The rule of thirds, the golden mean and all the classic pieces of advice for composing a good photograph still applies, when you’re shooting stock. However, there are a few compositional tips that apply specifically to the stock genre.
The absolutely best piece of advice I can give anyone starting out in photography is to use the Rule of Thirds. This tip applies not only to stock, but to photography in general. For those who don’t know, this is how it works: Split your image into thirds vertically and horizontally. Imagine that there are lines in your viewfinder that indicate where the thirds split. and use these lines when composing an image. Try to place your main subject on one of these lines or on one of the spots, where a horizontal and a vertical line meet. Avoid placing your subject in the center of the frame. Following this little rule of thumb helped me greatly, when I was first starting out, and to this day, I see thousands of images come through the queue on iStockphoto, where the photographer could improved the image greatly by following this simple rule.
That said, the Rule of Thirds is not the end all road to stunning photography. By all means experiment and play, but as something to keep in the back of your mind, it does work wonders for achieving a more interesting picture.
The Importance of Theory
Composition alone does not make an image great. No matter how perfectly you crop your shot, how interesting your angle might be and how nice your bokeh looks, if the lighting sucks, so will your image. And no matter how well lit your image is, a bad composition will still ruin the shot. Getting both of these right is hard to do, which is why there is a market for professional photographers out there in the first place. It’s all really about understanding how an image works, what emotions are stirred in the viewer, when a photo is angled a certain way, lit a certain way or cropped a certain way. Practice and experimentation is half of that, and the other half is studying and analyzing pictures and advertisements.
It is the focus of my writings here to talk about stock imagery and how to get into that business, and by remembering that stock photos are for commercial use, you can train yourself to think in terms of usefulness and open-endedness, but that does not compensate for basic theory. Stock is not fine art, but the same fundamentals apply when it comes to the impact that composition and lighting will have on your final result. Supplementing your work by studying these things, including both classical artists and photography masters, will help you get the messages you want across in your pictures.
Room for Copy and Isolated Images
Saving room for copy is a stock favorite that ties in nicely with the rule of thirds. Copy space is where the designer can plop his client’s logo or whatever text needs to be in the ad. Like everyone else, designers are lazy people, and they like not having to move stuff around too much, in order to get the space they need for their copy. As a stock photographer, you can help them along. If for instance you have a still life shot, featuring a lovely rustic vase and some fall flowers, you could place that on the left third of the image and make sure that your background has a nice gradient to it, that will support being used for text.
To practice this without shooting, simply take a look at the magazine-rack in your local bookstore or supermarket. Fashion and lifestyle magazines are great sources for learning about this. Notice how they all have their share of text on the cover and how the photographs used leave room for this text, without cluttering up the background. The same thing applies to web-banners, posters and everywhere else, where pictures and text meet.
Now, if you’re going to eliminate the background completely and isolate your subject, you actually don’t want to leave too much of your image blank. Since isolated images have nothing at all in the background, you would be wasting space by having too much of it. Get in closer to your subject instead and leave just enough white space around your subject, so that the designer can cut it out and place it in her own work.
The difference between shooting pictures with copy space and isolated subjects should be clear. Even if you leave space in an image for text, that doesn’t mean the background needs to be completely blank. Gradients, bokeh and textures can make for excellent copy space, as long as there isn’t too much going on. You will especially want to watch out for high contrasts and busy clutter in the background, but having something there will not hurt your image.
Related to this issue is cropping your subject. There is an ongoing debate in the stock community about whether it is okay to crop your subject or if you should leave that to the designer. As an example, if I take a close up portrait of you, is it okay to crop the image to cut off the top of your head or should I back off enough to keep your entire head in the frame? The answer is that it doesn’t really matter that much. Some designers prefer to do all the cropping themselves whereas others just want to find an image that is pre-cropped the way they want it. There is a good market for both, but it is still something to keep in mind, when you’re looking through the viewfinder, and if you’re shooting a session anyway, try to capture both a cropped and an uncropped version. You never know which one will be better.
Getting the Angle Right
An often overlooked part of composing images, whether it be for stock or otherwise, is taking the angle into consideration. Where is the camera looking from and what does that angle do for your subject? Depending on your subject and genre, different angles will be more useful than others. Common sense is really your best tool here, as well as knowing what angles can do for most any subjects.
Shooting something straight on may seem like the most boring angle, but it can often be very useful for stock, since the lack of dramatic effect leaves more of the image open to interpretation. If you shoot a model from below, she would get a more dramatic appearance, making her look slightly aloof or villainous (or maybe fat, if your angle is unflattering enough). Everything looks a little bigger and more looming from below, making it great for shooting skyscrapers or insects (an ant shot slightly from below will look infinitely more intimidating than one shot from above). Opposite is the shot from above, which tends to offer a lighter and airier perspective, making everything look smaller. People look more innocent when shot at a high angle, like when you’re looking down at a child.
A final note on angles goes towards tilting your camera. Sometimes a slight tilt in one direction or the other can help to add a sense of speed, movement or action to your images. If there are already lines going across your subject, you can utilize these to create a sense of perspective by tilting your camera. This is something that’s fun to play around with but must be used with care. Not all subjects render themselves equally well to this technique.
So, to sum it all up: Use composition to take your images out of the dreaded snapshot-zone and let it help tell the story, you are trying to convey. Leave room for copy and try experimenting with cropping creatively (or composing so that designers can easily do the same). Get down on the floor and shoot up under your subjects, climb a stepladder to shoot down. Do all this with all kinds of subjects to find out what you like, then study what others have done that works. Most of the time, the results will be similar.
This post is part 8 in a series about my experiences with stock photography, tips and pointers, meant to offer a little inspiration to those interested in such things. The next installment will be an introduction to lighting techniques. For a complete and chronological list of articles, check out the Microstock Photographer’s Guide.
