Tom Clark - Digital Photography Composition For Dummies

Lighting:Typically I use light to determine where I place my subject. If you want soft light, for a baby portrait for example, keep your subject out of the direct sun. And if you want hard light, position him directly in the sun. The direction from which the light falls is important, too. For instance, curly hair glows when it's backlit by the sun, and direct side light from the sunrise looks amazing on cowboys. You may have to rotate your subject or yourself to get the lighting you desire. See Chapter 10 for more details about lighting.

Scene:Choose a scene that best suits your subject and your intended message. If you're going for a light, airy feel, don't shoot in a dark and dank abandoned building. The possibilities for pairing people and scenes are infinite. You may take a lawyer's headshots in an urban, downtown area, and a bikini model's headshots may be best photographed on the beach.

Subject:In order to get the most from your subject, you need to direct him. Find a way to inspire him to be excited about the photograph, or just let him be who he naturally is. If you involve your subjects in the creative process, you help them care about it as much as you do. Also, instead of having someone sit still in a pose for several shots, encourage him to switch positions in between each one. Doing so keeps him from getting bored or tense. It also gives you more options to choose from. By taking numerous images, you ensure that you have a great one. After all, the more you have to choose from, the more likely you are to find one that you and the subject both like.

" Composition:Composition is the combination of all the points discussed in this list and how they relate to one another. Your composition determines what in the scene is included in your frame and how. For instance, how you pose your subject determines how he fits into the background and how the lighting looks on him. His pose also says something about who he is.

In Figure 13-3,1 captured an informal moment while still posing the scene and the shot. I maintained control of my lighting and placed my subject in front of the background of my choice.

50mm, 1/640 sec, #2.8,50

Figure 13-3:Setting up for a portrait is one way to guarantee a suitable shot.

Photographing more than one person at a time is a different challenge from photographing an individual. Single subjects in a portrait create their own messages, which in turn become a photograph's message. In a group shot, each subject creates his or her own message while contributing to the photograph's message as a whole. If one person in the group has a contradictory expression compared to everyone else, that person changes the message of the whole photo.

A good photographer creates a cohesive message within the group. To produce this cohesive message, you have to make sure everyone is on the same page. So, in this section, I help you make compositions that show relationships between multiple subjects and show you how to make everyone in the group look good in the photo.

Along with the natural tendency for people to act rowdy in groups, you face some technical issues when photographing more than one subject at a time. Keep the following points in mind when you prepare to take a shot that has more than one subject:

• Your depth of field determines how much of your scene is in focus.

(Turn to Chapter 7 to read more about depth of field.) You can place your focal point on only one subject at a time. If another subject is farther from the camera than your focal point, that person won't be in focus. You can use a small aperture to increase your depth of field when photographing more than one person at a time; keeping your subjects fairly close to one another also distributes the focus more evenly.

At times you may want to use a shallow depth of field and create a distance between subjects in order to let one or more subjects fall out of focus. This technique can create an artistic effect and can be useful in creating a specific message. However, it will portray the subject that's sharp much more strongly than the others. And in most cases, you want to keep everybody in the frame as sharp as possible.

" Pay attention to how the light affects each individual.Sometimes one person casts unwanted shadows onto another person. In that case, you need to reposition the subjects or the light source so the light can

clearly reach each of them. Using the paramount or loop lighting patterns (see Chapter 10) is a good start. Having the light out in front of your subjects keeps it from casting shadows on people's faces. This is true because you won't usually place one person's face in front of another's but rather to the side of it.

• Use a variety of patterns when gathering people for the photo.Lining people up side by side is a great way to ensure that your focus is distributed evenly, but compositionally it's not the most interesting way to pose people. By breaking up the pattern and allowing for some variation in shapes, sizes, and lines, you can make interesting photos that people enjoy looking at. Try to make the various subjects create different shapes instead of having them stand in the same pose; you want the different shapes to work together to create a flowing composition.

Romantic couples make for a common photographic scenario, so photographers who can master the traditional poses and portray couples in new and unique ways will always be in demand. The advantage of photographing two people who love each other is that they provide comfort for one another while interacting during the shoot. Having one lean on the other for support or telling them to look into each other's eyes rather than at the camera helps to get more realistic and sincere expressions.

To me, photographing couples is all about creating a single shape out of the two individuals. This represents them as one. Ways to do this include the following:

• Place the taller of the two slightly behind the other.This arrangement helps to bring the couple together without blocking any key areas like the face.

" Vary the heights of similar-sized couples.If both people are the same height, have one seated or kneeling while the other stands. Or ask one to lie down while the other sits. This way you can vary their heights and create a more interesting shape of the pair.

" Ask the two to embrace.Having the couple position their arms around each other suggests some sort of comfortable flow of energy between the two. Areas where the two come into contact with each other help to bring their shapes together as one.

In Figure 13-4,1 positioned the couple so that each person's energy was directed toward the other. Their individual shapes work together in a complimentary way to create one shape. This makes it look as if they belong together.

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Figure 13-4:Flowing lines and shapes between two subjects.

A group portrait is similar to a portrait of a couple except you don't usually have the romantic aspect to work with. Posing people in groups is usually more formal, and getting everyone's attention is more challenging than with a single subject or a couple.

Here are some tips for creating an interesting composition in a group portrait:

Stagger people in a way that gets them out of a straight line.Doing so gives each subject in the group her own unique space. People standing in a straight line look as though they were instructed to do so, making the image look much too formal. A slightly less organized group looks as though it came together naturally.