Single perceptive object or several objects may be in the frame. Subjects may or may not interact, and can be deliberately isolated. Some subjects are important, others secondary. How to explain to the viewer what the poet wanted to say with the bird of god? Where to look first and where to look second?
Photo 1.
āMouse. Flying.ā.
I climbed onto the roof of the monastery temple from which Lermontovās Mtsyri escaped to shoot the panorama of the confluence of the Kura and Aragvi rivers. I hit a rock with my foot and disturbed the monster. The mouse was weightless. Its body was half the size of an ordinary vole.
I shot the vampire at point-blank range, lifted it by its wing, and then rotated the vertical shot ninety degrees to make it horizontal.
The compositional solution is caused by the symmetry of the object. Including the whole wings in the frame didnāt work. The sensation of flight was created by the slightly turned head, the hardly noticeable shift of the mouse body from the center, the slightly raised right wing, and the difference in illumination of the wings.
Nikon D2x camera
DX AF-S Nikkor 17-55/2.8 D G G ED IF
100 ISO
Shutter speed 1/500 sec
Aperture f/4
Exposure correction -1.00 EV
Focal length
80mm of film standard
Highlighting the main part of the picture
Network pearls: āToo complicated. It is not even clear whether it is a man or a woman. If you donāt like the manā. In museums of fine arts, ancient paintings with biblical subjects are explained by guides, because the viewers are often taken out of the cultural and historical context. They sometimes donāt understand the language of the symbols and allegories used by artists five or six hundred years ago. But you canāt put a guide around every picture.
People usually donāt understand photos when they are āabout nothingā or poorly composed. For example, itās useless to look for deep-seated meanings in an abstract picture taken to decorate an interior, but itās always useful to think about the right arrangement of elements.
Ways of emphasizing the main point are usually reduced to a list of a few simple tricks. Some have more, some have less. The skill is that, having mastered each of the suggested methods separately in practice, one can subsequently use them with the ease of a card illusionist.
The main thing wonāt get lost:
in the center of the frame
in the foreground
at or near the point of convergence of perspective lines
in the four points of the rule of thirds
if you make it brighter than other objects in the frame
By highlighting it in color
By placing a light subject against a dark background
if you place a dark object against a light background
I was able to use it to place a sharp object against a blurred background
by placing an unsharp object against a sharp background
By placing a blurred object against a frozen background
When you put a sharp subject against a blurry background
When the main subject is moving diagonally across the frame
by shifting the moving subject to the corner of the frame
if you put the main thing in a row of repeating objects
If itās a person or animal in a deserted shot.
Photo 2.
āMalvinasā.
Photo from a reportage about a stylist competition, where the puffy-haired girl was supposed to personify summer. I put her in the center of the frame, because the contestants who were working closer to me jumped out of the depth of field, and became out of focus, creating a kind of frame which limited the field of view of the lens. The result is something akin to a closed composition. I was unable to move the main character to the right, but the gaze of the exuberant-haired Malvina, directed not into the camera, but into the left corner of the frame, creates a sense of movement in that very direction.
Nikon D3s camera
AF-S Nikkor 70-200/2.8 D G ED IF VR lens
Sensitivity 1600 ISO
Shutter speed 1/400 s
Aperture f/2.8
Exposure compensation -0.33 EV
Focal length: 116 mm
Photo 3.
āThe bridegroom overwhelmed by beautyā from the series āA wedding is a small lifeā.
I always try not to miss the groomās first glimpse of the transformed bride. In this brief moment I manage to see the emotions usually hidden behind the mask of the usual role-playing behavior. The groom at that moment reminds of a wood grouse that doesnāt hear anything around him. But how brief is that moment! Three seconds later the mask of the conqueror of womenās hearts takes its usual place.
I found the center of the shot to be right, because I wanted to include the bride and her relatives in the shot. Without that the picture would be perceived only as part of the photographic story.
Nikon D3s camera
AF-S Nikkor 24-70/2.8 D G ED IF
Sensitivity 1000 ISO
Shutter speed 1/40 sec
Aperture of f/3.2
Focal length: 24 mm
Photo 4.
āFinding Style.ā. Photo from a reportage about a stylist competition.
The emphasis on the foreground in this case is also supported by the central position of the foreground. The center of the frame is also brighter than everything else. The modelās hands and knees are brightly lit with incandescent lamps with a warm spectrum, and the background with the cool color of fluorescent lamps. Finally, the knees are sharp and the background is out of focus. Even the reflection in the mirror of the strawberry-hunting photographer is also blurred, dark and discolored in comparison to the main one.
Nikon D3s
AF-S Nikkor 70-200/2.8 D G ED IF VR lens
Sensitivity 1600 ISO
Shutter speed 1/320 seconds
Aperture of f/2.8
EV correction -0.33
Focal length 95 mm
Main focus in the center of the frame
I donāt think this needs to be taught. The first thing a beginner photographer does is to frame the shot, putting the main thing in the center. From the point of view of common sense absolutely right: in the center of the frame the hero is sure to be noticed, but usually only friends or relatives show interest in this kind of pictures. You can surprise strangers with something new, original or well-forgotten old, or with something familiar but unusually photographed.
The main object located in the frame center should be interesting for the viewer by itself, out of context, out of connection with other heroes of the picture because such pictures are almost always symmetrical, balanced and devoid of dynamics. In order to attract attention to this kind of photography one has to use other compositional techniques as well photos 1-4 .
