‘How do I take a better picture?’ It’s a question that almost everyone asks at one point or another, whether they are a pro snapping shots of a celebrity with a giant SLR (single lens reflex) camera or an average Joe with a point and shoot trying to snag a nice sunrise picture on his honeymoon in Hawaii. This series of blog posts will help to answer that question one puzzle piece at a time until (hopefully) your shots come out looking as good as you want them too. Today’s post will address the concept of showing the viewer what you want them to see.
See that guy with the really awesome expression as he talks to that really cute girl? No? Why not? They’re right in front of you. Oh, wait…that’s because they’re lost in a crowd of people.
A lot of the things we are trying to show with our photographs are lost in a crowd. We take a picture of a scene with an idea in mind but when we show it to other people they shrug and just don’t understand. That’s because we aren’t showing the viewer what we want them to see.
They are assaulted by background, foreground, and colors yet we expect them to ‘figure it out.’ If you want to take better pictures you are going to have to learn to remove the ‘figuring out’ from of your pictures and show the view what you want them to see.
‘How exactly do I do that?’ you ask. Well, it is both easy and difficult.
The easy part is remembering to keep the clutter out and focus on the main subject. The difficult part is actually doing it. Practice makes perfect and photography is no exception.
Let’s go through a few examples so you can get a feel for what I’m talking about.
While wandering through the solemn graveyard forest of Mt. Koya (located in Wakayama prefecture Japan) I saw this statue. Something about it made me stop and think. The expression on it’s face was serene and peaceful. The first shot I took of it (left) looked good but it didn’t show the feeling I wanted to express. For the second shot (right) I zoomed way in to capture just the face. Compare the two pictures and ask, ‘which one has the clearest and strongest message?’
The idea is that you are showing the viewer what you want them to see. The photo on the left looks good and seems simple until you compare it to the one on the right. This is an extreme example but one to keep in mind even when taking pictures of friends. What are they doing? Is it an action shot or a portrait shot? Do you really need that bit of background on the left/right/top/bottom or is it just distracting?
The same idea of showing the view what you want them to see goes for the image below. Behind and around this scene there was a lot of interesting architecture as well as other people but if I had included that you, the viewer, would have been distracted and missed out on what I wanted you to focus on.
What you are probably saying right about now is, ’those photo tips are great for taking pictures of people and action scenes but what if you are taking a picture of a landscape? How can you really focus on anything or show the view anything in specific? That is a much tougher question to answer.
It is important to think, even if only for a few seconds, about what kind of landscape you are trying to portray. Is it a glorious sky, a deep and mysterious valley, or a mountain rising up in the distance? Knowing the answer to that question can help you to line up those points of focus we talked about in the rule of thirds post in order to show the viewer what you want them to see.
When it comes down to it showing the viewer what you want them to see is basically restating the age old saying of K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid). In technical terms that means it may be necessary to take a step forwards for a closer shot or tilt the camera slightly up to get a better angle.
Good luck and good shooting.
Got any questions feel free to ask.
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