EXERCISEMat FrameTurn to the back of the book andlocate the "Mat Template." Trace thetemplate onto sturdy paper and dry-mount it onto a piece of dark matboard. (See Appendix for instruc-tions on mounting.) Then carefullycut through both the mat and thetemplate along the dotted lines. Forbest results, use a sharp knife(such as an X-acto) and a metalstraight-edge.

You have now constructed a matframe with roughly the same propor-tions as your camera's viewfinder.Hold the frame an arm's length away,with the dark side toward you, andlook through it. Wherever you hap-pen to look, you'll have some kind ofcomposition within the frame. Eval-uate it. Is the composition inter-esting? Is it well-balanced? Whatkind of dynamics does it have?

Next, shift the frame to either side,up or down, and observe how thatchanges the composition. Move itcloser to you to fit more into it, orfurther away to crop more out of it.Rotate the frame so it goes fromhorizontal to vertical and back again.Try as many adjustments as you canthink of until you've made the bestcomposition you can. Then turnaround and try the same process inanother direction. Select an objectnear you and experiment with it.How many interesting compositionscan you produce with a single object?Can you make an interesting com-position out of absolutely anything,or do only certain kinds of thingswork well?

Student photograph by Han JuneBae.

This exercise is, in a sense, aphotographer's "warm-up" exercise.Its purpose is to loosen up yourphotographic "muscles" before youactually go out to shoot photographs.By exercising with just a frame, youmay find that you notice things thatyou might miss with all the complica-tions of a real camera. This is likelyto be true whether you've alreadyused a camera for years, or are justgetting started. It's a good exercise tocome back to at regular intervals, justto "freshen up" your eye so keep thetemplate handy and use it often.

64 The Photographic Eye

EXERCISECroppingThis exercise begins much like theprevious one. First, locate the "Crop-ping L's" template at the back of thisbook. Trace it, dry-mount it ontomat board and cut out the L's. (Theyare called L's because they're shapedlike L's.)

Place the L's on top of the photo-graph on this page. See if you canfind a better or at least different com-position within that photograph byadjusting the L's.

Try cropping in on one smalldetail. Try trimming out any un-necessary details or background. Tryshifting the balance to one side, upor down. See how many good photo-graphs you can find in this one.

Then turn to any other photographin the book (the larger the better) andtry the same t h i n g . Cont inueexperimenting with a variety ofphotographs.

Try working with a partner, takingturns cropping the same photograph.

Is there only one good compositionwithin each photograph? Is there onebest composition in each? Doeseveryone tend to agree on which isbest?

Keep your cropping L's handy, anduse them often to evaluate composi-tions. Try using them during critiquesessions (see the next section) to showthe class how you would crop a pho-tograph differently. Locate or obtainsome magazines with a lot of largephotographs (Life, National Geo-graphic , Smithsonian, fashionmagazines, etc.) and see how manyof the photographs you can improveby cropping.

Student photograph by FrankHal!.

What is Composition? 65