Creating Compelling Compositions Masterclass

Creating Compelling Compositions Masterclass is an online workshop I will be giving on December 15, 2025 at 10am PT. Click here to register.

My workshop is sponsored by The Nook, and Nook membership is required. The Nook’s mission is to help creatives, makers, artists, and photographers learn, thrive, and create better together. Click here for a free 7-Day trial and 40% discount offer (this is an affiliate link).

Let There Be Light © Harold Davis

Good composition is a fundamental building block of good photography. It is easy to recognize, but hard to achieve. This masterclass well help guide photographers at any level to improve their work by creating compelling compositions.

Of all the magical elixirs that make up a successful photograph, composition is perhaps the most fundamental, and at the same time the most elusive. What makes a composition “good”? It’s hard to define exactly, but we instinctively recognize good composition when we see it. There is an undeniable emotional response when a composition resonates with and complements the subject matter of an image. But traditional attempts to define “good composition” and to pass on rules for good compositional construction are often doomed to failure. The truth is, there are no hard and fast rules. 

Rules eliminate experimentation and spontaneity, which are crucial for creating  compelling, dynamic, and exciting compositions. The best compositions contain an element of the unexpected. “Expect the unexpected” is perhaps the only viable “rule” of composition. To create exciting compositions, you must have a willingness to embrace serendipity and change as part of your artistic practice. After all, composition is a process, not a result.

Under the Yaquina Bay Bridge © Harold Davis

Edward Weston once wrote in his Daybooks that “to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.” To this, Ansel Adams added “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”

This masterclass will consist of an extensive presentation by Harold Davis simplifying many aspects of photographic composition, followed by a wide-ranging discussion.

In this masterclass, you will learn to:

Work with shapes such as lines, circles, and rectanglesUnderstand directionality, entering, and exiting in compositionWork with patterns and repetitionRecognize and use positive and negative spaceUse the various kinds of abstraction in your own work

About Harold Davis: Harold Davis is a world-class artist and photographer who has expanded the parameters of his field with imagery, new techniques, and as an author and educator.

Honored with the prestigious Photographic Society of America Progress award in 2022 for his development of a unique technique for photographing flowers for transparency, these works have been described as “ethereal” and having “a purity and translucence that borders on spiritual” (Popular Photo Magazine). Previous Progress award honorees include Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Walt Disney, and Ken Burns.

Click here to buy Composition & Photography (use the discount code HDAVIS40 for a 40% discount at checkout)

Creating Compelling Compositions Masterclass is an online workshop I will be giving on December 15, 2025 at 10am PT. Click here to register.

My workshop is sponsored by The Nook, and Nook membership is required. The Nook’s mission is to help creatives, makers, artists, and photographers learn, thrive, and create better together. Click here for a free 7-Day trial and 40% discount offer (this is an affiliate link).