Learning Composition from Roger Ebert

Last week, Jason Kottke pointed to a blog post by renowned movie critic Roger Ebert. The post, in and of itself, is fascinating as it describes how to “read” a movie by freezing a frame and then discussing the various aspects of the shot. Of course analyzing a single frame of a film is no different than analyzing a still photograph. For that reason, the post provides tremendous insight into how to compose shots. In particular, the following paragraph is so rich in information that it could be the curriculum for an entire course on photography.

In simplistic terms: Right is more positive, left more negative. Movement to the right seems more favorable; to the left, less so. The future seems to live on the right, the past on the left. The top is dominant over the bottom. The foreground is stronger than the background. Symmetrical compositions seem at rest. Diagonals in a composition seem to “move” in the direction of the sharpest angle they form, even though of course they may not move at all. Therefore, a composition could lead us into a background that becomes dominant over a foreground. Tilt shots of course put everything on a diagonal, implying the world is out of balance. I have the impression that more tilts are down to the right than to the left, perhaps suggesting the characters are sliding perilously into their futures. Left tilts to me suggest helplessness, sadness, resignation. Few tilts feel positive. Movement is dominant over things that are still. A POV above a character’s eyeline reduces him; below the eyeline, enhances him. Extreme high angle shots make characters into pawns; low angles make them into gods. Brighter areas tend to be dominant over darker areas, but far from always: Within the context, you can seek the “dominant contrast,” which is the area we are drawn toward. Sometimes it will be darker, further back, lower, and so on. It can be as effective to go against intrinsic weightings as to follow them.

Holy cow, that is a lot of information! To get a better understanding, let’s break it down into a quick cheat sheet:

The downward angle makes poor Diva seem insignificant

Direction

• Right is Good, Left is Bad
• Up is Strong, Down is Weak
• Foreground is Strong, Background is Weak

Movement

• Right is Future, Left is Past
• Symmetry implies no movement
• Diagonals move toward the sharpest angle

Tilt

• Tilts imply chaos
• Tilt to the right is sliding into the future
• Tilt to the left indicates sadness

Point of View

• Shooting from above reduces the subject
• Upward shots empower the subject

The subtle messages buried in the composition of a photograph can often be tough to grasp. You can tell by the words used by Ebert that in as much as we would like to break this down into a science, it is ultimately how an image makes you feel that is the best clue to its meaning.