The main thing in the foreground
It is the most effective way to emphasize the main thing in the frame, because the objects that are closest to the lens, especially in the lower part of the frame, are proportionally bigger than those in the back of the composition. But three common mistakes made by beginners are connected with this circumstance:
A secondary object is placed in the foreground, and the viewer tries in vain to grasp its importance
They shoot a light foreground, whereas tonally the foreground is usually darker than the one at the back of the frame. It has to do with the brightness ratio that the eye is accustomed to in nature: light sky and dark ground. Violation of this kind of norm should be justified by, for example, the presence in the frame of any light source. Also, the bright foreground has to be balanced by something light at the top of the frame
as a rule, the foreground in photos taken by beginners is blurred. The eye rests against it as against a barrier which you have to jump over with effort. The viewerās attention returns again and again to the blurred foreground to solve the proposed riddle. If the blurred foreground acts as a frame to direct the viewerās attention in the right direction see āThe Blurred Foreground. Photo 3 , the mystery is solved simply.
Well, if the blurred foreground is a deliberate trick that helps the perception of the picture, but if the blurred foreground is a pure accident, the picture is perceived as a defect. I so often encounter misunderstandings about the role of the foreground that I once came up with a āgrumbleā: if there is a foreground, it has to be sharp. I understand that this sounds too categorical, but it works see āThe Way of the Futureā . See Photos 4 and 5 .
Any rule can, of course, be broken in order to show the authorās individuality. In modern reportage and genre photography, the role of foreground is not limited to the necessity of emphasizing the main subject of the frame. The advent of high quality super wide angles was immediately used to solve the problem of short distance from the camera to the subject. Robert Capa also said that the proximity of the camera to the subject determines the truth of the photograph.
I would add that the effect of presence when looking at pictures like this, whereas the same object shot at a respectful distance with a normal lens produces neutral images devoid of any depth or implication compare photos 6 and 7 . In fairness it would be fair to say that it is possible to tear up the distance with the subject not only by using super wide angle lenses, but also by using high quality telephoto lenses, though it would be better not to include the foreground in the frame.
Photo 5. āCantataā from āChorus of MIFIā series.
The sheet music was on the polished piano lid. Sharpness is on the notebook lines. The wide-angle lensās large depth of field kept the choristersā reflections at the top of the frame sharp enough. The bright foreground is balanced with the light-colored robes of the choristers.
Nikon D70s
DX AF-S Nikkor 12-24/4 D G G ED IF lens
Sensitivity 200 ISO
Shutter speed 1/5 sec
Aperture f/8
Focal length
18mm film standard
Photo 6. āSpikesā from the āBaptismā series.
A typical illustrative shot capturing the fact that the rescuers had special shoes with spikes. Shot with the normal reporterās zoom at the far end of the focal length scale, which in this case worked like a portrait TV. The shot could be included as a garnish in a magazine report, but it canāt be a title shot or even self-sufficient, because itās unambiguous, lacking spatial and informational depth compare with photo 7 .
Nikon D3s camera
AF-S Nikkor 24-70/2.8 D G ED IF
Sensitivity 8000 ISO
Shutter speed 1/50s
Aperture f/5
Exposure compensation -0.33 EV
Focal length 70 mm
Photo 7. āThe Jordanā from the āEpiphanyā series.
The picture taken with the super wide-angle zoom shows the same clawed feet in the foreground as in photo 6, but this shot is already divided into plans. Only forty centimetres from the camera to the foreground. I had to kneel down and focus, but I got a good shot that can tell the whole story, even on its own. We see what the Jordan bath looked like, we learn about security measures, we see a person being baptized, and we can tell the time of day by the kind of lighting. In my opinion, the picture is not only dynamic, but also beautiful.
Nikon D3s
DX AF-S Nikkor 12-24/4 D G ED IF lens
Sensitivity 4000 ISO
Shutter speed 1/20 sec
Aperture f/5.6
Exposure correction -0.33 EV
Focal length 17 mm
Location of the main one at the vanishing point of perspective lines
Railroad rails going into the distance is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about perspective lines. Everything around us obeys the laws of perspective: the objects close to the observer seem big, but seem to get smaller as they get farther away. A line of telegraph poles in the distance becomes a line of perspective convergence, and so do the glasses standing next to each other, if the first one is close to the foreground, and the others gradually move away from it. In short, perspective lines can be encountered in photos of any genre. If you have two or more of these lines in the frame, they will come together at one point somewhere in the depth of the frame.
The main subject of the frame, located at or near the convergence point of the perspective lines, is sure to become a powerful magnet that attracts the viewerās eye see āThe Baptismā . photo 8 .
Photo 8. āBridgeā from the āNew York for Kissesā series
The lovers appeared out of the blue in the frame as I was framing the shot of the narrow staircase on the footbridge. The telephoto lens has flattened the space, but the perspective convergence brings the eye to the kissing couple.
Nikon D2x
DX AF-S Nikkor 17-55/2.8 D G G ED IF
Sensitivity 100 ISO
Shutter speed 1/200 sec
Aperture f/5.6
Exposure compensation -1.00 EV
Focal length of 82 mm film
What are some effective techniques for highlighting the main subject in a frame? I would love to learn more about capturing attention and creating impactful photographs like Rozov does. Any tips or insights would be greatly appreciated!