If you want to take great photographs, it is essential to master lighting and composition.
This article is intended to give you the basics of composition and to provide you with a starting point for your own education.
Composition is simply arranging the parts of the picture for the best effect.
Good composition relies upon your ability to see how a real world three-dimensional image will transpose onto a flat two dimensional picture.
This means looking carefully at every picture to see how the different elements can be arranged and how they balance and enhance each other.
A great way to start to understand composition is to study famous paintings and photographs and see how the masters balanced the composition.
The most common technique for good composition is to (mentally) divide your scene into three parts along both the horizontal and vertical axis.
Now, when you frame the picture make sure that the subject is one third in from the left or the right of the picture and that the horizon is one third in from either the top or the bottom, depending on what you're working with.
Here are some other basic points.

• Avoid decapitation and amputation (this is where you have framed the picture so that part of the subject's head or limb is missing.
  
• Look for trees and posts sticking out from the top of people's heads, or the odd angles
• Avoid too much headroom in the picture
• Avoid too much background (when the background is distracting and deemphasizing your subject)
• Try to be off-center.
  When the subject is centered, it tends to produce flat boring pictures.
  Do not be afraid to zoom in on the subject if the background is not helping.
  
• Move around looking for the best viewpoint
• Use props and direct your picture (move your subject around, but make sure they are co-operative first)