Tom Clark - Digital Photography Composition For Dummies

• A smooth and even-toned background helps create a simple composition in which the flower is the main focal point.

• A textured and high-contrast background is more chaotic and competes with the flower for attention.

• Setting a bright flower against a dark background causes it to stand out. Similarly, a dark flower stands out more on a bright background. Placing a flower in front of a background with a similar tonality shows the flower in a subtler way.

Figure 15-4 depicts the same flower in front of two different backgrounds. Each has a much different feel and produces a different message. The white background causes you to look only at the flower and maximizes the emphasis on the rose's shape. The green, textured background is more similar to one you'd see in nature. Flowers naturally stand out from the color green (perhaps so bees and birds can see them from far away). The background competes slightly with the rose in a complimentary way and gives you more to look at than just the flower. The shape of the rose isn't as identifiable in this image as it is in the one with the white background.

After you choose an in-studio background for your flower, you also have to consider your lighting. Fortunately, when shooting in the studio, you have complete control over your lighting. You can manipulate its direction, quality, intensity, and the number of sources of light that are used. Most often, flowers are shot with a soft key light source. I shot the roses in Figure 15-4 using window light. The sun wasn't shining directly in the window, so the quality of light was very soft.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind as you consider your lighting:

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Figure 15-4:A background alone can change your message when photographing flowers.

Soft light is used for representing beauty, and most people associate flowers with being beautiful. It also accentuates the rounded shapes of buds and petals. The larger the window, the softer the light will be.

A directional light coming from one side or the other helps to reveal the texture of the flower's petals, buds, stems, and leaves.

Iu• Shooting with high contrast will produce a dramatic representation of the flower, and shooting with low contrast will produce a subdued representation.

For more details about lighting, head to Chapter 10.

Photographing flower subjects in the studio gives you control over the wind and the lighting, but shooting them outdoors enables you to capture their images in a realistic and natural setting. Taking photos of your flower subjects in their most natural settings requires you to consider both background and lighting and also perspective.

Most flowers are naturally designed to stand out from their surroundings. Notice, for example, how well the flowers in Figure 15-5 pop because of their color. A flower's prominence in a scene makes it fairly easy to choose a perspective that enables you to capture great images without having to manipulate the background too much.

Consider the following when finding your perspective for an effective flower image:

• Angles:Shoot from an angle that shows the flower clearly. Avoid positioning it in front of background elements that are a similar color or that interfere with the perceived shape of the flower. As I explain in Chapter 9, you want to avoid merging lines and shapes.

• Depth of field:If you're stuck with a busy background, using a shallow depth of field can help to make the flower stand out.

• Grouping:If you're shooting multiple flowers, remember that multiples usually look better compositionally when grouped

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Figure 15-5:Flowers naturally stand out from their environments.

Lighting:The direction of your lighting (combined with the elements discussed in the first bullet point) should determine how you approach a flower. A sidelit scenario helps to reveal texture in a flower. Some flowers have thin petals that are semitransparent. A backlit scenario can cause them to glow, such as in the example shown in Figure 15-5.

Flowers can be unruly in a breeze; they sway easily and can make focusing and exposing with slower shutter speeds difficult (movement in slow shutter speeds causes blurring in your photo). However, if you block or eliminate the wind through the use of a collapsible reflector (as I discuss in Chapter 14) or shoot on a calm day, you should have an easy time working with flowers.

Food is a frequently chosen subject for still-life photography. You may find yourself composing images of food for a number of reasons. The most common food images are for product photography, lifestyle photography (images that sell the feelings associated with a product rather than just the product itself), and fine-art photography. The tricks discussed in this section are useful for all types of food photography.

In product photography, food is treated in the same manner as any other subject: It's idealized and made to look immaculate. In the earlier section "Enhancing your product," I list some methods of making products look their best. If you're working on a commercial assignment, a professional food stylist is likely to be on set. A stylist handles the food preparation and does all the tricks necessary to get the look the client is going for. So, you're responsible for (and free to focus on) lighting and composing a beautiful photograph of the final product.

Here are some tricks I've discovered for getting great images while photographing food:

Light your subject from the back.Many times foods are grouped on a plate and the various items merge with each other. Backlighting food helps to separate the shapes of different items on the platter and helps to reveal texture.

Even though backlighting is important, be sure to fill in your scene from the front as well to bring out the details in the shadow areas. To do so, use a reflective material to bounce light in from the key light source. (Chapter 10 provides further information on lighting.)

Keep angle in mind.Of course, you can shoot from any angle you want, but you should understand what the angle says about the subject. Consider these guidelines:

• A high angle shows food as viewers are used to seeing it in reality when seated at a table, so the angle looks natural in photographs.

• A low angle gives the perspective as if the viewer is looking up at the subject. This angle isn't a natural one for someone to see food from in real life, and it often causes the subject to appear as a hero of sorts.

• A bird's-eye view of food is interesting when you have various shapes to work with, and it gives viewers the sense that they're directly over the food, as if they were about to dig in to it.

Figure 15-6 shows the same scene photographed with a traditional high angle and with a bird's-eye view.

Get close to your subject.Doing so helps you draw more attention to it and show the textures, juices, and smaller ingredients.

Choose a background that has appropriate colors for your specific subject.Similar colors work well to make the subject fit in, and opposite colors make the subject stand out. In Figure 15-6, the subject fits into the scene because of the similarity in colors. This similarity makes it seem like it belongs there. If you have distracting background details in your composition (and you can't choose another background), use a shallow depth of field to eliminate them.