How To Simplify Composition With Normal Lenses

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about using telephoto lenses to simplify composition. Today we’re going to take a look at how this works with normal lenses.

What is a normal lens?

A normal lens (also called a standard lens) is a prime lens with a focal length of around 50mm on a full-frame camera. A 35mm prime is the equivalent for an APS-C camera and a 25mm prime for Micro Four-thirds.

But don’t feel that you need to own a prime lens to put the ideas into action. They work just as well with zooms set to the same focal lengths.

Normal lenses and perspective

The interesting thing about normal lenses when it comes to perspective and composition is that they occupy the middle ground between wide-angle and telephoto lenses.

To see what I mean take a look at the photos below, both created with a normal lens (35mm, APS-C).

I made the first standing some distance from the old greenhouse. Because of that you can see plenty of the surroundings, a bit like using a wide-angle lens to photograph the same scene.

But for the second photo, made with the same lens, I moved in much closer. The result is that the photo looks like it could have been taken with a telephoto lens.

That makes normal lenses extremely versatile when it comes to composition.

Why simplify composition?

At this point you may be wondering why photographers try and simplify the composition of their photos.

The answer is that it’s the easiest way to make your photos stronger and more dramatic. Simplified photos have impact. They don’t waste the viewer’s time with unnecessary detail. They’re strong and powerful.

In short, if you want to improve the composition of your photos, then making it as simple as possible is a great start.

Using normal lenses for graphic compositions

A few years ago I spent some time in the south of Spain. It’s a beautiful part of the world with dramatic scenery, picturesque villages filled with white buildings and lots of sun.

I enjoyed making black and white photos with bold, graphic design utilizing the interplay of sun and shadow. All these photos rely on a simplified composition to work. I simplified them further by using the square format. You can see some of the images I made below.

These images all have several things in common:

• I moved in close to the subject to make the composition as simple as possible.
• They make strong use of shape.
• Several use pairs to simplify the composition. For example, two pairs of stone columns, two palm trees, two stone towers and two cacti.
• I converted them to black and white and cropped to a square to simplify the composition even more. This also gives a unified look across the set. The photos look as if they belong together.

These are the lessons you can learn from these photos:

1. You can simplify composition by moving closer to the subject.
2. You can simplify the composition by creating bold, graphic compositions that use shape.
3. You can apply these ideas across a series of photos for added impact.

Move in close a normal lens to simplify the composition

Here are a couple of examples of how these ideas work.

Take a look at this photo of a vintage car. It’s the photo I made when I first saw it in the street.

After making that initial image, I thought about how I could make some stronger images. It was getting dark, so I opened the aperture to f1.4 (its widest setting) and moved in close. Then I noticed the reflection of a street lamp in the car’s bodywork. That, to me, was interesting, and I made the following two photos.

Here you can see simplicity in action. The photos are near abstract and use the contrast between the orange light of the street lamp and blue color of the ambient light.

Use color to simplify the composition

I applied the second idea of creating bold, graphic compositions on a visit to Beijing a few years ago.

The first photo works because I set my 35mm lens to f1.4 to blur the background. This simplified the composition by reducing a messy background to a blur.

The other photos work because I created bold, graphic compositions based around the color red. There’s a lot of red in Beijing’s historical buildings and it’s an important color in Chinese culture. So it makes sense to use it in photos.

It’s also another example of how the idea of simplicity applies across a series of photos. The photos are linked because I used the same lens, similar composition techniques and built a series around the color red.

Now it’s time for you to explore this idea with your own lenses. Don’t forget, you can use a zoom set to the appropriate focal length if you don’t have a normal lens.

By the way, for more great ideas like this about photographic composition, check out the book of the month offer below.

100 Composition Assignments

These assignments come from my new ebook 100 Composition Assignments. It has 100 assignments just like the ones in this article, to light a fire and help you improve your compositions skills.

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