Quick Tip 06 - Mastering Compositions

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, there are four key pillars that define the look of any frame:

In today’s issue, we’ll focus on how to manipulate the viewers attention through utilising the right composition styles. Mastering a few simple rules can completely change the way your videos look and feel.

Definitely the most common one is the Rule of Thirds.

Imagine your image is divided into 9 equal parts by two horizontal and two vertical lines (like a tic-tac-toe grid).
The idea is to place your subject along the lines or where they cross, instead of right in the center. That’s it, it’s that simple.

This makes the picture feel more balanced and pleasing to look at.

Probably my most-used composition technique, right next to Centered and the Rule of Thirds.

One of the most important jobs of a filmmaker or photographer is to guide the viewer’s eye, to tell them subconsciously, where to look. The better you are at directing attention, the stronger your frame will be. That’s where leading lines come in.

Leading lines can come from almost anything: roads, bridges, fences, rivers, train tracks, even shadows. They don’t have to be perfectly straight, they can curve, bend, or zigzag, as long as they draw the viewer’s eye toward your subject.

What really matters is how you position those lines to create depth, movement, and visual flow within your frame.

The frame below is a good example. The path combined with the hand railing clearly guide the eye to my main subject, the church. Simple yet effective.

Centered composition means placing your main subject right in the middle of the frame.

This creates a sense of balance, stability, and focus, because the viewer’s eyes go straight to the subject. It works best when the background is simple or symmetrical, where the centered placement feels natural and strong.

While it can look static if overused, centered composition is powerful when you want your frame to feel important or calm.

Most of the times I enhance the effect of the centered composition by adding a subtle vignette. If you want to learn more about my coloring process, check out this post.

Framing is a composition technique where you use elements within a scene to surround or frame your main subject, drawing attention to it.

The “frame” can be anything, like a window, doorway, arch, tree branches, or shadows, that naturally borders your subject.

This technique too helps to focus the viewer’s attention, adds depth to the image, and creates a feeling of context or story, as if the viewer is looking through something to see the subject.

There is much more that I could talk about, like combining certain compositions for an enhanced effect but I will leave it at that for now!

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Thanks so much for being here, I genuinely appreciate every single reader.
If you ever have questions or ideas for future issues, feel free to shoot me a DM on Instagram!

Until next time,

Stefan

Minimal tools. Maximum creativity.

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