How to compose photography to attract the viewer’s attention

Introduction: "Why do people always glance at the photos I take and pass them by?" In fact, if you want people to take a few more glances at your work, you must know how to control the viewer's line of sight in terms of composition! Many photographers always put a lot of thought into observing the subject, from front to back, left and right, or even lying on the ground or climbing to the top floor to observe, just to find the best angle so that the human body viewing the photo will reflect your intentions. Let's look at the photo a few times and ponder the composition you worked so hard to compose and design. Here I would like to share with you how to use composition photography techniques to make the viewer’s eyes stay on your photography and ponder it for a long time.

Off-screen

When framing, there is always more that is omitted than retained. Of course, that's the point: establishing the photographer's unique point of view and conveying what's going on. However, the things happening vaguely outside the screen are sometimes intriguing. The traditional view of photography (and in this case, painting) is that whatever you want to show should be crammed into the frame. However, it is this widely accepted approach that gives Ou Yiweizhi's images their special meaning, as they deliberately refer to events that occur outside the frame. Occasionally is the key word here, because you have to risk the viewer not understanding it. Pilgrims in the picture stay up late waiting for sunrise on the top of Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka. Maybe you think the sunrise is nothing special, but it means a lot to this group of people gathered here. In the same scene frame, it is best not to show the sun in order to maintain a sense of mystery and leave a question mark. What is that person referring to? The answer is ready to come out, but retaining this moment can make the image more gripping.

▲In these consecutive images, there is no hand pointing in a certain direction.

▲This hand and all (well, or most) of the faces that are turned away extend the focus of the image to the right.

Disclosure

Disclosure is a technique borrowed from movies. Although it can be expressed through a single still photo, frankly speaking, it is difficult to actually implement it. But let’s give it a try. When using the revealing technique, one thing is first presented to the audience through the camera, and then another thing in the picture is revealed through movement or zoom. This thing usually needs to be unexpected. It seems simple, but if you want to create a strong effect, you must have an element of surprise. At first, the viewer should be tricked into thinking that it is a certain situation, and then the truly noteworthy object will appear from the side or corner. To take a still image like this, only by carefully arranging the framing, composition or lighting can all the attention be immediately focused on the same place, until the eyes linger on the picture for a long time before wandering around and discovering another thing. This balancing act is difficult to achieve with certainty, because if the thing that should be revealed is hidden too well, for example, if it is shrunk too small or the light is too weak, it may make the viewer feel bored and look away without even realizing it. The picture shows the Sultan's mausoleum called "Coba". Since it was taken from a helicopter, my mind had to move very quickly. This mini figure in white will become the focus of the photo for only one reason: after your eyes stop for a moment, you will move to the corner and discover its existence.

▲The combination of various sizes and positions in the picture ensures that attention is initially focused on the tomb and then moves to the minifigures. Both are in sharp contrast to the ground.

▲This technique in the movie is to reveal characters by panning down and to the right.

Two-person shot

This is a classic shooting technique, especially commonly used in interviews and dialogues in movies and TV. This technique is called a "double shot": the subject is two people, usually in close-ups and medium shots, with their faces dominating the scene. When shooting in widescreen, the two people can be side by side while still giving each other breathing space, so this technique is very suitable for this technique. One of the key points of a two-person shot is that through careful composition, the viewer's eyes can move back and forth between the subjects, creating a connection between the subjects. The effect is usually good; in other words, the photo is dynamic rather than static. This photo of a Chinese opera was taken on stage. I deliberately used selective focus, a large aperture of ?/1.4, and an 85mm portrait lens. The focus and light are placed on the foreground figures, so the eyes are first attracted to the foreground figures. However, the contrasting background (dark on the right, bright and colorful on the left) ensures that the eye is drawn back to the blurry but still recognizable female character. Then, the more eye-catching male character will draw attention back. Attention bounces back and forth between the two subjects like a ping pong ball.

▲The aperture is set at f/1.4, and the lens only focuses on a single plane.

▲Attention is initially placed on the brighter and focused foreground figure, then moves to the back, and then returns to the front.