 Raquel S. |
Shooting Candids with Unattractive Backgrounds All too often I want to take quick candid photos of my child during play or craft time - you know, the famous "Kodak Moments" type scenario. However, the majority of the time my photos look undesirable because the background contains undesirable elements or clutter. Any tips to help me get better candid photos without such distracting backgrounds?
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Pete H |
Hello Raquel, Try blurring the background with post processing..pretty easy to do Pete
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Andy |
Use a lens that has large usable aperture to blur the background, like the 50mm f/1.4, 80mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, etc. Or get closer to the child and fill the frame with only the child. Or use a long lens and zoom in on the child. Or even changing the shooting angle may help. Just a few thoughts. Hope this helps.
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Craigly |
"A good photograph is knowing where to stand." - Ansel Adams. He's got a point here. I shoot photojournalistic style weddings and I can't tell you how many distracting elements have ruined otherwise perfect shots. What I've found is that you'd be surprised at how many angles you can shoot from and still shoot the same subject and also capture the essence of your shot. If you consciously focus on the background and putting yourself in a position to compensate for the undesirable background elements then over time it will become second nature to you. Also, with the addition of different angles to your bag of tricks, your photography will become more interesting with practice. That's just what I've noticed.
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Dale M. Garvey |
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Raquel S. |
Thanks for the great responses and ideas. I will definitely put them to use. Many time I just get frustrated by missing the moment because: 1. I don't have a good angle or 2. I'm too slow, and finally 3. I didn't have a high end camera with me at the time to manipulate the capture. (I usually have a pocket size camera with me.) It's like, in order to get those moments in life I need to keep a camera permanently mounted on my person. LOL! I do find some of my best shots is when I get down low to the child's level. Those come out quite charming!
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Sharon L. Weeks |
When all else fails, edit the background in Elements. S Weeks
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Dennis H. Hernet |
Andy and S Weeks make good points, but I've found that background clutter is something with sometimes have to tolerate ... and then correct with some photo editing. Same thing happens to me when I shoot sports events ... I'm a moment early, a moment late, or the flag pole is coming out of the athlete's head. When shooting kids photos, sometimes that clutter isn't all that bad when you consider the precious shot you've gotten ... remember, these are not studio professional shots, they're fire from the hip, spur of the moment situations.
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Michael C. Bennett |
Remember that if you can see it in your SLR's viewfinder, it will be visible in your original photo. That's because every SLR lets you view the scene with the aperture "wide open" which gives minimal depth of field. You might try vignetting, either on camera on postproduction, to obscure background objects. I made my first vignette filter out of two 5" squares of plastic window screen turned 45 degrees to each other and overlapped. Worked like a charm through thousands of professional portraits.
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Dale M. Garvey |
Michael - In sports, if you see it in the SLR, you have missed it. Also some cameras like the Nikon series (D200) do not show the same image as the camera captures. I see that we have also failed to suggest that she could lower the ISO to make the background softer.
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Michael C. Bennett |
You're right, we did forget to suggest lowering the ISO, which would widen the aperture and soften the background. Here's a novel approach. Increase the flash component of the exposure. That way the background is much darker than the foreground, which reduces its prominence.
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Sharon L. Weeks |
Michael - can you get a little more specific on the details of making your first vignette filter? Love the home-made stuff that works great! Thanks, Sharon W
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Michael C. Bennett |
Sure. I had to make my own filters because they were ordered, but didn't show up in time for my first shoot. I took 5x5" 1/8" thick acrylic plastic (cuts really easy with a jig saw with fine teeth) for the frame. Then I cut out a 4"x4" square hole in each of them, which made a hole big enough that it wouldn't crop my image. I used the acrylic pieces as a frame. Next I took some plastic window screen material, the same black screen material you see in your windows at home, and I glued the first one with epoxy to the inside face of the first frame. Next I took a second piece of black screening, turned it 45 degrees relative to the first screen, and glued it to the inside of the second acrylic frame. When the two were dry, I trimmed the extra screen material with an ordinary pair of scissors so they were flush with the inside edge of the frame and there weren't any stray threads of mesh hanging out. Now if I had just stuck the two pieces together and slid them into my filter holder box, I would have had, effectively, about a 2 stop neutral density filter. But I didn't want that. I wanted the image to be clear in the middle, slightly darkened in an oval around the centre, and significantly darker still from the centre oval to the edge of the print. So I cut an oval out of the first screen in the middle, and I cut a larger oval out of the second screen's centre portion. Laying the screens down at 45 degrees to each other makes the outside of the image much darker. If you put the two screens together with their strands running parallel, you would get little benefit from the second screen. It's the second grid intersecting the first at a diagonal that makes the outer image of the home made vignette dark. By the way, I also took a clear plastic bag, sandwiched it between two other pieces of acrylic plastic with 4" holes cut in them, and made my first soft focus filter. I used the clear plastic window that was on the front of the proof packages my lab sold me. Any clear plastic will do the job. I also combined the two homemade vignettes if I wanted a vignette with a soft focus. Just get a filter box, slide one acrylic frame in front of the other, and there you have it. So long as the acrylic frames fit your filter holder box, you can make all manner of filters for next to nothing out of household materials. I hope you find this useful. Best regards, Michael Bennett.
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Sharon L. Weeks |
Michael - Thank you! I am not sure I will give this a try tonight :) but I may tackle it yet this summer. Am printing out your instructions. Thanks again. Sharon W
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Dale M. Garvey |
You can also use an old filter and spread some gel on it to get the soft affect. I prefer to use the softening effect on a sharp photo. BTW have you tried Picasa a photo program by Google. It is a free download and has several filters that may serve your needs. (It is also non-distructive to the original image. Free free to contact me direct if I can be of service.)
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Nobody wants to practice taking better pictures any more?
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Raquel S. |
Of course! Practice make perfect...well, at least better. But it's also nice to ask questions and share ideas with others to help improve form...then go back out and practice some more. That's what I appreciate greatly about BetterPhoto's forums. You all gave me some excellent thoughts and ideas to work with and consider. Thank you. Any further comments and ideas are welcomed. I'm reading them all.
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Raquel S. |
There is one tip that my husband had shared with me a long time ago that I just recently remembered while doing my digital editing work. That is to turn the photo into black and white. Many times it works well to bring the focus of the photo back onto the subject rather than fighting with the background matter. This tip has helped salvage a lot of photos for me, along with creative cropping, editing, and blurring as well.
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