Improve your composition skills

1. Think before you shoot

It's easy to forget that what you see through the viewfinder is what you'll capture when you press the shutter, so it's essential to scan the frame with your eye before you take the picture, moving carefully around the edges of the viewfinder and into the scene.

Look at the elements in your photo and ask yourself whether they're working in harmony with one another. Where is your eye being led? Are the colours and tones balanced? And what's happening with the lines, shapes and textures - are there any visual distractions? Is there any dead space that detracts from the image as a whole?

Most Canon D-SLRs don't show the whole scene: you'll only see about 95% of what will be recorded. 5% might not seem like much, but it's enough to change your composition.

2. Capture the essence

You don't always need to shoot the whole scene to capture its essence. In fact, it's often impossible to fit the entire scene into a single shot. A good example is when you're trying to photograph an entire bed of flowers in a garden.

Rather than fretting about trying to squeeze everything in and cursing your lens, compose your shots to fit in the most essential parts of the scene. Use the Av mode on your Canon SLR and set your camera to a wide aperture, such as f/2.8, to focus on the foreground but blur the background.

3. Abstracts

Stunning abstract shots can often be found in the most mundane locations, but you need to look for them. Try adopting a different attitude when you're looking at a scene - look for shapes, colours and textures that will make abstract patterns.

This scene, which features the multicoloured reflections of fishing buoys dancing in the light, has created an arresting abstract picture. Simply realigning the viewfinder to exclude most of the fishing boat has isolated the reflections from the rest of the scene. This emphasises the striking colour and shape of the reflections.