way of suggesting a form, and therefore an order of vision of an image where the eye can follow, in particular by the method of stepping back on the frame to allow to more geometric aspects to come into play.
Composition and design are elements of a photograph over which the photographer has reliable control and can influence how others perceive their work, emphasizing certain subjects or even delaying their recognition, Freeman explains in the first chapter of On the composition.
Photography is intensely personal. There’s only one eye behind the camera, and it’s yours, and composing is a powerful way to show your individuality.”
Michael Freeman, On Composition
Constantly imagining how scenes can be translated into interestingly framed images, training your visual senses to be fully operational as soon as a probable shot is spotted, can help with the difficult graft involved in the compositional side of photography.
Bringing visual order to the random arrangement of a scene in front of the lens can help photographers dictate how others will look at their photographs, making composition a hugely important part of the practice of photography to change the meaning of photography. an image or just to make it more interesting.
The new book, On the composition by Michael Freeman is published by Ilex Press (via octopus books), and will be available from Amazon and other miscellaneous retailers with prices starting at $24.99 / £20 / AU$37.89 (approx).
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