The name of the game is to fill the frame.
Move in, zoom in closer and crop out the dead space.
... If you’re photographing a landscape, maybe you don’t need all that sky and all that grass in the foreground ... .
When I open a picture in Photoshop, the first thing that I do is I crop out the dead space ... . I do that because I want a picture with more impact.
So you crop out all the dead space and you have more impact.
Rick Sammon
Rick Sammon.com
Photograher, author, dad
Listen to the full interview below, and feel free to share your comments.
Absolutely agree. Back in the days when I shot on film and didn’t do anything with Photoshop, people used to rave over some of my photos of family members. My secret was simple:
1) I shot using a fixed 150mm telephoto lens. Not a zoom lens. This effectively meant that when I was standing around at a party or an event, my lens was effectively doing the cropping and getting in close. I didn’t have a choice, except to walk further away, which I didn’t do. Hence, the frames were filled.
2) Find people doing interesting things and take the pictures while they’re doing it. Don’t organize group photos and have everybody stand together and say “cheese”. Who really smiles like that in real life anyways!
3) Just take the pictures and give no warning. It bugs some people. “Oh! Why did you do that! I wasn’t even looking!” Everybody wants to fix up their hair or be sure they’re smiling, but some of my best photos are of somebody engaged in trying to do something with their hands, or some spontaneous laughter. I even have a few classic pictures of small kids crying. Not many photo albums have pictures of kids crying, but sometimes they are really wonderful shots.
I’m even prone to bringing a camera into the dentists office when my kids are getting their teeth cleaned. These are memories! Make sure you get them on film… I mean… into pixels.