Chapter 7, "Black and White," is as popular as ever in the digital age. In this chapter by John Batdorff you will see what you need to do to compose a good black and white image. This chapter talks about when to go to black and white, learning to see in a black and white world, how to approach the shot, his thought processes behind capturing a black and white image, the kind of settings he uses, a bit about post processing, and his gear.
Chapter 8, "Sports and Composition," becomes a totally different animal as author Rick Rickman would say. It is also one of the most challenging to master because of the element of high speed. Here you will learn how to deal with the complexities, the speed, how to learn lessons from your mistakes, and what simple things make big differences.
Chapter 9, "Beyond the Rule of Thirds," is by David Brommer and from his viewpoint he sees a problem that many people have is that they cut the scene in half. In this chapter he points out things that are not often spoken about when discussing composition, beginning with where composition originated, deconstruction and psychology of a composition, positive and negative space, and some thoughts on cropping and printing.
Chapter 10, "The Compositional Dance," is where you move around and try to figure out the proper angle. Here Steve Simon discusses some strategies for finding your way to the best composition for any given shooting situation. He starts with the dance itself, then moves on to how to work the scene, how to change your vantage point, how to learn to be in the moment, finding your choices and limitations, learning how to have patience, reviewing your work so your experience will lead to intuition.
I really like the way Composition: From Snapshots To Great Shots is laid out. Beginning with chapter two, each chapter begins with an introduction. Then you have two sidebar spreads called "Pouring over the Picture" that feature an image and a discussion about the image. It includes the setting on how the picture was captured and dialog as well as arrows highlighting specific item within the shot.
It then goes in to the main material, but illustrates and highlights with many shots and descriptions. It is very easy to read and understand and really makes for a great book for beginners and those who may not be beginners to photography, but want to learn the fundamentals about the technical aspects of photography. For them I highly recommend this book.
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