# Composition (& luck) more important than equipment?



## Krispy (Nov 7, 2010)

I'm no photographer and it's easy to fall into the trap thinking that you need the best equipment to take the best photo's. This, of course, isn't true - first and foremost, you need a good creative eye for composition or, failing that, a bit of luck. A poorly composed picture will look poor no matter what camera it's been taken on. A well composed picture will look like a well composed picture no matter what camera it's been taken on.

A photographer pal is trying to explain the 'rule of thirds' to me at the moment and I'm trying to understand it. Another concept I'm familiar with from web design is the 'Golden Ratio' and it's interesting how these mathematical rules can be applied to creative composition (websites, paintings, photographs, etc)

Looking around for inspiration, it turns out the Ukrainian parliament is always a good source of 'action' photographs and the composition of some have been likened to modern day Renaissance paintings, using some of these mathematical rules of composition. I love them! (I take no credit for any of the following...)

By luck, this photo apparently uses a near perfect Golden Ratio in it's composition...




























This:










Has been likened to The Massacre of the Innocents:










Turns out there's a lot of it going on. Frank Lampard scoring after the death of his mother...










...likened to The Deposition:










There's so much going on in this picture from Manchester...










So I'm going to take my point-and-shoot out for a Friday night in Romford and see how I get on!

JC: Table for 26 please.

Waiter: But there's only 13 of you

JC: Yeah, we all want to sit on one side of the table. Don't ask...










A lot has been shamelessly lifted from here


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## Krispy (Nov 7, 2010)

Examples from wikipedia of the rule of thirds...


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