Photography: Composition Skills Workshop

Learn creative composition skills with our photography short courses in Sydney!

Once you have mastered the basics of your camera's settings and functions you will need to learn the creative tools integral to the photographic language. Colour, light, contrast, balance, rhythm, movement, and the elements of design are the building blocks photographers use to draw out the beauty in a subject and bring their creative vision to life. This creative photography course opens your world far beyond 'point and shoot' and extends your journey to developing your own individual style, channelling concepts, forensic observation skills and visualisation processes without rules and limitations.

This creative photography course drives outcomes for photography that are very considered, deliberate and mindful, with your creative capture choices more aligned to the approach, attitudes and professional behaviours of successful working photographers creating images with real impact.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this Composition Skills course, you should be able to:

• Make effective photographic capture decisions that balance technical, creative & practical options
• Incorporate the visual cues of effective composition of photographic images
• Integrate upskilled compositional tools into the image capture processes
• Understand the roles of forensic observation, mindful processes, and playful imagination, in the composition of photographs
• Design and develop your customised personal creative composition toolbox
• Create memorable, high-impact images that resonate with audiences

Course content

What will be covered in this Composition Skills course?

Session 1:

The Principles of Visual Perception & Design

• Gestalt principles of perception
• Visual weight & Emphasis
• Contrast & balance
• Harmony,  unity & variety
• Repetition, rhythm & movement
• Gradation, 3D form & shading
• Practical activities, class discussions and hands-on reviews

The Elements of Design

• Lines & dynamic diagonals
• Triangles & 3 points of interest
• Textures, patterns, curves & shapes
• Colour, hue, saturation & luminance
• Proximity, density, isolation, positive & negative space
• Dimension, scale & proportion, thirds & odds

Session 2

Image capture processes

• Camera positioning, shoot angle, elevation & Point of View
• Simplification: selective focus, minimalism, lens focal length, compression
• Framing, zooming & cropping
• Context selection & contextualising backgrounds

Photographer processes

• Shoot attitude, planning, approach & behaviours
• Forensic observation & visualisation of potential 
• Reduction framing, visual filtering, & assessment of scene attributes
• Post-production cropping & creative photo editing
• Practical activities, class discussions and hands-on reviews

Intended audience

Who is this Composition Skills course for?

This program is for all photographers who want to improve their compositional skills in photography; for photographers to broaden their capabilities to other genres of photography; for photographers with a new camera who want to get back into photography; for previous students of photography who want a creative refresher course; or have upcoming travel plans; for photographers who want to consolidate their skills across a variety of conceptual and practical conditions; or who want inspiration in their photographic journey and want interesting challenges to solve. 

This photography course is for anyone who is reasonably proficient in manual camera operations, or completed the Photography Course for Beginners or an equivalent course, as this course is not designed for beginner level and does not contain entry level tuition in camera functionality.   

For DSLR / mirrorless beginner photographers, please see the learning outcomes of Photography Course for Beginners.

Course materials

What to bring to class

• Cameras of any brand /any type (smartphone/compact/mirrorless/DSLR/film
• Sufficient storage space on your device / card
• Charger and battery as required
• Notepad and pen to take notes / or phone / or tablet / or laptop