I have always been a huge movie fan and I think that has played a great role in my growth as a photographer. Movies are a great source of inspiration, but also an enormous resource for learning compositional technics and use of lightning. All this compositional and lightning technics you can easily apply to you photography, because they are virtually the same!
Those of you who have already taken one of my photography workshops in Brussels know that I spend a lot of time teaching composition. There is a reason for that – knowledge and proper use of the photography compositional techniques are not only guaranteed to make your images more pleasing to the viewers eyes, but will also make them stand out from the rest.
Great image composition has the power to grab our attention, to focus it, to direct it, and create meaning. We know the greatest films and photographs employ those perfect types of compositions. So, why isn’t everybody using them?
Because most people are preoccupied with camera settings and tools, that there is just no space for anything else. And it takes time to properly study and master all these compositional technics..
The good news? I am here to help with that 🙂 I have prepared and analysed a few samples from different movies that employ some of these important compositional technics for you to explore. Here we go!
You will notice that some photography composition technics are widely used in all the examples – like the Rule of thirds. This is no coincidence.
I will start with a few example from the movie Drive (2011, Ryan Gosling, Carrey Mulligan and Bryan Cranston). It is a great movie, perfectly filmed and lit. Highly recommended.






Another example for proper use of the Rule of thirds from another favourite of mine – Contact (1997, Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey).

Next few examples are from the 1979 masterpiece Apocalypse Now with Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall and Harrison Ford.






The next few examples are from a great movie that all photography aficionados will love – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013, Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, Sean Penn).










The last example is a well known scene of The Exorcist (1973, Max von Sydow and Ellen Burstyn).

Would you like to know more? Please consider attending my Photography Workshop in Brussels.