The background in your image is as important as the main subject. When considering your composition you’ve got to look at the background and make sure that it is playing a role in the final image.
Is the background clear and focused or creatively blurred? Does the background compliment or distract from the main subject? Can you move the camera, subject and/or background to get a more pleasing result? Will the time of day or the season in which you take the photograph affect the result?
The story can be in the background and give the image a context. Or you can seek to eliminate the background.
I thought about this one ALL week and really struggled on the concept of “background”. Every idea I had, just fell apart because of the concept of…I have to have a main focus to the shot in the foreground.
I did eventually land on the idea of using the small aperture to have lights make the “star” shapes. My original intent was to have many more than the two in this picture but I hated those versions due to the temperatures of the lights I had not matching up.
I toyed with the idea of just photoshopping more and more lights, but getting the different lighting from the beams…just looked odd.
I hope this still conveys the idea of background…the thought was there, lol!
-Lance
I really liked this week's challenge. It made me think outside the box and tap into my inner creativity. I initially thought of going outside and finding a cool subject and background to shoot at for this week's challenge, but I ended up doing it at home. I wanted the background to look interesting so I had some reflective wrapping paper as the background. The composition was lame, I just had a sad face made out of fruits and vegetables, and I had my camera on a tripod shooting from above. As soon as I took the picture, I hated it. The wrapping paper was too colorful and bright, and the photograph was just terrible.
I decided that I wanted to try creating some fine art photography, so I organized the fruits and vegetables in a creative, silly way. I wanted the background to look interesting so I used a mirror to have a "mirrored" image. I also wanted the background to look blurry so I set my shutter speed to 30 seconds and slowly moved the mirror back and forth while the camera was shooting. It took me some tries but I finally got the picture that I wanted.
This challenge is my favorite, for now... It made me use tools that I have never thought of using and subjects that I have never thought of photographing. The shooting process was really fun, and the end result was very rewarding.
-Os Rivera Os Rivera Portfolio