COMPOSITION, PICTORIAL Composition is the placing or arrangement of the different component parts of a picture in such a manner that the result is pleasing and harmonious. Much has been said and written about the so-called " laws " of composition. The use of the term " laws " is hardly justifiable. Even the most definite and emphatic rules may be broken with impunity, frequently to the advan tage of the result. The most that can fairly be said is that some arrangements are found to be more pleasing than others in the impression they create. By studying the elements of these more pleasing arrangements certain generalities are deduced, but these should not be dignified by the name of laws.
It is safe to say that the best pictorial work is not the result of a rigorous application of some dearly defined code of " laws." It is rather the outcome of a kind of instinct, a natural feeling for what is harmonious, tasteful, and pleasing. Whether that instinct can be created is very doubtful ; but it can certainly be fostered and cultivated by careful study of Nature, and of graphic representations of Nature produced by others who have themselves studied and ob served. Thus will be produced a perception or sense that certain things are " right " and that others are " wrong " ; and efforts can then be made to secure the right and avoid the wrong.
The natural limitations of photography impose severe restrictions on the worker in his attempts to secure what he considers to be good composition. Apart from combination printing and certain limited means of modification, he is almost confined to selection of subject and point of view to secure the result he desires. He should by all means any available expedients that may assist him to reach the desired goal, but to a great extent he will have to content himself with what is before him rather than what he would wish.
Nevertheless, it may be helpful to give a few examples of what is, in a general way, to be sought for or avoided. A picture should contain
one principal object, or group of objects, which should not be placed too far from the middle of the space. Everything else should be comple mentary and subordinate to this. Two or more objects of equal importance will distract the attention and produce a lack of unity. The eye should be led or attracted to the principal object—there should be nothing that forms a kind of barrier. There should be no strong patches of light, or anything else that irresistibly attracts the eye, at the edges of the picture. Neither should lines lead out of the picture or to the unimportant parts of it. Detached patches, either of light or shade, should not be scattered about over the space. The horizon line should not bisect the picture, neither should the space be divided into halves diagonally. One mass may advantageously be repeated by another similar but subordinate. Upright lines may be contrasted with, and broken by, horizontal ones ; and a line leading in one direction may be balanced by one running in the opposite direc tion. Balance, however, should not be too sym metrical and formal. An arrangement of masses that forms a rough triangle with the apex towards the top of the picture is generally effective ; as is also one in which the main lines radiate from the principal object.
Such general suggestions as these might be extended to great length. But no multiplication of them, or knowledge of them, will of itself be sufficient to ensure the production of pictures of satisfactory composition. Patient and care ful study and analysis of pictures of acknow ledged merit will be found interesting and help ful. It will aid in forming ideas as to the means by which certain satisfactory results may be obtained, and will strengthen those faculties of judgment and good taste without which the most elaborate series of rules of composition will be of no avail. (See also " Lines in Composition.")