I’ve had my head buried in some numbers most of today, and I am in DESPERATE need of a brain break. A change of thought patterns, scenery–anything will help!
So here I am, writing to you guys about little things you can do to improve your own photography. Today’s subject? Clutter, and how to remove it from your images!
Clutter can be anything from actual trash lying around, to electrical poles or their wires, to traffic signs. Really, any of the little things in a picture that can distract us, or take our eyes away from the subject. You may not see them at first, but I’m going to help you look for them BEFORE you take your picture.
The first thing to do is this: look around. You’ve got your camera up, you’re ready to take the picture of your subject, you’re about to push the button and–WAIT! Yes, really. Let your eyes cruise around your subject, along the far edges of your image. What do you see?
Trash. This one is painfully obvious. When I’m going on location for a portrait session, I often take a couple plastic bags with me and arrive early, specifically to walk the area and pick up trash. Yes, really! There are some local parks that offer great backgrounds, but are just wicked cluttered with little bits of trash, either from nearby residents that just don’t care, or a creek that overflows every time it sprinkles. I don’t want that clutter showing in my portraits, and so I spend an extra half hour walking around picking things up. This also gives me a great chance to scout specific spots at my location. You aren’t likely to be be taking a couple hundred pictures in multiple locations in the same park, so my method is probably overkill for you. But if you do see trash in your frame–GO PICK IT UP. It probably won’t bite you, and if you don’t stick your fingers in your mouth or eyes, it likely won’t make you sick. If you’re seriously worried about germs, carry some hand sanitizer, assuming you’re not somewhere with easy access to soap and water. Your pictures will be better for your effort. Plus you get extra gold stars for picking up litter, yay!
Power lines. Change your angle in relation to your subject. Get your camera up higher and looking down on your subject a bit. This might mean simply raising your camera higher. Or it might mean climbing up on the nearest thing. I like to carry a lightweight aluminum step stool with me during my sessions. If you can’t get higher, maybe your subject can get lower. If your subject is human, can they sit down? Kneel? Squat? Or maybe your subject is a landscape, and you can’t get higher than it is–it’s probably not getting any lower. Can you move closer to your subject and get the power lines out of your frame? Or far enough away that they disappear into the scene?
Signage and cars. A few blocks away from me is a lovely residential street with a grassy median running down the middle. Big leafy green trees offer lots of shade in the summer and the turning leaves are just gorgeous in the fall. But the street is also lined with cars parked along the curb and the ever (NOT) photogenic traffic signs. You can try some of the same tricks we used to avoid the power lines, but it might be easier to block these signs/cars with your subject. Yeah, that’s right. Position your subject so THEY are blocking the offensive object from your camera frame. If changing position isn’t an option, try zooming in on your subject so they fill your frame, or very near to it.
People. These pests are particularly problematic at popular scenic locations. My advice for getting them out of your image frame? Choose unusual times to go to your destination. Early morning is generally less busy than the evening, in almost all cases, so if you can pry yourself and your subject out of bed, this is often the best way to avoid throngs people. Cuz nobody else wants to get up yet either. Or if it’s a popular morning spot, aim to arrive after everyone else has left. If neither of these is a good solution, try an unusual angle. Head right away from the spot where all the other tourists have gathered with their cameras and look for a scene that still communicates your location without including a bunch of strangers. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of patience and allowing people to walk out of view before you press the shutter button. And you might be surprised how many people will stop to avoid walking through your set up. One last trick to dealing with people… just roll with it and see what kind of photo bombs you get!
It’s super easy for us NOT to see the things we don’t want to see. Traffic signs practically disappear, especially in places that are familiar to us. We learn not to see trash on the ground, simply because we don’t enjoy it. Power lines too are so common, especially in urban areas, that we totally forget they’re there. Take an extra moment to look around the edges of your view through the camera for those little bits of clutter. Get them out of your image, and your pictures will thank you! Your subjects will thank you–honestly, they probably won’t, because they probably didn’t see those things to begin with! If they did, they’ll think you’re a magician for keeping them out of the picture. Great job!!
Next post? I think it will be about light. Are there really such things as “good light” or “bad light”? Stay tuned!!