Fill the frame, fill the frame, fill the frame... another one of those articles on photography "How to" rules escaped from under the rug and was beaten over our heads again today.
I have seen some "near beautiful" photographs which missed the mark because the subject was so far away and the photographer had to point it out on the photo. But I can't tell you the number of photos I've taken up close and "filled the frame" with the subject only to be burned by following that rule. One time I spent a whole afternoon taking those family treasured photos of the children sitting on Santa's lap smiling and showing their dimples and the gap between their front teeth. The pictures were sharp and the colors were vivid, but when I went to crop them to fit into the little sleeves to give to the customer, part of the photo was going to be chopped off. I had gotten up close and personal to the point of spoiling the photos. I was able to salvage them with an old photographer's trick. But then, I did it again with another portrait assignment. Yup, I wanted to be a very good photographer and follow all the rules; but by stuffing my subject(s) between the four confining "walls" of a photo plane I almost pinched myself out of a job... Ouch!
Forget being up close and personal as much as the "expert" photographers are telling you, because they are not telling you the whole story. The "expert" may be able to have a custom matt and frame made for a unique size photo because they are generating income through writing those "How to" articles and publishing "How to" books that help support a very expensive hobby (someone told me it is a hobby because you just can't make a living off being a photographer, but you can make a living off being a writer writing "How to" books and articles on photography.) Unless the photograph I've taken is contest material specifically chosen for competition my pocketbook leads me to the standard 8" x 10" size.
Now I am not saying back off from your subject too much. You still want to see the whites of their eyes. The trick here is to learn what your camera's photo plane picture size is. When you look through the view finder or the LCD screen what will that photograph look like cropped for a picture size of 8 x 10 or 11 x 14. Even a 5 x 7 cropping of the picture will have a different appearance. Contents on the edges of an 8 x 10 may crop out of a 5 x 7 whereas the total photograph will be visible in a 4 x 6 cropping of the same image. But what I am saying is besides learning your camera's photo plane size also keep in mind when you are taking a photograph of your subject "full frame" to be careful about giving yourself a little extra room on all the sides of your subject as insurance so what you want to keep in the photo before you crop, stays in the photo, after you've cropped. Don't forget to take the lens cover off.
No comments:
Post a Comment