by Jim Zuckerman
In the critiques that I do during my courses, I comment on the graphic design of photos all the time. I feel that the two most important aspects of a picture are lighting and graphic design (composition is, in essence, the graphic layout of all the components that make up a picture), and that when you put together these two ingredients in a photograph it will be a superb work of art. One of my students asked recently what, exactly, is graphic design.
Rather than use words to answer this, I wanted to clarify the concept by showing examples and make it easy for everyone to understand what I mean.
The truth is that it's not difficult to show good examples of graphic design in photographs. I can present to you countless beautiful images with perfect compositions and with subjects that have striking or compelling shapes. The hard part is to go out in the woods, or the desert, or a city and find graphic designs that are great. The world is, after all, a compositional mess. There are rocks, mountains, buildings, dirt, bushes, branches, and man-made objects all over the place. It's our job as photographers to make sense of it, to find in all the visual chaos a design that is artistic and pleasing.
This will be the first part of a three-part series. They will be examples of what I consider excellent graphic designs. In Part One, I will show nature. In subsequent parts, I will show compelling graphic designs in wildlife, cities and architecture, and people.
The following three pictures have strong graphic designs. The shapes of the components are beautiful, and they have a compelling artistic composition.
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