Best photography & composition Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Photography is unlike any other art form. In the other arts there is always a continuous interplay between the artist and his art. He has the painting or sculpture before him. What we have tried to do is to provide a medium for "artistic expression" to anyone with only a reasonable amount of time. By giving him a camera system with which he need only control his selection of focus, composition and lighting, we free him to select the moment and to criticize immediately what he has done. We enable him to see what else he wants to do on the basis of what he has just learned.”

“Composition in photography is almost as varied as composition in music or words -- melodic or atonal, safe or daring -- and can enhance subject, theme, and style. Every photograph you take involves you in some compositional decision, even if this is simply where to set up the camera or when to press the button.”

Ifs Decision Subjects Style Safe Photography Cameras Presses Photograph Theme Daring Composition Buttons

Book:Basic Photography

Source: Basic Photography

“Essentially, in photography, I think on two levels: one emotional and the other technical. The emotional impact has to do with looking for something dramatic happening in the photograph, something that reaches out and touches somebody in some way. And the technical is having to do with composition and framing - light and dark, light and shadow.”

Thinking Way Two Light Dark Levels Emotional Photography Happenings Shadow Impact Photograph Dramatic Reach Out Composition Light And Dark Framing Light And Shadow

Author:Leonard Nimoy

“Cinematography was incredibly foreign to me, so I read as much as I could about it. Once I figured out that it was just photography with a set shutter speed, I got some slide film and I just went about storyboarding the script and taking snapshots. I took a ton of time doing it just to make sure I knew exactly what I was doing. By the end of it I knew what the film was going to look like - my exposure and the composition and everything. I wasn't scared of cinematography anymore.”

Looks Ends Film Photography Scripts Scared Speed Composition Exposure Slides Snapshots Shutters Cinematography Storyboarding

Author:Shane Carruth

“My theory of composition? Simple: do not release the shutter until everything in the viewfinder feels just right.”

Feels Simple Theory Photography Release Composition Shutters Feels Just

Author:Ernst Haas

“Only the bad artists of the nineteenth century were frightened by the invention of photography; the good ones all welcomed it and used it. Degas liked it not only because it provided an accurate record, but because the snapshot showed him a means of escape from the classical rules of design. Through it he learnt to make a composition without the use of formal symmetry.”

Mean Use Used Artist Records Century Design Photography Invention Frightened Accurate Composition Formal Nineteenth Century Symmetry Snapshots Degas

Book:The romantic rebellion: romantic versus classic art

Source: The romantic rebellion: romantic versus classic art

“I have always loved the amateur side of photography, automatic photographs, accidental photographs with uncentered compositions, heads cut off, whatever. I incite people to make their self-portraits. I see myself as their walking photo booth.”

People Self Sides Cutting Walking Photography Photograph Composition Portraits Self Portrait

Author:William Klein

“As a senior in high school my counselor recommended that I soften my science and math direction with an art course. Fortunately my high school offered a new course in B&W photography, so I opted for that instead of art, towards which I had an aversion. Composition is something that comes pretty naturally to me and I appreciate ordered chaos: the photo class turned out to be fun.”

Art School Courses Fun Class Photography High School Appreciate Chaos Math Composition Senior Aversion Counselor High School Senior

Author:Peter Menzel

“There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants.”

Ifs Knows Would Be Able Perfect Impossible Information Computer Photography Photographer Seats Pants Regulation Composition Masterpiece Rules And Regulations

Author:Arnold Newman

“Now, to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravity before going for a walk.”

Littles Law Walks Photography Photographer Photograph Accomplished Gravity Composition Consulting Photography By Photographers Inspirational Photography Photo Shoots Gravitation Inspiring Photography Photography And Light

Author:Edward Weston

“I treat the photograph as a work of great complexity in which you can find drama. Add to that a careful composition of landscapes, live photography, the right music and interviews with people, and it becomes a style.”

People Style Drama Photography Treats Add Photograph Careful Landscape Complexity Interviews Composition Landscape Photography

Author:Ken Burns

“In my photography, color and composition are inseparable. I see in color.”

Color Photography Composition Inseparable Color Photography

Author:William Albert Allard

“My first priority when taking pictures is to achieve clarity. A good documentary photograph transmits the information of the situation with the utmost fidelity; achieving it means understanding the nuances of lighting and composition, and also remembering to keep the lenses clean and the cameras steady.”

“Arguments against photography ever being considered a fine art are: the element of chance which enters in, — finding things ready-made for a machine to record, and of course the mechanics of the medium. I say that chance enters into all branches of art.”

“I don't know what good composition is.... Sometimes for me composition has to do with a certain brightness or a certain coming to restness and other times it has to do with funny mistakes. There's a kind of rightness and wrongness and sometimes I like rightness and sometimes I like wrongness.”

Knows Kind Sometimes Certain Mistake Photography Photographer Composition Brightness

Author:Diane Arbus

“When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches.”

Matter Vision Subjects Fit Photography Photographer Patterns Following Composition Repetition Cliche Subject Matter Tedious Freshness Pictorial Following Rules

Book:Edward Weston on photography

Source: Edward Weston on photography

“The first picture of his I ever saw was during a lecture at the Rhyl camera club. I was 16 and the speaker was Emrys Jones. He projected the picture upside down. Deliberately, to disregard the subject matter to reveal the composition. It's a lesson I've never forgotten.”

Firsts Matter Saws Subjects Lessons Photography Cameras Forgotten Clubs Speakers Composition Lectures Subject Matter Upside Down Disregard

Author:Philip Jones Griffiths

“It is essential for the photographer to know the effect of his lenses. The lens is his eye, and it makes or ruins his pictures. A feeling for composition is a great asset. I think it is very much a matter of instinct. It can perhaps be developed, but I doubt if it can be learned. To achieve his best work, the young photographer must discover what really excites him visually. He must discover his own world.”

Source: Bill Brandt: Selected Texts & Bibliography

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Photography Quotes