The more you practise finding different compositions, the easier it will be to see new, creative ways of photographing scenes. In this article, Hirokazu Nagane, a railway landscape photographer known for his beautiful compositions, shares one highly effective technique he frequently uses: quadrants. See if you can apply the technique to scenes you shoot with a main subject against beautiful but busy scenery or surrounding elements. You will be surprised about how it works even in genres other than landscape or railway photography! (Reported by Hirokazu Nagane, Digital Camera Magazine)

EOS R/ RF24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM/ FL: 94mm/ Manual exposure (f/8, 1/1250 sec)/ ISO 400/ WB: Daylight
Location: JR Hokkaido - Hakodate Main Line, between Ebeotsu and Moseushi stations, Hokkaido, Japan

 

Introduction: What I’m thinking when I compose

I have a rather methodical approach to composing railway landscapes.

1. Analyse the scene
The first thing I do is rationally analyse which part of the scenery attracts me the most. I make that the anchor of the shot and compose so that it fills 70% to 80% of the frame.

2. Decide where to place the train
For my genre of photography, the train (main subject) needs to have a significant presence (visual weight). If people just saw the scenery and didn’t notice the train, my image would be purely a scenic landscape, not a railway landscape!

Visual weight is not just a matter of zooming in so that the train fills up more of the frame. There are more sophisticated ways to adjust it. My most often-used method is to place the main scenery and the train diagonally across each other. That way, the viewer’s eye always moves from the main scenery to the train, even if the train occupies less space in the frame. Depending on what’s available, elements like tunnels and lighting can also be used to draw more attention to the train.

Unlike conventional diagonal composition, there’s usually no obvious diagonal element in the frame. But you can train yourself to see the diagonal relationships using the quadrant technique, which I have broken down into 4 steps below.

 

Step 1: Practise seeing the scene in quadrants

When you look through your viewfinder or rear LCD screen, imagine the image split into quadrants like the illustration above. You can use the grid display to help you.

Then, see if you can adjust your framing so that your main subject (for me, the train) is on one quadrant, and the surrounding scenery in the other three quadrants. It’s okay if you can’t get them to form a perfect diagonal: our point is to know that you can arrange the elements this way! It doesn’t matter if the subject overlaps with the quadrant lines.

 

Step 2: Identify the most attractive part of the scene and frame the subject diagonally across it

In this step, we get more specific than the previous one. There are probably multiple elements in the scene, so determine which attracts you the most. This attractive part will be the anchor of the composition. Place it in one of the quadrants, and try to put your main subject in the quadrant diagonally opposite it.

Composed using the sakura as the anchor

Composed using the silver grass as the anchor.

 

 

Step 3: Scrutinise the frame for unwanted elements

After

EOS R3/ RF100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM/ FL: 428mm/ Manual exposure (f/8, 1/4000 sec)/ ISO 1600

Before

A: Manmade structures
B: Houses are potentially distracting
C: Tree branches are too obvious

When you compose, you curate what’s in the frame. Look out for elements that are visually distracting or disrupt the world you want to create with your picture. For example, in railway landscape photography, we usually try to avoid having houses, electric poles, or other manmade elements in the frame.

You can zoom in to crop out these distractions, or change your angle so that they are hidden behind something more aesthetic. But sometimes, the best option is to change your shooting position altogether.

 

Step 4: Think of the quadrant technique when you look at scenes

Steps 1 to 3 are the basics for composing with the quadrant technique. The last step is to train your eyes and visualisation skills until you can see the diagonal relationships easily! Do that every time you’re out on a shoot, or just simply scouting for locations. I still visualise images this way, and if I know a train is going to pass by soon, I take a picture to see if the composition I had in my head works in reality.

Here are some examples of some shots I composed with the quadrant technique.

Train amid spring greenery

EOS R/ RF24-105mm f/4L IS USM/ FL: 50mm/ Manual exposure (f/11, 1/500 sec)/ ISO 800

Train with cosmos flowers

EOS R6 Mark II/ RF24-70mm f/2/8L IS USM/ FL: 27mm/ Manual exposure (f/14, 1/800 sec)/ ISO 1600

With sunflowers

Full-frame EOS DSLR/ 24-70mm lens/ FL: 31mm/ Manual exposure (f/11, 1/640 sec)/ ISO 500

In a frosty snowscape

EOS R5/ RF16mm f/2.8 STM/ FL: 16mm/ Manual exposure (f/13, 1/2500 sec)/ ISO 1600

Against mountains

APS-C EOS DSLR/ 70-200mm f/2.8L lens/ FL: 105mm (168mm equivalent)/ Manual exposure (f/8, 1/2 sec)/ ISO 400

 

 

Final tip: If you can’t find a diagonal relationship, try something else

Step 4 is for practice. There will always be situations where another composition technique gives better results! Other composition techniques that I frequently use are split and centre composition. Familiarise yourself with different composition techniques so that you can pick the best.

Split composition

EOS R5/ RF15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM/ FL: 17mm/ Manual exposure (f/8, 1/4000 sec)/ ISO 1600

A split composition is the easiest way to show symmetry, such as what you get with beautiful reflections in still water. Sometimes, you can layer the quadrant technique to achieve even better balance. For example, in the above image, I’ve put the reflection of the trees and clouds in the bottom-left quadrant diagonally opposite the train. Reminder: don’t be too fixated on force-applying the technique if another composition works better!

Centre composition

APS-C EOS DSLR/ 600mm f/4 lens + Extender EF2x III/ FL: 1200mm (1920mm equivalent)/ Manual exposure (f/11, 1/3200 sec)/ ISO 400

There is a lot of material discouraging photographers from using centre composition, where you place the subject in the middle of the frame. However, it can work very well especially when you want to direct the viewer’s attention to a particularly striking subject.