Photography & More

I kept wandering why I couldn’t get my subject to stand out and after a few clicks with pre sets I realized that the problem is the background.

The most important elements of photography are light, composition, a background and a subject and which catches the eye and will hopefully evoke some type of reaction, whether it be laughter, shock or solace. These elements should all compliment one another and if combined correctly they should make a good picture which is what we aim for in this art.

Very little of my shooting is done in a controlled environment where I can change the lighting or adjust the background. I shoot when I go into the city or to a market and often have to take a picture to capture the moment without preparation and often I can’t plan my shots since it may be a person or dog I’m shooting and they might become self conscious (yes, some dogs do). I was at a small country fair last weekend and walked around the stalls and taking some shots when I saw something that I found interesting. There were a lot of people walking around so I ran through my mental checklist and made sure my camera settings were correct before I walked into the fair. I shot away and when I checked the LCD, I was quite happy with what I was seeing. When I home though, I was as upbeat since most of the pictures looked dull or the the most mediocre.

While I was running through the pictures in Lightroom 2, I noticed in many of the pictures the background was either too dark or too busy – two less than ideal features on any photo. I made some adjustments the pictures and played around with some pre-sets and then I saw just how badly the background was interfering with my subject. It’s strange that after several years of shooting reasonable often, we still make the most basic errors.

So, a quick and valuable tip the next time you’re out shooting – it’s background, background and background! Make sure you know position your subject so that your background compliments it.

In the three pictures, the background detracts from what may have been an interesting shot. In the first picture from the left, your eye is drawn to the reddish-pinkish mushroom thing in the top right of the picture (the eye is drawn to red, that’s a fact). The middle picture is a little better since there is no more red, but now the white stands out way too much. In the last picture I tried to mix the tones but that didn’t help; the white is what you look at, not the Japanese toy dragonfly, which incidentally is beautiful with ornate patterns and the attention to detail only found in Japan.