Photo Tip of the Week: Take an Alternative Approach

Photography is great for testing your creative talents, but after a while you can fall into a rut. Robert Keeley looks at ways to push the boundaries.

One the reasons photography is such a challenging activity is the way it combines technical skills and creative concepts. The best photographers know how to use their abilities in both fields to make powerful or moving images. But one of the hazards of the craft is that once we become comfortable with a way of working, we can tend to stick to it. Ultimately this can be creative poison.

Top pros and inventive amateurs will continue to push their creative boundaries in a wide range of ways, and it’s important that they do so. Sticking to tried and tested methods will usually get you a usable image (which is vital for the pros), but ultimately this approach will make you stale. So here’s a few ideas for spicing up your approach to making pictures. There are lots of others, so don’t restrict yourself. Get creative!

1. Use the rules of composition – then break them!

Most photographers quickly learn some basic rules about composing images. It’s important to learn these concepts because they can really help you to quickly assess a scene and create an effective shot. Some of the most basic ones include the ‘rule of thirds’, in which a frame is divided into a noughts and crosses grid and the key point or points of interest are placed at the intersections of the dividing lines. This really works, and it’s used commonly because it does. Another is the use of ‘leading lines’, where lines (which might include roads, fence lines, trees or any line up of objects) are composed so they draw our eye into what is actually a two-dimensional representation. It’s an optical trick, but it also works.


This traditional composition for a landscape (or seascape!) works well, with the rule of thirds employed approximately with the horizon line and foreground boats.


However, this alternative approach, where the trees create their own pattern, also makes an interesting image.


This traditional use of a framing device can work effectively. Here the branch encloses the hill in the background to focus interest upon it. But you should explore other ideas as well.

A third common compositional idea is to ‘frame’ a subject, by using some element within your image to enclose a subject. This can be done, for example, by literally shooting through a window frame or even using a tree branch to enclose a subject. Some might call it a cliché, but it works in focussing the viewer’s attention on a key subject.

There are many other compositional devices, and they all become rules because they are effective. But once you have learned them you should learn to break them. Many of the best photographers have created images where they have gone against the grain with compositional ideas. It’s really important to learn these rules when you start out. But once you know them, you can stretch your creative boundaries by breaking them.

2. Shoot alternative genres

Most experienced photographers settle into techniques, and even genres. Amongst our readership landscape photography is probably our most popular category. Most people like getting out into the bush to shoot amongst nature in peace and quiet. It’s enjoyable and relaxing. But after a while it can make you stale. Most enthusiasts have two or three favourite genres they like to shoot. Camera club enthusiasts will often get tested in other genres as part of compositions, so they can stretch their boundaries.

But you can go further still. As an exercise in alternative approaches, write down a list of subject material that you are most uncomfortable with. For many people it might be portraiture (shooting other people is particularly challenging), while for others it might be night or low-light images, still lifes, or even sport. You might not like these subjects, but you can learn from them. Once you have a list of three or four genres, get busy with shooting some portfolios of them.

This won’t be easy, and you’ll be uncomfortable to start with. If you decide to shoot portraits, ask some family members (though this can be hard enough for some people!) or friends. If it’s still lifes, gather some unlikely objects on your kitchen table, and work out how to light them most dramatically, and if it’s sport, head down to your local football pitch or cricket oval for an afternoon to work out how to get good shots. The idea isn’t to shoot award-winning images, it’s to make your creative self uncomfortable.

In doing so, you will be stretching your photographic muscles in ways they haven’t been stretched before.

3. Use different equipment

Related to the above point, you may well find the equipment you own is not up to the new task you’ve set yourself. Most photographers not only find a comfortable genre to work in, they often find a set of gear (lens, camera, tripod, or software) they feel safe using. This is fine, because shooting great pictures should never be about the equipment you use – that is just a facilitator in creating the interesting picture you have in mind. If you get comfortable with a certain set-up, you can explore with that gear to achieve its maximum potential.


In this scene I wanted to include the bustle of people in the foreground of this cathederal tower, so I shot with a wide-angle lens.


However, to try something different I switched to a telephoto lens and focused on the architecture, making the people in the foreground a much reduced component of the scene.

I like shooting with a wide-angle lens for many subjects because it forces me to get in close to my subjects. But at a certain point in your development, using the same gear and same post-production techniques will pretty much deliver you the same style of image.


I find shooting in close can create images with impact. Environmental portraiture might be a style which is challenging for you. If so, make sure you try it!

Most professionals develop a style they become well-known for (it’s an important part of selling their work), but you will find they can work in other styles equally effectively because they have learned to adapt. To improve your own photography it can pay to push beyond your own boundaries. If you often shoot close up, try shooting at telephoto focal lengths. If you consistently use a tripod, try working without one (and equally try the opposite). And if you do a lot a post-production work, try to create images as much as possible ‘in-camera’, with minimal post-production.

In short, after a while, to improve your photography you need to try some things (or a lot of things) differently. Looking for alternative ways to work will ultimately pay big dividends, so think outside the square and start pushing your boundaries.


If your challenge is to shoot sport, you may quickly find that without telephoto lenses you are highly restricted in capturing on-field action. Don't be put off! Here, using a moderate telephoto setting I captured a different sporting scene using the equipment I had available.


In this different sporting image of a team warming up prior to a game, I combined a standard compositional approach (rule of thirds with the closest player), with a more unusual approach. I deliberately aimed to have one player's foot across the frame edge (usually considered a distraction), and the key elemenf of the composition - the players kicking the ball - in the background. My aim was to force the viewer to explore the scene more, and to draw their eye to different elements within it.