Elja Trum

Composition tips from 1949

Sunday 19 March 2023, 20:02 by | 3,224 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

A lot has changed in photography over the past 74 years. However, this video about composition from 1949 shows that a lot has stayed the same too. The tips in this old video are still just as useful today.


Unfortunately, part of the image is missing, which makes some of the compositions look rather odd. So keep in mind that some of the image is missing on both sides.

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Elja Trum

About the author

Elja Trum is the founder of Photofacts and online photography course website Photofacts Academy. He has been writing about photography since 2006. Elja is also the author of (Dutch) books on composition, black-and-white photography, flash photography and portrait photography.

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1 comment

  1. RAWshooter
    RAWshooter wrote on Tuesday 21 March 2023 at 10:53  | reply

    In 1949, that weird 3:2 ratio of 35mm was only rarely used. This video also seems to have been made in 6x7. The squarer you work, the less bothered you are by all those weird rules like the rule of thirds. It works much more naturally to simply create a good image fill without all those rules.
    I have never understood why 3:2 dominates the market. But fortunately my MFT comes with 4:3, which is much closer to square. And you lose fewer pixels.

    Translated from Dutch.

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Elja Trum

Elja Trum

Photofacts; everything to do with photography!

Would you like to take better photos and keep up with what is happening in photography? Photofacts publishes articles that teach you something about photography — from a product announcement to a practical shooting tip or a look at a website. Photofacts covers photography every day and is a hobby project of Elja Trum's that got out of hand. The articles are written by a team of volunteer authors. If you would enjoy writing one or more articles for Photofacts, do get in touch.More about Photofacts

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