Portrait/People Picture Composition Discussion
Hi Gang, I would love to hear your opinions about this topic. My photographic experience has been from a more traditional background. My wedding and portrait photography mentor, Edmund Lee (now retired), had a style that was uniquely his, but maintained traditional sensibilities. That's probably how I inherited my own compositional preferences. I am still learning and exploring today, and I know that I have lots to learn even though I've been a "photographer" for so many years now.For this discussion, I want to talk about the recent trend that I noticed in people shots where the person is often framed very tightly, to the point where portions of the subject's head are cropped entirely out of the picture. I never really liked this extremely cropped "look" for portraits and people photography. I would often complain to my photo buddies about this strange new compositional phenomenon. Yesterday, I happened upon an article on the internet that talked about why this technique is used. The article is part of a series: Gestalt Theory and Photographic Composition: Closure. There are many other interesting articles on that site (Apogee Online Photo Magazine). Now that I understand the theory behind it, I am more open to these ideas, and I will add it to my arsenal of techniques to be used where appropriate. These sample shots may not have been the best examples, but it was an interesting exercise.
The first photo was already cropped from the original. Do you think that the photo #1 is "static" and uninteresting? Put it another way, is there a way to compose or crop the shot so that it adds a little "extra something"?
For the second version, I cropped closer to better emphasize the faces and to reduce background distractions. I also cleaned up the background on the left. What do you think? I like the 2nd version better. I think you can actually see the facial expressions much more clearly in #2. It's still not as extreme as some pictures of this nature that you often see exhibited. I think if done with restraint, this really works well.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing all of your opinions. It would make me very happy if some of you silent readers actually surfaced, and commented directly to the forum too! I know, it's probably too much to ask, but I had to ask it :).
--Warren
posted by Warren T. at 12:00 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
Warren - thanks for starting this discussion. I especially appreciate the links you gave us - I didn't know about Apogee, and that short article was fascinating!
To answer your concrete questions first - yes, I think the very nice 1st photo does seem static and the more closely cropped "open" photo is much more appealing!
I think I've subconciously "known" about this Gestalt thing, but you caused a lightbulb to light up over my head ;-) I'm now tempted to go back and look at some of the photos I really like and some no-so-great ones and "deconstruct" them using this Gestalt theory. Uh-oh, a little knowlege is a dangerous thing, no?
What I especially appreciate about you bringing this whole line of discussion to us is that it has nothing to do with f-stops, shutter speeds, Nikon vs. Canon :-) :-) :-) , etc - but it is in fact so very important to us as photographers. Dave Beckerman ( www.davebeckerman.com ) a NYC photog whom I admire, often gets questions from young people like "what photography courses should I take?" or "which photography school should I attend?" - and he almost always answers with - don't take "photography" courses - study music, history, art, design, etc. I think he's got something there, and you're helping us to plug into it.
Thanks again,
SteveR
Hi All - SteveR here again....
I started reading the links that appear in the Apogee article that Warren linked to, and they are great.
I was fumbling around in my last post to say what Michael Fulks says very well in one of those articles:
"Many photographers feel that they have mastered composition; after all, composition was one of the first things they learned in basic photography. But what they don't know is that what they learned in basic photography is only the tip of the iceberg. The average photography student probably didn't learn what most other artists learn in their basic classes."
Read the articles when you have a chance - this could be the start of something big for the FPCF
HI Steve,
Thanks for your comments on this topic. As for my example photos, I found it very interesting that just a slight tweak in the composition resulted in (to me) such an entirely different "look" of the subjects. I think it's actually a quite a dramatic difference.
The eyes and expressions are MUCH more apparent.
Speaking only of this technique, it was important for me to understand the reasoning behind it. I believe that many people see this format used in magazines or books, and mimic it without fully understanding why, and thus end up overdoing it, or doing it badly.
I also agree that many of the Gestalt Theory concepts are already familiar, and are probably already being incorporated in much of our work.
I know that Tony has been taking design classes recently, and I would love to hear his take on all of this. Tony, are you there?
