I found some well composed shots on flickr from a London photographer :
InvernoDreaming.
I don't thing he is a professional photographer, therefore I believe he is a great example of what any amateur could achieve by working on composition instead of taking vulgar nudes, kittens or gross HDR corny landscapes.
Indeed, he does a pretty good job at getting a beautiful well composed image out of what would appear as a boring subject to most people. These are the hardest one to get. Look at those.
Now if that gives you an itch and you feel like improving at composition, keep a few things in mind:
- Rule of third: balancing object so that they divide your image in thirds rather that in half. Horizon line, end of building, eyes of a person. It's not mandatory but should somehow part of your reflexion.
- Think of depth: if your farthest objects are as sharp as your foreground, they will project flat an participate in the composition in a totally different manner. Thing about your aperture and depth of field, try to project what you see in the frame into a flat image, see how things will be balanced. Maybe some things need to be in focus to participate to the composition, maybe not. On this next one I kept everything in focus to use wall & furnitures lines as part of the composition (bed wood, cabinet, wall line).
- How about diagonals? They can be obvious or linked to perspective, creates lines that give a sense of direction, create lines that balance objects across the image (as on the first picture of this post)
- And symmetric stuff? Use symetric stuff !
- F@$#% everything I just wrote :) Go for weird against the rules things, like on this picture.
- Somewhat split in thirds (ground, trees& sky / also subject on the right third looking left)
- But also in half, with a person's head way in the wrong place, and background focus
