burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I think the answer is in your first paragraph — There isn't just one book! It's an intuitive, subconscious absorption and subsequent processing of every image in every book, magazine, movie, TV show, photo album, ad, museum...

The best advice I ever got was from an old mentor of mine from my 20's. He was an artist/designer at heart, and had 24 2-drawer file cabinets in his office that were mostly filled with tear sheets from books and magazines. Those were ads, photo spreads, interesting photos, reproductions of art, and other examples of interesting and definitely useful examples of what worked and didn't work. During the little down times we had, we would throw a jazz record on his turntable and pore over folder after folder of those things. I got in the habit of creating my own collection of photo-centric tear sheets.

Before that, in high school, my journalism teacher had taught me to crop photos for the school newspaper and yearbook. Her favorite phrase was, "Be ruthless!" Her philosophy was that, if it wasn't central to the main story, cut it out. Isolate the subject. But be sure to do it in a way that the frame is a "complete guide" to moving the eye to the visual point of interest.

Over the years, I collected many coffee table books on photography containing works by some of the "old masters." In the 1960s, I subscribed to LIFE Magazine. I bought their Library of Photography book series, twice. I still have the second set of those. I had the Kodak Encyclopedia of Photography at work. And I have two shelves of books on both the "how to" and the "what to" photograph. There are common themes to all these, of course, the most important being that they contain many good, "art director curated" images to learn from as examples for my subconscious mind.

A trip to the public library for a walk through the stacks on photography and art will reveal some great resources.

I see photography as a language all its own. It has its own "visual grammar, syntax, punctuation, and vocabulary." Just as we learn language from our parents and the people around us when we are young, we assimilate compositional skills from our environment, too. Surrounding ourselves with good examples will naturally reinforce habits and shape our skills at the camera and in post-capture software.

kenArchi Loc: Seal Beach, CA

I still have seven folders filled with tear sheets from many magazines. Not just photography mags.

I still want to learn. That's also why I am here at UHH, a form of book.

User ID

Why must the Rudeness Police fabricate evidence ? I suppoze youll declare *this* post as my rudeness toward you.

BTW, books for learning composition really is a disgusting idea.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

So, by your thinking, doing 75mph in a 15mph neighborhood is okay, as long a you haven't seen the speed limit signs?

RolandDieter

I also highly recommend Bryan Peterson's book. He has a unique, clear way of showing things. Unlike most books, that merely show what to do, Bryan also shows what so many do wrong so you can see why he is giving his advice. All of his books are very good.

User ID

Your not very good at analogies. That was the huuuuugely pathetic. Why not go with 90mph, and passing a flashing school bus in a school zone, while chugging tequilla.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

True, I'm not good at analogies. I'm just not very practiced at having to dumb down my letters and texts.

User ID

ROTFLMFAO

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I see both sides on this one. Books on composition try to analyze what works and then show you why. That can be valuable for those who need a helping hand to guide them through the baby steps. But it can also put you in a box of rules that aren't fun to get out of.

On the other hand, developing a skill of visual composition for use in any art form is largely experiential. The process of composition itself is intuitive and wholistic in nature. After decades of making images, I don't think about it. I just do it. It's like bike riding, driving, or playing a musical instrument. It becomes autonomic.

Early on in my childhood, my uncle, Howard Coyle, gave me my first camera. He also got my first films developed (He owned a drugstore in Oak Park, IL). Then he sat down with me and explained the viewfinder as a picture frame, and that I should place my subjects within that frame, so they tell a story. He used his fingers as cropping 'L's and showed me how I could have composed my snapshots better.

Howard was a half-decent amateur photographer who made 35mm slides all over the world during his vacations. In 1965, on my 10th birthday, he pulled out his Carousel 550 slide projector and showed us his recent trip to Greece. THAT example made me want to learn more about photography. He died two years later. I inherited his projector, which I used for 15 years.

In high school, learning to crop pictures for the yearbook helped me to learn to compose in the viewfinder. But learning to use slide film improved that compositional discipline and taught me exposure far better than working with negative films had. When you know that what you do at the camera is directly responsible for the look of the slide on screen, you try harder. You can apply the same discipline to working with JPEGs today.

Coming back to my earlier point, I'll just stress that no one book or other single resource is going to be the magic oracle of compositional knowledge. Getting out there with a camera, making images, critiquing them, and having others be ruthless with them, is what worked for me. And learning from the best work of others helped me just as much, if not more.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I've read the suggestions that have been given so far, along with your original request and the clarification and explanation that you have provided. And I read User ID's "no book" suggestion, along with some others that. on the surface, sound a little bit silly.

Like many here, I have taken some photography courses and workshops, including some college courses. I bought the textbooks for those courses and thought for a long time that they were pretty good. I also had the series including "The Camera," "The Negative," and "The Print." After hanging out with some good art teachers for several years, I've come to realize that the photography books as a whole are pretty poor teachers of composition. They are too regimented and too mechanical. As has been suggested, I would suggest looking for one or more painting books that talk about composition. Watercolor might be even better...it is more fluid and "spontaneous." The book from which the examples posted earlier here provides a great examples of why...instead of focusing on fractions and arithmetic, it focuses on vision and mass.

My newest cameras have a viewfinder grid that can be switched on and off. That can be helpful while forming good "compositional habits." I just have to be careful not to allow it to make me a 'prisoner of the grid.' Sort of the same thing with my viewfinder level. It's a great help as long as it doesn't distract my attention so long that the shot is lost.

MikeFast

There are rules to composition and they help beginners learn framing a photo as well as cropping in post processing. A book would be helpful but nowadays YouTube is probably better.

kenArchi Loc: Seal Beach, CA

These paintings are how my mind thinks.
Those paintings are how people think which brings me regular income.

Which one is art?

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Indeed. Whether someone wants to learn from scratch or improve their existing skills, reading on its own won't do it - but it's definitely one of the more powerful tools for learning and improving. Ditto for taking lessons, watching videos, studying other people's techniques, styles etc. Reading is a good initiator of the learning process and experience is a good completer of the learning process.

What we all need to watch out for is those who lay out the "rules" and suggest or imply that they're mandatory. The so-called rules are useful guidelines for beginners, but once somebody understands the rules and the reason why we have them, they're in a position to understand when the rules can be broken to good effect. They would also understand that breaking the rules at an inappropriate time or for the wrong reasons can result in something that looks like a mistake.

Bill_de Loc: US

Books on composition can be a good thing. We just have to remember that, unlike the ten commandments, they are not written in stone. Reading about many things in the arts can teach us to recognize what we may like and what we may not.

Although not always a necessity, it is nice to have some idea where you are going before starting off on a journey.

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bnsf

Wouldn't the composition be in the eyes of the beholder? When I was shooting action scenes of different Railroads in action, I would say to myself what would the viewer like to see in a photo? Then I would shoot the action scene according to the surrounding landscapes.