the clothing galleries. Or take a look at some fashion catalogs.
In Figure 9–3,1 show a photograph of my father shortly after he went through a successful treatment for throat cancer. He was happy to be alive and cancer-free, but at the same time he was experiencing steady discomfort and would continue to wear the tracheostomy tube in his throat for months to come. His body language and expression combined with this composition and the muted colors relay the conflict of accomplishment and uncertainty. I placed him in the bottom corner of the frame and made him relatively small in comparison to the negative space, which gives the sense of being cornered and alone. Cancer is an uncomfortable topic, so I felt that an uncomfortable composition was fitting.
50mm,
Figure 9–3: A balance of negative space, color, subject placement, and expression.
Recognizing Problem Backgrounds
In some situations, your background may not cooperate with your subject or your message. It may be too busy, meaning it contains too many elements that don't support your subject or message in any way. Or a subject may blend in too well with the background if it's similar in color or tone or has a similar texture or pattern as the background. These situations create compositional problems in which your viewers are distracted by the background and can't read the image in a clear manner. So, when you're trying to make your subject stand out from the background, you want to avoid situations like these.
However, sometimes you may not consider these situations to be problematic. For instance, you may find situations in which you can use a busy background or one that blends with your subject creatively to reveal a certain message. Your job is to decide when a background works with your message and when it detracts from it.
To help you get a handle on what works and what doesn't, in the following sections, I review some background problems you may experience, along with some ways to avoid or fix them.
Badly hit backgrounds
The most common issue that new photographers encounter with regard to backgrounds is too much or too little light hitting the background in comparison to how much light is hitting the subject. If you find that your subject is being lit by full, direct sunlight and your background is in complete shadow, you're going to have exposure problems (unless of course, your background has distracting elements and you want it to appear as dark as possible). In this situation, try to move your subject to an area that isn't being lit by the direct sunlight (if you can). Or, find a way to shed some light on the background. I usually carry a small, battery-powered flash in my camera bag in case I need to balance the light in a scene.
Another background problem may be that your subject is indoors but near a window through which sunlight beams into the scene. The window will be overexposed if you expose for the indoor light. To solve this problem, bounce a portable flash off a wall or the ceiling to bring up the ambient exposure inside to more closely match the outside exposure.
To operate a flash that isn't on your camera, you can sync it to your camera with a chord. However, this may not give you the reach that you require. I use a PocketWizard that transmits a signal from the camera to the flash telling it when to fire. With this system, I can place the flash far away from the
camera and still have it sync with my shutter. Finding the right flash (and setup) for your specific camera and needs requires some research. I suggest asking the folks at your local camera shop or browsing forums online to see what other photographers are doing.
To ensure that you accommodate areas being hit by bright light, consider your shot carefully before you work. Determine whether you even want to include the details in the background before getting out your flash. Sometimes, letting the background lose detail helps to bring more attention to your subject.
Distracting backgrounds
You've probably seen the ubiquitous party snapshot with some guy standing in the background staring at the camera or — even worse — posing in an absurd way. Nobody knows who the guy is, but for some reason he decided to steal the show in this group photograph. The unannounced visitor is pretty much the worst-case scenario for a distracting background. Other distractions could include the following:
Shapes or lines that are high in contrast or bold in color: These elements can take attention away from your subject in some cases. To lessen the distraction when removal is impossible, use a shallow depth of field to blur them a little.
Harsh spots of light or shadow: A spotlight is meant to direct attention to a specific area. If a spot in your background draws attention away from your subject, try changing your
Subjects placed directly in front of noticeable lines or straight objects:
For instance when a person is positioned directly in front of a telephone pole, it can appear that the pole is growing out of her head. By moving the subject or the camera so the telephone pole is no longer a distraction, you can fix this problem.
Horizon lines in the center of a frame: The center of your frame can act like a bull's-eye when it contains strong elements. A horizon cutting through the center of a frame is more successful as a distraction than as a complimentary compositional element.
Photos with too many elements that are irrelevant to your subject or message: When taking a picture of the bride and groom at a wedding, for instance, you wouldn't want to include the empty beer bottles on the table and the trash can that's just behind them. Crop in tight or change your camera angle to find the appropriate composition.
Any element in the background that causes tension and takes priority away from the subject and supporting elements in the scene is a distraction and can hijack your message. Distractions can have different levels of competing power. For instance, the annoying, background party guy creates enough tension that he actually takes over as the subject. A harsh spot of light, on the other hand, may be less of a distraction.
When you're dealing with a distracting background, try one of the following:
Change your perspective. You may be able to find the perfect angle to minimize or eliminate the distractions. (See Chapter 8 for more about perspective.)
Use a shallow depth of field. You may be able to use a focal length and aperture that cause the background to go out of focus and minimize the distractions. Chapter 7 tells you how to work with focal length and aperture.
Edit out the distractions during postproduction. If you want to use a great depth of field and can't eliminate the distractions, you can always clean up the problem with a photo-editing program like Adobe Photoshop. I discuss techniques to do this in Chapter 18.
Backgrounds that merge With your subject
Keep an eye out for merging shapes and lines in your compositions. A
