Basic Photography | Composition and Storytelling

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | My Son Having Fun at Independence Square | Dataran Merdeka | Kuala Lumpur

Photographers always associate composition as The Art of Seeing, Composition is a key element of good photographs. How you compose your picture will have an impact on how it will perceived by the viewers. There is so much you can show and there is so little that you can show depending on your intention. If you just wanted to show your subject (portrait) then maybe using fast lens with big aperture will throw away the background and make your subject stand out, make it the main focus in the photograph.

On the other hand if you wanted to show your subject, where he is, what he is doing, then by including some background will help to tell a story better, like I said before it is up to you. If you want to tell the story then, by including some background is a good option but on the other hand if you just wanted to highlight your subject, you may focus on the subject alone by changing your point of view or composition.

If you take  a look at my first picture, it was based on pure simplicity, I just wanted to show HaiQal with his little brother, you don’t know where the picture is taken because very few information there. It can be anywhere and by changing my point of view a little bit I manage to show some background and people now know that this picture is taken somewhere in the city, there is building in the background to give some clue. Some people may recognized the background even though it was quite blur but when I change the composition a bit, suddenly everything become clear that this photograph were taken in front of Sultan Abdul Samad Building, one of the most iconic building in Malaysia situated in the heart of Kuala Lumpur at Independence Square or locally known as “Dataran Merdeka.”

The next time you go out shooting, vary your angle, composition and point of view, you can isolate the subject and you can also include some background information for a little bit story telling purpose. My intention in the photographs here is to tell the viewers that my son is having fun at Independence Square, I want him to have some memory here while he is still a child. Even though the background may appear a little bit of a distraction but it is there for a purpose, to gives context to the picture.