This is the third installment of my five part discussion on the differences between snapshots and portraits.
Differences Between Snapshots and Portraits
1. Light and Exposure
2. Focus and Depth of Field
3. Texture
4. Composition
5. Color
It’s time to roughen it up a bit!
People view everything with two eyes giving them a perception of depth and distance. Unfortunately, this does not apply when viewing something that’s been printed since it’s flat and two dimensional. To compensate for that, it is extremely important to capture items that accentuate the lighting.
For example, a t-shirt has very little texture to it. If you photograph someone wearing a t-shirt, they will look very lifeless and two dimensional if the lighting is flat. You must find a way to incorporate lighting in such a way as to cast shadows.
This same task is much easier if they’re wearing a thick knit sweater. The sweater has a lot of texture to it all by itself. Almost any kind of lighting will enhance the highs and lows in the knit surface.
Ensuring you have items in the photo frame that use light to cast shadows will ensure you hold your viewer’s interest. The same technique applies to just about everything from brick walls versus painted drywall to fallen leaves versus dirt ground.
How would you handle scenes where there is seemingly no texture at all, like someone swimming in a lake? Could droplets of splashed water work as a texture? What do you think?
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