How you compose or arrange your frame is one of the keys to creating interesting and compelling images. So learning some composition rules, and when to break them is essential.

Here are three short videos to help you see what to do and what to avoid in your composition.

Composition Mistakes to Avoid

Learn what not to do in this video including:

• Double subjects
• Looking out of the frame
• Tangents (lines cutting through the subject)
• Lazy composition

Beginner’s guide to composition

In this second video, Jordan from Sleeklens gives you four tips you can use to help elevate your photography composition.

The four tips covered include:

1. Rule of thirds
2. Balance
3. Symmetry
4. Leading Lines

9 Composition Tips

Finally, in this last video from COOPH you will see nine more composition tips based on the images of master photographer, Steve McCurry.

Do you have any other composition tips you would like to share? Please do so in the comments section below.

The post Video Tips: Composition Dos and Don’ts For Creating Better Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Darlene Hildebrandt.

The Reto company, which is behind the insanely popular Charmera camera, are at it again with a charming 35mm analog camera. They clearly took a design cue from the Ricoh GR series of cameras while heaping on a generous pile of Kodak nostalgia, but the end result promises to be a stylish and simple analog experience for potential buyers.

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You’ve got a decent camera. You understand exposure. But something about your photos still feels… off. More often than not, the culprit isn’t your gear — it’s composition. The good news? These mistakes are easy to spot once you know what to look for, and even easier to fix. Here are ten composition habits that might be holding your photos back.

1. Putting the subject dead-centre every time The rule of thirds exists for a reason. Placing your subject slightly off-centre creates visual tension and a more natural, engaging image. Try positioning eyes, horizons, or focal points along the grid lines instead.

2. A cluttered, busy background Your background is working either for you or against you — there’s no neutral. Before you shoot, scan the whole frame. Distracting elements behind your subject? Move your feet, change your angle, or open up your aperture.

3. Cutting off limbs at the joints Cropping someone at the wrist, ankle, or knee looks awkward and unintentional. If you need to crop a person, do it between joints — mid-forearm, mid-shin, mid-thigh.

4. A horizon that’s not actually horizontal A tilted horizon is one of the most common and most fixable mistakes in photography. Use your camera’s built-in level (most have one), or spend 10 seconds straightening in post.

5. No clear subject Ask yourself: what is this photo of? If the answer is vague, your viewer won’t know where to look. Every strong image has a clear visual anchor. Find yours before you press the shutter.

6. Not using leading lines Roads, fences, rivers, staircases — these are gifts. Leading lines pull the viewer’s eye into the frame and give your image depth and direction. Look for them in every scene.

7. Shooting everything from eye level Eye level is comfortable, but it’s also predictable. Get low and shoot upward for drama. Get high and shoot down for context. Even a small change in angle can transform a photo entirely.

8. Ignoring negative space Empty space isn’t wasted space. Negative space gives your subject room to breathe and can make an image feel calm, deliberate, and modern. Don’t feel compelled to fill every corner of the frame.

9. Merging edges — where your subject “touches” the background When a tree, pole, or wall appears to grow out of someone’s head, it’s called a merge — and it’s distracting. Check your edges before shooting and adjust your position to separate the subject from the background.

10. Forgetting to simplify The best compositions usually have one thing to say. Before you shoot, ask: what can I remove from this frame? Great composition is often about subtraction, not addition.

The great thing about composition is that it costs nothing and improves everything. You don’t need a new lens or a camera upgrade — just a more intentional eye. Pick one of these to focus on during your next shoot and see what a difference it makes.

The post 10 Composition Mistakes That Are Quietly Ruining Your Photos (And How to Fix Them) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

Tamron, a leading provider of high-quality lenses, announces the presentation by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) of its TIPA Award 2026 to two lenses; 16-30mm F/2.8 Di III VXD G2 (Model A064) for “BEST FULL FRAME WIDE-ANGLE ZOOM LENS” and 35-100mm F/2.8 Di III VXD (Model A078) for “BEST FULL FRAME TRAVEL LENS”. With these latest accolades, TAMRON has been honored with TIPA Awards for thirteen consecutive years.

