Ken’s Tips On Your Pics: The ‘complete’ picture!
Linn has sent in this picture that I take to be her daughter in a garden. She is sitting on a raised bed of flowers, the photo was obviously taken at night and though difficult to see there is a building behind with a light on (showing in the top right of the pic). There is also the front of a small cream car near the top left corner. I have included a version with the background lightened to show this lower down.
Linn's photo
The girl in the picture looks very relaxed and has a lovely, natural pose and the dark background helps create a striking photo of a very pretty young girl. I don’t usually like on-camera flash but here it has helped simplify the background making what is quite a busy background into a very simple and effective portrait.
Background lightened to show clutter
Direct flash is seldom flattering to the sitter, usually showing every flaw in the skin, but because of the age and smooth skin of this girl she gets away with it. Without flash this shot probably wouldn’t have been so successful, but usually my preference is to use available light (see my tip here).
These are all the positive elements, now we should look at what could have been done to make this image even stronger. This picture suffers from one of the most common errors that people make when taking photographs of people. If you were to draw two lines, going through opposite corners of the image, you would find that they cut right through the head. When we talk to people we nearly always look them in the eye or the general area of the face. Amateur photographers do the same when taking pictures – the camera is pointed straight at the face of the subject. When chatting your brain is focused on the person you are talking to but the camera records everything you point it at. Details such as the car, the building with the light on and the flower bed. Fortunately, because the flash isn’t strong enough to light all of the background, these distractions have been blocked out – but we are left with nearly the whole top half of the pic as a solid black shape.
The head being in the middle also means that most of the girl’s body is on the left of the image which also causes a very ungainly crop on the hands and knee. If the whole frame of the image had been moved down and to the left it would have cut out most of the earth (just leaving a few of the flowers for effect, I imagine the reason for taking the photo) and would have got in the hands, knees, making a much more pleasing composition. Below is a crop as close as I can get to that and I have warmed up the skin tone as the flash has made the face look a bit washed out.
A better crop?
The main advice here is – don’t point the camera straight at what you are photographing but look at all the elements that you can see through the viewfinder or on the screen and move the camera or yourself to exclude any distractions. With a little care you will find your friends complimenting you on your photography!
Thanks for sending this in Linn and if you or anyone else would like to make any comments or ask any questions, then please do. I will try to answer them as quickly as possible.
Happy snapping.
Thank you for your constructive comments on my picture of my daughter Taken in Mumbai India the first evening we had arrived. I can see the importance of editing out the background for to make the picture more striking and also note the points made on not directing the camera straight at the face..At the time of taking this we were stopping off for a bite to eat outside a restaurant and as she sat down i snapped the pose without much thought for the busy background which is effectively
Mumbai High St (does this city ever sleep)
Once again thankyou for your professional take on the picture.. of Sheryl
Kindest regards
Linn
By Linn Garden at 11:12 pm on Aug 3, 2010