When I got my first modern digital camera, a friend of mine told me that one of the best things I should try to learn about photography was composition.

I didn't think much of it at the time, as I was still a bit overwhelmed by the technical aspects of being able to balance film speed (ISO), shutter speed, aperture and flash settings. Just getting a good exposure with little motion blur was a challenge in itself.

But what I failed to see, and now understand a little bit is that, while perhaps a bit difficult to learn at first, the technical aspects of photography are just that. Technical. You can learn the technical aspects pretty easily if you just spend a little bit of time reading up on it.

But composition, the other half of photography, on the other hand is a bit of a different beast. It requires you to actually be creative and in a way, be an artist. Which, as an engineer in training, isn't something I've typically been trained to do. Creativity in solving an engineering problem is a bit different from creativity in terms of visual arts.

So as I now am sitting on the fence carefully watching the DSLR market, almost ready to jump on either an Olympus E-620 or a Panasonic Lumix G1, I'm still a bit hesitant from the point of view that while I have a somewhat competent grasp on some of the technical aspects of photography, I still lack the visual arts component, which is still leaving my photographs a bit wanting.

I've been trying to think about composition more while taking photos with my point-and-shoot Lumix FX520, but in all truth, it's difficult to get something that I really feel proud about.

Perusing through dpreview.com's challenge galleries, flickr albums, or newspaper galleries, I really get a sense that I have a huge way to go in terms of photographic composition.

The rule-of-thirds just doesn't seem to cut it anymore...?

The last thing I've tried was "framing." Not sure how well it turned out:

In the above photo I tried to box the subject in by the two pillars on the left and right. It didn't look too bad on when reviewing the photo in the field, but when I viewed the result on my computer, it still doesn't have that "punch" or sense of being drawn into the photograph.

Sometimes, different aspect ratios also gives a different feel to a scene. So I tried shooting in 16:9 as opposed to the usual 3:2. Again, trying to frame a little bit by using the tree on the left and the pillars on the right:

I don't think the above photo looks terrible, but it still seems somewhat lacking. I think one aspect of the scene that helps is that my cousins are gazing off in the same direction, off to the right of the scene looking at something not seen in the photo. It helps to create a bit of interest in the photo, causing me at least, to wonder what it is they are looking at so intently. So it serves to draw my eyes to that direction to the right, and since they are situated in the left of the photo, it allows me to move across the photo for a bit before finally exiting.

But then in another case, I took this photo in Hong Kong:

Here I clearly violate the rule-of-thirds, in that the scene is bisected nearly 50-50 with the pole smack in the middle of the photo. What's more, my friend is looking off to the edge of the photo, away from the centre. If you follow is gaze, you completely miss half of the photo.

So I'm not sure if this is a good photo or not. A couple articles I've read online bring up the point that composition rules exist to be guidelines, but never hard and fast rules. For if you always follow the typical composition rules, your photos will become boring and predictable. Rather, it is useful to know when to use the rules, and when to break them. Breaking the rules upsets the natural order of things and if done correctly, can create a bit of interest.

For the above photo, I somewhat like the motion blur seen through some of the crowd moving in the right of the image. This blur all around creates a sense of motion to the image, showcasing how busy and bustling Hong Kong night-life is. And to seemingly counter that, you have my friend leaning against a pole casually glancing off to the side, relaxed.

What do you do for photographic composition?

I think that between now and stepping up to a DSLR or Micro 4/3 camera, I should really make an effort to be more deliberate about photographic composition. Because all the equipment in the world won't make a photographer. Rather, it almost all lays in the composition, and the visual arts aspect - after all, photography is an art form.