Tom Clark - Digital Photography Composition For Dummies

Everything in your frame adds to or detracts from your message. So think about what you want to say and compose your image accordingly.

The first time I set out to take pictures for art's sake, I took photos of my feet, my girlfriend's feet, railroad tracks, some tombstones in a graveyard, and the tire swing in Figure 15-1, which I like to think of as my first photograph. This image includes only a few elements, so they each have a great impact on the message. The tire swing is the subject, and you know this because it's placed on the frame's bottom third in a dominant compositional position (for more on placing elements in a scene, take a look at Chapter 5). The tire also makes up the area of the frame with the most contrast and is my focal point. The wooden beams behind the swing give you a sense of what's holding the swing in midair. The lines created by the wooden beams mimic the lines created by the tire's chains.

This mimicry causes viewers to look back and forth between the two elements, comparing their similarities and differences. (I discuss the use of repeating elements in Chapter 12.) The leaves on the ground help to give a sense of the environment with regard to the time of year and the types of trees present. Anyone who grew up in the northeastern part of the United States would subconsciously be aware that this scene took place in autumn. The background is made up of a tree line, but no fences or buildings are present. This park is most likely not in an urban environment.

70mm, WOO sac, f/5.6, 100

Figure 15-1:A fine-art photo of an ordinary object.

Commercial product photography is all about making the subject look its best. No matter the message, the product always looks perfect. One of the biggest fabrications in everyday life is the way companies show their products in relation to how they really are. Have you ever gotten a deluxe burger that looked the same as the one in the photograph on the menu board? I know I haven't.

The two main ways to glorify a product are lighting and product enhancement — tricks of the trade that cause products to look ideal. I discuss these in the following sections.

Lighting your product

The way you light a shiny soda can is going to be different from the way you light a dull but highly textured basketball. You use different lighting techniques to make different products look great.

Chapter 10 gives you the details about lighting, but here are some of the ways you apply those principles in product photography:

Directional, soft light reveals the shape of opaque objects and is ideal for rounded objects.

Directional, hard light reveals the texture of opaque objects.

High contrast conveys power, drama, high energy, mystery, and masculinity.

Low contrast conveys beauty, sincerity, calmness, smoothness, and dreamlike states.

A reflective surface is like a mirror, and you light it differently from opaque surfaces. Lighting the surface of a reflective object isn't as effective as actually lighting what's being reflected. For instance, to better see your face in a mirror you light your face, not the mirror itself. Place white or black pieces of foam core around your subject to add or take away light in the reflection.

In Figure 15-2,1 created the highlight running down the left side of the glass bottle by placing a large piece of white foam core just to the left of the frame. The white surface reflects light from the key light source (a strobe that was bounced onto the ceiling just behind the camera), and its reflection shows in the surface of the glass bottle. I also used an available light that was directly above the martini glass, which helped to light the liquid without affecting too much of the bottle's surface.

In Figure 15-3, the product has a plastic wrapper. The client wanted to show the product inside the plastic without glare and reflection, so I positioned my lights in a way that eliminated distracting highlights. This way you can see clearly through the packaging. Sidelighting was used to show texture in the product and provide a low level of contrast to keep the image from being overdramatic.

50mm, 1/60 sec, f/3.2,400

Figure 15-2:Lighting your scene according to a subject's reflective characteristics.

Enhancing your product

Viewers have certain expectations from the products they see in photographs, and certainly clients care deeply about the way you present their products. As a result, it's often necessary to enhance products when photographing them.

The following list shows a few of the ways you can show off products to their best advantage in photographs:

Steam clothing and linens to ensure they're wrinkle-free.

Also, use pins to make clothes fit a model or mannequin perfectly and to make curtains fall to the perfect length.

75mm,Ssec,f/20,50

Figure 15-3:Minimizing the visibility of reflections by properly positioning the scene's lights.

Mix glycerin and water in a 50/50 ratio to create a substance that makes perfect sweat beads on the outside of bottles and glasses.You can buy

glycerin in the first-aid aisle of most drug stores. Apply the mixture to the bottle or glass with a spray bottle; for larger drops use a syringe.

Experiment with fire to make foods look more appealing.For instance, a torch gives the perfect level of char to a steak and browns the edges of baked goods. You can use an electric charcoal starter or metal skewers heated over an open flame to apply grill marks.

Place the hands of a clock or watch on the ten and the two so the time reads 10:10.This position generally looks good on most watches and is an old-school trick that many photographers use. Of course, if you're shooting a watch with a face that has other smaller dials or graphics, you want to place the hands in a way that doesn't block those extra items.

Add some texture bubbles to the back edge of a cup of coffee.You can

do so by applying a mixture of the drink and some detergent to the surface with an eyedropper.

Enhance milk's color and texture, which come out looking yellowish and translucent in photos, with glue.If you're shooting a glass of milk, use white glue instead.

Because representing a product at its best is critical in commercial images, photographers often use photo-editing software to remove flaws and to enhance contrast and color saturation. You can find out more about digital enhancement in Chapter 18.

Flowers probably are the most common still-life subjects for artistic photography. They act as recognizable, everyday subjects that can be shown in extraordinary ways. Flowers make for such common photographic subjects because they're beautiful and designed to attract. They're also easily accessible and somewhat compliant.

Images of flowers have been created for many years in drawings, paintings, and photographs; they're most successful when paired with the appropriate light, environment, and composition. Achieving these requirements depends on whether you're shooting in studio or out in nature itself. So, I discuss each scenario in the following sections.

Some flowers are fairly small, so no matter where you're shooting — indoors or out — using a macro lens may be your best bet to create a composition that magnifies the flower enough to reveal maximum detail. I cover macro lenses further in Chapter 3.

When you photograph flowers in a studio, you don't have to worry about wind or overly bright sunshine, but you do have to create a background for the flower. If your shot consists of just a flower and a background (as it likely will in studio), the background has a major impact on your message. So be sure to choose a background that's appropriate for the flower you're shooting and for the mood you're trying to create. Of course, you should use your best creative judgment for your situation, but here are some general pointers for choosing a background: