Today’s post is a photo tip for you. Come here… no… a little closer… closer… there! NOW snap a photo! That’s what this tip is all about – getting close to your subject. I do it ALL of the time. It’s a way to add interest to your photo and keep it from looking like “just a snapshot.” It’s also a great way to hide less than desirable backgrounds. I do a lot of my senior sessions in back alleys to create that “urban” look – a lot of the time I have them sitting in a doorway with a dumpster on their left and a parked car on their right, but you’d never know because I get in close to the subject! Kelsey here is sitting in a doorway (the door is the red in the background) with a metal pipe just above her head and an air conditioning unit directly to the left of the image… check it out:
Can you tell that we’re sitting in an alley without me telling you? I hope not! I hope it just looks like we found a really cool red background somewhere and Kelsey rocked it model-style!
Does this work for every single shot? No. But it definitely adds something, don’t you think? I think it creates a sense of intimacy with the subject – you feel like you’re practically having a conversation with them because they are right there. Here’s another one:
Again, Brandon is my senior sitting in a doorway. Getting close allows me to create an image that focuses on him and still have some cool texture in the background without it overwhelming the image. It brings the attention all on him and gives an almost “conversational” feel to the image – it’s like you’re there with him.
The good news is, it doesn’t just work for seniors… it works for little ones too!
I know a lot of moms are scared to get too close when taking photos of little ones that are on the move because they’re liable to crawl right out of the shot. That’s ok! Let ‘em go! You’ll be able to capture that movement in a cool way – promise! It may take a little practice with your camera to accomplish this, especially if you’re rocking a point-and-shoot and not a DSLR. Point-and-shoots usually have a little bit of drag time between when you push the shutter button and the camera actually takes the photograph, so you’ll have to play with your own camera to see what works best for you. You may have a bunch of blurry images of a little diapered booty crawling away from you at first, but as you get to know your camera better, you’ll be able to time things *just* right! Don’t get discouraged!
This also brings me to another point about getting close, though. You are going to chop off the tops of heads, parts of limbs, etc. when you do it – and that’s ok. Do you want to have every single photo in your collection be chopped in some way? Probably not – that’s up to you and your taste. However, if you do it from time to time to create a certain look, mood, or sense of movement in a photograph, that’s perfectly acceptable. In fact, I highly encourage it because it will make life just a little more interesting. Here’s another movement shot where I’ve cut off the back of Paola’s (mama’s) head:
Could I have taken one step back to get all of Paola’s head/hair in the frame? Sure! But then you lose a little of the emphasis on the mommy-daughter interaction because I would have essentially shrunk them in the image to make them fit. I’d much rather have the moment of interaction between the two of them front and center rather than worrying about a few strands of hair not making it into the frame.
So, go out there, be brave, and GET CLOSE! Will it freak out a few of your subjects at first? Probably. But in the end, I think everyone will love the results!
