Take a Giant Step Closer
One of the keys to creating a strong composition is, naturally
enough, letting your audience know exactly what your intention was when
you were taking the picture. If someone has to ask what it is you were
trying to show, dude, you've missed the boat somewhere. One of the
simplest ways to give your photos more impact is, interestingly enough,
to make them simpler. And, of course, one way to simplify any
picture is to get closer to it. The question is: What is close enough?
Ahh, that's where concepts turn into judgments calls: it's up to you to
decide just how close you want to be (or not be).
When I
spotted this photo idea at the very nice Caramoor Museum and Gardens in
Katonah, New York, I knew almost immediately that I wanted to shoot this
big urn. And I knew that I wanted that beautiful and ornate gold and
black gate in the background to be a part of the shot. So I composed a
shot (using my tripod, naturally) to include the entire urn and most of
the gate. Nice shot. It looked nice on the LCD and I still like it. But
then I thought that putting those geraniums in the foreground might be
creating too much of a distraction and diminishing the impact of the
gate. So, poof, I zoomed in a touch and got rid of the flowers. What the
heck, as long as I had the original shot I wanted captured, I might as
well shoot a bunch of variations.
As it turns out, it's
a good thing I did. I'm using the middle shot above in the revision of
my book The NEW Joy of Digital Photography and while we
tried to use the top shot first, the reds and greens were giving the
printer trouble (too much saturation, partly, but also just very strong
contrasting colors) and so rather than just try to tweak that file, we
chose the middle shot. With the reds and greens gone from the foreground
the shot will almost certainly reproduce better.
The
third shot was just a variation that I thought might be useful in a
lesson (like this one) to show that even when you think you are close,
you can still take a giant step closer--and still come up with a nice
shot. I call it the Giant Step Theory (well, actually, I just thought of
that name, but you get the point). While the gate is completely gone
and there is no real foreground, it's still a neat shot and in some ways
I like it the best. One small step for you, one giant step for your
photographs.
Is any one of these shots better than the
other? It really depends on the use and what you like (or what you like
at the moment--my preference on this keeps changing). But since digital
is free and since you only have to move a few feet (or zoom a bit more)
to give your self a variety of options, go ahead, shoot the wide shot
and then take a giant step or two forward....as long as you're not
shooting from the end of a dock.
Of course, if you are shooting at the end of a dock or near the edge of a pool, you can always use a zoom lens to get closer. I used a 70-300mm Nikkor lens to get closer to the trainer and beluga whale, shot at the Mystic Aquarium (see photo below), because I was shooting from the opposite side of the enclosure. One more step and I would have needed an underwater camera!
What other subjects can you think of that would benefit from getting closer?
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