BEST FULL FRAME WIDE-ANGLE ZOOM LENS

TAMRON 16-30mm F/2.8 Di III VXD G2 (Model A064)

This lightweight and fast ultra wide-angle zoom delivers exceptional sharpness from edge to edge, even at F2.8. It combines outstanding optical performance with a robust Moisture-Resistant Construction suited for demanding environments. Its impressive versatility makes it ideal for capturing a wide variety of subjects, even in challenging lighting conditions, making it an all-around choice for landscape, architecture, event, and travel photography. Performance-wise, it delivers fast, reliable autofocus to ensure success in both still and video capture. This affordable lens has an MOD (Minimum Object Distance) of 0.19m at 16mm and 0.3m at 30mm, creating even more potential for exciting imaging opportunities.

BEST FULL FRAME TRAVEL LENS

TAMRON 35-100mm F/2.8 Di III VXD (Model A078)

This handy, take anywhere lens offers an exceptional blend of optical performance, portability, and innovation. It delivers consistently sharp images across its versatile zoom range and maintains a bright F2.8 aperture, excelling in low-light conditions while producing beautifully rendered depth and clarity. The advanced VXD (Voice-coil eXtreme-torque Drive) linear motor focus mechanism ensures rapid, precise, and silent focusing to meet the demands of both still and video creators. Remarkably compact and lightweight for its class, this lens redefines mobility without compromising on image quality. 

While you’re here, you should also pop across to Tamron Australia’s Podcast series – Get The Shot, a great series with insights from many and varied photographers.

The post Tamron Wins more TIPA gold! appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.

Popular teaching about photographic composition says to learn the rules and then break them. I prefer to encourage the people who join our photography workshops to learn the rules, understand them well and put them into practice so frequently they become second nature.

If you can apply the rules without even consciously thinking about them you will create more dynamic, interesting photographs which convey more feeling.

Why do we have rules?

Rules are important as they are the underlying structure of composition. Much like scales are to musicians. Much like grammar is to language.

Successful musicians have typically spent long hours going over and over the same scales until they know them so well they do not need to think about them. When we learned our first language, our “mother tongue”, we never consulted the textbooks to study the grammatical structure of the language, we just absorbed it, (most frequently from our mothers.)

Some people will have more difficulty learning the rules of composition and applying them effectively than others. Very much like some people can learn to play musical instruments or learn new languages easier.

I think it is because we are all creatively gifted in different ways. If you are gifted with a visual creativity you may find it easier to compose photographs than say someone who is gifted with a musical creativity and finds it easy to play the guitar or trumpet for example.

I do like what the famous American photographer Edward Weston had to say about learning and implementing the rules of composition:

“Now to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravity before going for a walk.”

I doubt any of us can recall studying the law of gravity before we learned to walk. But we certainly knew about it.

Know them at a subconscious level

Knowing the rules is important as they will help guide our creative thinking, but applying these rules rigidly will generally lead towards making rather static and lifeless photographs. As you learn the rules and know them so well you can incorporate them into your photographs intuitively you will find your images may take on a whole new dynamic. Very much like walking and talking, it’s good to be subconsciously aware of the rules and laws as they are there for good reason.

Practice constantly

Reading about and studying the rules of composition will help you gain a good understanding of them. Practicing them frequently is the most effective means of consistently integrating them into your photographs. Practice them even when you don’t have your camera with you.

Begin to see in the rule of thirds, discover leading lines and strong diagonals, look for frames and how you can use symmetry. One side effect of seeing like this will likely be that you start taking your camera everywhere with you.

Fill the frame

When I first started working in the photography department of a newspaper it was impressed upon me to “fill the frame”. This encouragement has stuck with me and I am aware, consciously or subconsciously, of wanting to effectively achieve this with every photograph I make. This was important in the newspaper in order to convey the story effectively, (and so sub-editors had less flexibility to horribly crop your photos).

Filling your frame does not mean that in every photo your subject must be pressed out to the edges of your viewfinder. It means however you are choosing to compose your photograph, make sure whatever is within the four corners and edges is relevant to the picture you are making.

If empty space is relevant and adds to your composition, use it well. If cropping in so tight that part of your subject is cut off makes a stronger image, then crop tight.

However you decide to compose your image, be happy with it. Don’t get hung up on the rules. But do have a solid understanding of them and explore how you like to incorporate them into the creative photographs you are making. And, if you so come up with any new rules, please do let me know!

Here’s a little video talking about this concept of composition.

