Photographic Composition

By John Waaser

John Waaser was the perfect person to write this book. As a student, both at Mount Hermon School for Boys and at Northeastern University, where he studied Mechanical Engineering, he was elected Vice-President of the camera club for two years running, four years total, where his principal duties consisted of coming up with the topic for each meeting, and securing the educational material for that topic from top companies such as Eastman Kodak and Ansco. It also fell to him to find someone to proctor the discussion, which about half of the time, he did himself. He later became a freelance photojournalist, and for two decades, he principally photographed motorcycle races, and other motorsports-related activities, including an occasional road test and other features. As a journalist, he showed an ability to take a highly technical subject and break it down so that ordinary people without a technical background could understand it. He took any number of portraits of up-and-coming racers as well. He did a few portfolios for models, and he photographed a few weddings. He spent about a year as assistant editor of a biweekly tabloid newspaper, where he wrote copy, took photos, set advertising, and laid out the pages. He owned Adpho Graphics, a photo studio and advertising agency, in the early 1970s. His personal hobby has long been night-time available light photography outdoors, where he frequently hand-held exposures of up to 30 seconds. He had his own photo lab at one point, where he processed film and prints including both black-and-white, and color negatives, and color transparencies (slides) as well. He constructed a film dryer and an enlarger stand with variable height easel shelf, and published articles and photos of their construction in "Popular Photography" Magazine. For several years, he was listed on the masthead of "Cycle World" Magazine as their Eastern US Contributing Editor. He has owned a computer store, and has owned digital cameras since they had VGA resolution or less. He now owns an Olympus E-PL1 camera with two lenses, and carries several phones and/or tablets at all times. He also taught an adult education second-year photography course at a local community college for two semesters, while one of their regular professors was on a sabbatical.

John felt that it was more important to teach people how to take GOOD pictures, before teaching them the technical intricacies of photography. He lists several examples of photos he sold that were terrible from a technical standpoint, but were superbly composed, or grabbed in a hurry and very flawed as a result, but caught a moment in time that was important. So this book talks about subject placement, background, foreground, color, separation from the background, and other topics which are important to ensure that the photo simply looks good.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Crossroads Publishing of Florida
• Release date: May 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386445463

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Introduction:

John Waaser was the perfect person to write this book. As a student, both at Mount Hermon School for Boys and at Northeastern University, where he studied Mechanical Engineering, he was elected Vice-President of the camera club for two years running, four years total, where his principal duties consisted of coming up with the topic for each meeting, and securing the educational material for that topic from top companies such as Eastman Kodak and Ansco. It also fell to him to find someone to proctor the discussion, which about half of the time, he did himself. He later became a freelance photojournalist, and for two decades, he principally photographed motorcycle races, and other motorsports-related activities, including an occasional road test and other features. As a journalist, he showed an ability to take a highly technical subject and break it down so that ordinary people without a technical background could understand it. He took any number of portraits of up-and-coming racers as well. He did a few portfolios for models, and he photographed a few weddings. He spent about a year as assistant editor of a biweekly tabloid newspaper, where he wrote copy, took photos, set advertising, and laid out the pages. He owned Adpho Graphics, a photo studio and advertising agency, in the early 1970s. His personal hobby has long been night-time available light photography outdoors, where he frequently hand-held exposures of up to 30 seconds. He had his own photo lab at one point, where he processed film and prints including both black-and-white, and color negatives, and color transparencies (slides) as well. He constructed a film dryer and an enlarger stand with variable height easel shelf, and published articles and photos of their construction in Popular Photography Magazine. For several years, he was listed on the masthead of Cycle World Magazine as their Eastern US Contributing Editor. He has owned a computer store, and has owned digital cameras since they had VGA resolution or less. He now owns an Olympus E-PL1 camera with two lenses, and carries several phones and/or tablets at all times. He also taught an adult education second-year photography course at a local community college for two semesters, while one of their regular professors was on a sabbatical.

John remembers the time he met the playwright Terrence McNally. Terrence had just produced his first play, then, at the Yale School of Drama. He had a crippled dog named Charlie, who he adored. John took a portrait of Charlie that Mr McNally said captured Charlie’s essence better than any photo he had seen. John sent him several prints of that photograph, one of which was a large (16 x 20 or 20 x 24-inch) print that was Sepia Toned. Sepia toning was a process for black and white photographs that converted the silver in the image, to a compound that was much less sensitive to light. Several years later, one of the photography magazines stated that Terrence had become an avid amateur photographer. John has often wondered if his photograph of Charlie drew Mr McNally into photography as an avocation. And since the photo is probably still in good condition, John frequently thinks about whether it still graces a place of honor in his home. And he would like to think that you might become an avid photographer after reading this book.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: General Discussion

Chapter 2: What is the relative size of the subject?

Chapter 3: Location for the shoot

Chapter 4: Subject location within the photo

Chapter 5: Lighting

Chapter 6: Background

Chapter 7: Foreground

Chapter 8: Viewpoint

Chapter 9: Color

Chapter 10: Special Considerations for Portraits

Chapter 11: Fireworks!

Chapter 12: The Eclipse

Conclusion

Bonus Reading HOW TO BUY A CAR

Bonus Reading SOLAR ENERGY

Copyright information

Introduction

Other Books from Crossroads Publishing of Florida

Chapter 1: General Discussion

I felt it important to discuss composition before even telling you how to operate your camera. For one thing, the owner’s manual for the camera has more specific information in that regard, and you should consult that and practice using the camera until you are quite used to the functions of that particular camera. But the biggest reason why I thought composition was the most important first lesson, is