Understand the Rule of Thirds
The human eye is drawn to odd numbers. To make your photograph more appealing, break it up into thirds. In the most common formulation of this rule, your subject will fill 1/3 of the photo. That leaves the other thirds open. If you’re shooting on your phone, your phone camera will have a setting where you can turn on grid lines to help you with the composition of your photo.
Use Overhead Shots Wisely
I like shooting pictures from overhead, but you want to make sure that your props don’t compete with your knitting for attention. When you are setting up your picture and framing it through your camera, make sure that your knitting is dominant.
I love using the foreground and background to emphasize what’s important in the picture. This is especially easy when using a DSLR, because it’s depth of field settings can be quite sensitive. If you're photographing from your phone, swipe over into portrait mode, and tap on the subject of your photo.
Frame Using Foreground and Background
Bonus: Make Sure Straight Lines are Straight
This isn’t so much an issue with photography on a flat surface, but you’ll want to make sure obviously straight lines (in my case, the lip of a teacup or the spine of a book) aren’t leaning. In this example, the photo on the left is a bit crooked, while the one on the right has been straightened.