Week 9: Picture Composition

Good composition reinforces the manner in which the mind organizes information. It emphasizes those elements such as grouping, pattern, shape and form that provide the viewer with the best method of 'reading' the image smoothly and efficiently. If there is friction in visual movement of the eye across the frame, if there are areas of the image that stop the eye dead, then an unsatisfactory feeling is unconsciously experienced and, in an extreme form, will end the attention of the viewer. There is a fine dividing line between 'teasing' the eye with visual ambiguities and losing the interest of the audience.