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The Compositional Power of Cinematography! |
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Written by David Beckstead
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Cinematography has been one of my strongest outlets for learning new compositional concepts. Cinematographers, since video was invented, have been the unsung heroes of the visual arts. Most pro-photographers I know can spout off a plethora of past popular photographers, but no one (myself included until recently) can say who the cinematographer of Ben-Hur was. Have you gone back and watched Ben-Hur lately? Man! Robert Surtees, the cinematographer, just amazed and enthralled me with his camera work! He shot grandiose vistas, yet often what he left out of his compositions was just as important as what he framed in. To say I have learned more about my own compositions through cinematography is an understatement! For many years now it has been my passion to seek out and find movies that help me to ‘see’ composition better.
Part of what enthralls me is the fact that cinematographers do not have the luxury to pick the vertical frame like photographers do. This limitation brings a skill-set needed to fill (or selectively not fill) the horizontal frame and keep the viewer interested. I have always said that, because of story line, negative-space, and body / clothing lines and other compositional concepts and elements, the horizontal frame is harder to compose effectively than the vertical frame. In the past my vertical frame percentage was higher by far than my horizontal, yet lately (because of a more intense study of cinematography) I have been exploring horizontal compositional techniques.
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David Beckstead |
| About the author: |
| Current Author Promotion: Find out more about David's Current Worshop "Shoot With Beckstead" David Beckstead was named “The Top 10 Wedding Photographers in the World” by American Photo magazine - March 2007 issue. David is truly a mountain man at heart! He has traveled to over 65 countries and almost every state in the US. He has hiked thousands of miles of backcountry, including above the base camp of Mt. Everest. He was one of the first registered trackers for Arizona Search and Rescue, worked for the US Forest Service for 12 summers as a Hotshot firefighter fighting fires around the US and Canada, all the while carrying a Nikon SLR with a 50 mm 1.8 lens. David is a fine art watercolor painter and lover of all things artistic.
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