The first of the fun lessons - composition and viewpoint

Whole frame

Once you've arranged your elements in the frame, take a step back and look at the whole image. This is where photographers sometimes squint their eyes to get a bird's eye view of everything and check the balance between all the parts - the foreground, the background and the subject.

What is the path through the photograph that the viewer's eye will take? Is it what you wanted? If not, what can you change to fix it?

Using viewpoint to change the balance between the 3 elements

Your point of view is the first, and possibly only, technique you need to change the balance between foreground, subject and background.

Without even moving your feet you can drastically change each element just by moving the camera higher or lower. If you allow yourself to walk around your subject, an infinite number of foreground-subject-background combinations will open up.

Your job as the photographer is to pick the one that you want. You don't just point and shoot any more. You think, visualise, test and repeat until you have the image you can see in your head.

THIS WEEK'S PROJECT: VIEWPOINT

Using the same subject, create these 5 completely different photographs, using only a change in viewpoint between images (no changing lenses). You should be able to do this with your phone camera.

1. Mostly subject

2. No foreground at all

3. Mostly foreground

4. Mostly background

5. A pleasing balance between all 3

Use any subject, indoor or out, flash or no flash, whatever you fancy.

The key thing this week is to move your camera. Try shooting from underneath or directly above if you need to. Move closer and further away, and change the angle of the camera.

Don't worry about aperture, shutter speed and all the rest this week if you want a break from the technicals. Shoot on auto if you want to. We'll come back to aperture again in a couple of weeks when I remind you how to blur the background. For this week I just want you to start moving with your camera, and seeing what effect it has on the balance between subject, background and foreground.