On Composing A Picture

I've discussed in the past the process of scouting out a picture but I'm going to try and take it a step further and discuss the actual 'puting the picture together'

Lets say for example that you have found a rusting old truck in a farm yard. The truck is the 'centre' of the image, though it doesn't have to be positioned that way. Lets say that you have decided to photograph the truck in it's environment rather than coming in close and photographing curves, shadows, rust patterns etc.

You have a choice of photographing the truck surrounded by farm buildings, or with a harvested grain field in the background. Which you choose will determine the character of the image but lets say that for now you have no particular 'statement' to make, you are 'cruzin fer snaps' and will take any nice picture you can.

So, you wander around the truck, looking for the best angle to photograph the truck and for what is in the background. Unless you want the junkyard look (and you might) you are going to try and simplify both background and foreground to help focus on the truck. Modern buildings or objects are not going to work well with the truck - can you find an angle from which the truck works well with the background. Let's say that despite your best efforts, the backgrounds are all absolutely terrible - you can't get a clear shot of fhe field due to telephone wires, there isn't a nice weathered barn against which you can photograph the truck.

This is working the scene, and yes, it is actually work.

Right, what are our options. We could accept the cluttered look and perhapd deliberately emphasize it to represent many old farm yards that act as mechanical grave yards and unintentional museums.

What about getting really low, belly on the grass, and using the sky as a simple background.

Perhaps you should shoot from the inside of the truck. There was an article on Luminous Landscape which deals with photographing inside a vehicle.

Could you photograph the truck as reflected in the side mirrors?

What if you were to leave the doors propped open - better shape, worse?

If the background is cluttered, what about photographing from high up - could you come back with a step ladder (or borrow one) or find something you can climb on (with permission)? Is there a barn with hay loft from which you can shoot?

Since you don't have a political agenda, you are looking for positions for the truck in which it makes interesting patterns or shapes with foreground and background objects. It might be the S bend in a dirt track, something in the background that repeats a shape found in the truck, perhaps you can compose the truck with something so obviously new and shiny that it provides a nice contrast to the abandoned truck. Perhaps the shadow of the truck can be part of the composition.

Photographing with a wide angle will necessarily include more background objects in the image, a longer lens fewer. Rather than think lenses at this early stage, I'd simply walk round the truck in smaller and smaller circles till you see what you want.

You could look for something to frame the truck - but keep in mind that anomalous branches coming from nowhere don't work in landscape pictures, the same is going to hold true in this image. Perhaps though you could use the end of a buliding or another vehicle as one side of the image. You might have depth of field problems but if shooting digitally, you could shoot two images, one focused on the truck, the other on the building and blend the images. Such a simple blend could easily be done by hand in Photoshop as the near focused image will be slightly larger.

Perhaps you always, shoot colour, or always black and white, but having invested this much energy into the picture, give some thought as to which would be better.

You have found the best position, the best height and best distance from the truck, stop and give some thought as to how you might print it - ok previsualize it. Maybe the subject still isn't going to work as the tone of the truck blends with the tone of the barn behind, perhaps filtering can help, or if shooting digitally you can filter after the fact.

You line up your camera, aiming at the car. Woops, not ready yet, not if you want a really good image.

You still have to refine the framing of the shot for the strongest image.

At this point you have your spot, your direction and your height from the ground. The choice of lens will determine how much you include. If you have fixed focal length lenses you hope you can move back and forth enough to frame just right. With zooms you don't have to compromise your ideal spot.

Your last task is to figure out just where to place the four sides of the frame. I find my trusty plastic with a cutout the format of my camera, hanging round my neck on a shoelace. I know roughly what I want to include but the question is exactly where to place the edges. I start with the left edge. I can have things meet in the corner, or I can create interesting shapes with the side of the image and either something in the image or even a dark area in the image (eg. shadow). I do the same on the right. This now gives me my focal length, though I still have to decide whether to shoot vertical or horizontal format. That's determined by the strongest composition with upper and lower sides. If I have to crop significantly, it's a message to consider stitching, which I might do anyway just to get a higher resolution image.

That pretty much does it - I'm in the right location, right height, pointing in the right direction with the right lens. I expose to keep detail in all the important areas (or shoot more than one exposure if I can't) and I have done everything I can to ensure a good image.

All I have to do now is repeat this 99 more times and the odds are fairly good that one of the images will be a keeper.