Photofocus

Those who have followed me for a while or been on one of my workshops have heard me say “background, background, background.”

But what is it ABOUT the background you should be looking for? Lots of things is the answer but in this post I’ll address a simple place to start – watch out for intruders. This would be anything that causes a distraction from the subject.

Now for some teaching shots. Let me say right away these photos aren’t intended to win prizes. They are intended to illustrate the point.

Note in the first photo the flower bulb in the background appears to protrude from the fully flowered bulb. This is distracting and doesn’t in any way help tell the story. So, the thing to do is eliminate the distraction. How do you do that? Well you could do some gardening, i.e., simply cut the bulb. But that’s not necessary. Here, simply lowering the camera a few inches allows me to hide the ugly bulb behind the pretty flower. That’s all there is to it. If you simply take a moment to scan your background for distractions, you can improve your pictures in the field rather than spending time working on them later in post.

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This post sponsored by the Digital SLR Store