I'm glad you found the Apogee site useful. Maybe I should add it to our Links Section in the sidebar.
--Warren
The gestalt article was great – thanks, Warren. I am very programmed to frame my photos (and paintings) in a very traditional way. Seeing the cropped shot in isolation, I would probably wonder why you lopped off the tops of their heads! But seeing the two versions side-by-side, I definitely see the advantages of version two – it is much more alive and intimate. You feel like you are there with them, and are drawn in by their closeness. On the other hand, if I were in that picture, I would surely say “it’s too close” and become self critical! Good food for thought. - Jill
Jill! Nice hearing from you!
Shhhhhh, don't tell Clarissa and Gail that I posted these pictures, because they would most certainly object to the close cropped version too!
--Warren
For me, cropping is one of the most interesting attractions and often the most rewarding elements of photography. Of course we often do the cropping through the viewfinder,casting out those non-contributing objects in the to-be-taken picture,especially in scenery shots.
For the two given portraits, I notice that you've already used a fill-in flash in addition to the main unit. Albeit the light background,I'd consider using a third "hair"light to highlight the ladies' beautiful hair.
In the first photo,the picture frame in the background is probably the only cause for the major cropping.
The second photo is indeed more focused on facial expression,but I think too much of Clarissa's head has been "cropped".Also, I'd tend to move a bit to Gail's side thereby doing without the odd shoulder-tip of Clarissa and ease-off the somewhat cramped feel on Gail's left.
PAT
Hi Pat, good observation re: cropping off the odd-shoulder point on the left. Now that you mentioned it, it does look odd :).
Alas, since this was a candid picture taken at a family gathering, it was not possible to set up a hair light.
--Warren
I would put your cropping exercise in much simpler terms. First, image size matters! The larger faces in the second version is more visually appealing and the details are easier to see. It appears that the camera is closer to the subject than the first version. Second thing is to simplify your image by cropping unwanted or unnecessary elements. I have seen many images that have so many things going on that I don't have the time to study. This seems to be the trend in the media to use simple eye catching images.
On the other hand, over cropping can hurt. In the cropped version of your photo, you lose perspective as to where the photo was taken and what your subject was wearing. Whether or not such additional information is relevant is up to you.
Hi Martin,
Thanks for your comments. As usual, very concise and to the point.
The notion of including or excluding information via cropping is entirely up to the photographer, and the message he/she wants to convey. It's a very subjective thing.
I chose this candid picture from my archives because I thought it would be a good candidate to experiment on.
Unless I had a specific purpose (like doing this as an exercise) or message to convey, I would usually not crop this closely, because I know that most people don't like to see themselves this close (Gail would never let me publish that picture if she knew about it... shhhh).
--Warren
That's weird. I wonder how Martin's comment slipped by the Google notification system? hmmmm.
--WT
One thing that was mentioned in the Apogee article was about paying attention to the edges of the frame - your viewfinder.
I hadn't thought about this for a while, but when I participated in an excellent workshop with Karen Gordon Schulman in 2003, it was one of the things Karen stressed.
I know it's something I was totally unaware of prior to the workshop, and I think that I usually, subconciously do it since then.
By the way, if any of you are in the market for a GREAT photo workshop-vacation, I cannot be too strong in my recommendation of Karen. Check out her website, Focus Adventures, at http://www.focusadventures.com/mainframeset.html
She has her annual summer workshop in Steamboat Springs, CO in early July (that's the one I attended) and a "Spirit of Ireland" photo tour July 31-Aug 10th.
-- SteveR
My sensitivity to the framing is why I favor the 100% viewfinders of professional series cameras such as Nikon's F series. By knowing and having confidence in the 100% view in the viewfinder, it's possible to very precisely compose in-camera. When I shoot with my F cameras, I seem to automatically be much more sensitive to in-camera composition. This results in a higher percentage of successful non-cropped images.
This likely has to do with shooting a lot of slide film over the years where you don't have the luxury of post processing.
--Warren
Warren, your mentioning of the 100% viewfinders and no-cropping color slides does bring back much good old memories.
PAT
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