How Patterns Can Have an Awesome Impact in Your Photography

Patterns are a simple yet powerful way to add unparalleled visual impact to a photograph. You can find patterns in the natural world, you can find patterns constructed by human hands — you might have even made a pattern of your own at one time. No matter their origin, it’s safe to say that utilizing pattern as a compositional technique can sometimes be the difference between an image that fails to hold a viewer’s attention, and one that fills the viewer with delight.

Why Patterns?

Because patterns are undemanding and they are everywhere.

Pattern is all about repetition; repetition of shape, of color, of kind. They are indeterminate in the sense that virtually anything can represent a pattern. While the ability to identify a pattern is arguably innate and universal, exactly what qualifies a pattern as “good” or “bad”, effective or useless is entirely subjective.

Done for the Season by Andrew Morrell Photography, on Flickr

Training yourself to actively search out patterns will help further refine your photographic vision and increase your awareness of the interrelatedness of color, shape, light, and shadow. Essentially, developing an appreciation for something as simple as the concept of pattern can have implications for broad scope of what you do creatively.

Plus, it won’t cost you any money to study patterns; you won’t need any new equipment. All you need is time and the motivation to expand your skills in as many ways as possible.

Discovering Patterns

Any attempt to present a substantial list of places to find patterns would be a monumental waste of time, as patterns exist quite literally all around us. This fact just makes the admonition to always have a camera with you all the more prudent; you never know where you might encounter a pattern that speaks to your photographic sensibilities.

Less important than where you find patterns is the ability to recognize them and determine how best to capture them.

Regular patterns, for instance, will typically consist of colors, shapes, and lines that repeat in a precise, exacting fashion. When you encounter such patters, try filling the frame with them to emphasize the strong, consistent geometric formation inherent to the scene.

Curved patterns by Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ, on Flickr

Irregular patterns, on the other hand, buck the trend of regularity; they brashly sidestep the convention of straight lines, yet still find a place within the realm of patterns. Irregular patterns are easily found in nature, but photographing them is not always as straightforward as is the case with regular patterns. You may have to linger a bit longer on a scene or vary your angle more than you normally would, but the subtlety sometimes associated with irregular patterns can provide a greater range of creative flexibility.

wide web by josef.stuefer, on Flickr

Once you’ve grown comfortable with finding and shooting patterns of all sorts, take things a step further by breaking those patterns up. Find a pattern and then locate something within that pattern that is obviously different in some way, yet still fits within the framework of the overall pattern.

sex pistols:something else by visualpanic, on Flickr

When it comes to patterns, the possibilities are endless. The images below will help drive the point home and, perhaps, inspire you to make patterns a regular part of your compositions.

wishbone spiral by paul bica, on Flickr

Today's repeating pattern by kevin dooley, on Flickr

New York City – Home of the Repeating Patterns by kevin dooley, on Flickr

Black & White Flower Pattern by VinothChandar, on Flickr

Photographers heart architects by kevin dooley, on Flickr

Jim Thompson Handbag by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel, on Flickr

Stone Art by josef.stuefer, on Flickr

aloe by Genista, on Flickr

green walls of BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, that is) by Darwin Bell, on Flickr

Balconies by o palsson, on Flickr

Gaudi Colours and Patterns #Torrevieja # dailyshoot by Leshaines123, on Flickr

Washington DC metro station by o palsson, on Flickr

*untitled* by VinothChandar, on Flickr

Museum of Anatolian Civilization by brewbooks, on Flickr

Architectura – Ceiling [Explored] by Natesh Ramasamy, on Flickr

Rows and rows… by ThisIsChristiaan, on Flickr

Standing Room Only by peasap, on Flickr

Further Composition Resources

• Landscape Photography Composition
• 20 Beautiful Examples of Patterns in Photography