The post A Fresh Look at Learning Photographic Composition appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

Drawing the viewer’s attention to the main subject in your photographs will help them understand your story more clearly. If you have a busy scene with no clear focus point it will possibly give your viewers an overall idea of what you were photographing, but they may not scrutinize it for long. Adding a clear center of attention will help you create better storytelling images.

Particularly when you are photographing a locality with a lot going on you can seek to isolate or draw the viewer’s eye to one main subject within your composition. By using this technique, you can develop a style which may become easily recognizable in your photographs.

Lessons from documentary photography

I first learned to make photographs like this while working as a newspaper photographer. My task was to illustrate and support the journalist’s story with my pictures. Making photos that compelled people to stop and look was always my priority. We wanted people to take notice, look at the photo, and read the story.

Photos of broad, general scenes will not achieve this so well as people will typically just flick past them.

Creating a photo essay to tell of your travel experience, an event you attended, a parade, etc., you will be aiming to convey what you saw and how you felt to best engage your audience. By creating a series of images where you have focused in on one main subject in each image you can build an overall illustration communicating to the viewer what it was like to be there. That is storytelling at its best.

Techniques

There are various techniques you can use to draw attention to one part of your composition. Using a shallow depth of field to isolate is one method. Using the contrast in light between your subject and the background, and various composition methods you can obtain pleasing results.

Play with the background

All of the photos I am using to illustrate this article are from a street parade in Chiang Mai, Thailand. With a lot of people, often cluttered backgrounds, and no real control or means of setting up photos, it’s a challenging situation in which to shoot.

Finding a dark background to help isolate your subject is not always so easy, but when you can it will produce some great photos. In this photo of the boy playing a large drum, I positioned myself so the background was totally in shadow and therefore underexposed.

This has achieved isolation of my main subject and you easily focus your attention on him. My timing to capture a smile and interesting positioning of his drumstick also helped. On its own though, this photograph does not do much to illustrate the parade and environment.

Coming in close to the French horn player (with a 35mm lens on a full frame camera and a wide aperture) I was able to isolate him and at the same time convey more information about his activity and location. Making him the center of attention and at the same time leaving him in context helps tell the story.

Had I used a longer lens it would have included less background and it may have been even more blurred, further distorting the detail and therefore the context of the story would be lost.

Using compositional elements

Using different composition methods such as framing or converging lines you can help draw your viewer’s attention to your chosen subject.

Often during our workshops, I find people want to include too much in their photos. I encourage them to include less and take more photos build up a story that way.

While it is good practice to create a photo essay which has a varied selection of wide, medium and close-up photos, trying to capture too much of what’s in front of you can often produce rather uninteresting photographs. Bringing one part of your composition to the foreground as the center of attention is a more effective means of holding a viewer’s focus.

Single or multiple photos

At the newspaper most often each story was accompanied by a single photograph. So the challenge was to produce one image supporting the narrative of the story. Not always so easy, especially with an event like a parade.

I often encourage people to photograph as if they are shooting to cover a story for a magazine. The aim being to come away with a series of photographs that together will tell the story of their experience. To finish up with 6-10 photos having a clear center of interest in each one and conveying the overall experience of the day.

If you produce a small collection of photos most social media and photo sharing sites have means to display them together in an album or gallery so it’s a great way for you to share your stories and your experiences.

Your turn

You can see some of these tips in action in the video below. Please share your tips and thoughs on creating more storytelling images by having a center of attention in the comments below.

The post How to Create a Center of Attention for Better Storytelling Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.

It was eight years ago that I reviewed the Panasonic ZS200, and I was immediately impressed by the compact size of the camera, along with a massive 15x optical zoom range. Most importantly, the ZS200 didn’t make any compromises when it came to handling and manual control, and the EVF was imminently useful.

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GoPro unveiled the oft-teased Mission 1, Mission 1 Pro, and Mission 1 Pro ILS cameras last week, although the company didn’t announce pricing. That mystery has quickly been solved.

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Printing remains one of the most rewarding parts of photography, turning digital files into something tangible. Whether it’s small prints for albums or large-format pieces for display, the right printer can shape how your work is experienced.

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The Canon RF 7-14mm f/2.8-3.5L STM is an extreme lens. It’s the world’s widest-angle zoom lens and has a staggering 190-degree field of view; looking into the viewfinder is like taking a step backward.

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