Lesson 1 - Isolating the Subject

Our visual perception of the world around us is based on a complex system of eyes and brain. We are capable of discerning objects with great clarity and detail in busy settings. A mistake often made by those new to photography is allowing these powers of visual perception to mask what is actually being seen in the camera’s viewfinder. The result is a photo that others may have a hard time figuring out exactly what the photographer was looking at when they took the photo. Great photos depict the subject in a way that a viewer will instantly recognize what the subject is!

To accomplish this, we want to isolate the subject in the following ways;

1. Fill the frame! Get up as close as possible to the subject, leaving little else in the frame to compete with it.

2. Use the longest focal length possible. On a zoom lens, this will be the larger number. For example, with a 18-55mm lens, we want to set the lens to 55mm.

3. Use a large aperture setting! This is designated as the smallest number; for example, f.4 is a larger aperture opening than f/11.

To ensure that the largest aperture is used by the camera, set the camera to “aperture priority” mode and then set the aperture to the widest (smallest number) setting.

With the lens zoomed to its maximum focal length and the aperture set to its widest opening, move up to the subject until it fills the frame. Also, watch around the edges of the frame – make sure nothing intrudes into the frame that can pull the eye from the subject!

See next post below.

The photo above is supposed to be of a martini glass. When I looked through the viewfinder, my human visual system saw the glass clearly and ignored everything else going on in the frame. The result is a photo that has no clear subject; is it the glass, the table, the chair, or the photo on the wall?

For this shot, I zoomed out to the maximum focal length to better fill the frame with the glass. It's an improvement, but there's still the light switch intruding into the frame.

There's more that can be done to make this shot better.

For this shot, I made only one change - I turned the camera on its side for a "portrait" orientation (holding the camera horizontally is referred to "landscape" orientation).

Though the glass is still the same size in the frame, notice how it is now more clearly the subject of the photo. The background is cleaner (eliminated the wall switch intrusion) and the portrait orientation better matches the shape of the glass.

At his point there is no question that the glass is the subject of the photo, but there's still more that can be done to make it better!

For this shot, I simply moved in closer to better fill the frame with the subject. Notice how the background is getting more blurred, providing better separation of the subject from its surroundings - the closer you get and the wider the aperture, the more narrow the "depth of field" - the front-to-back zone of sharpness. Narrow depth-of-field ("DOF") is a very effective means of isolating a subject!

One last adjustment - I lowered the camera to eliminate as much of the table top from the background as possible. Notice how the stem of the glass stands out better and makes the subject more interesting without the table top "cutting it in half."

So to sum it up on isolating the subject;

1. Go long on the focal length
2. Use maximum aperture setting
3. Get in close and fill the frame
4. Hold the camera in a way that the framing compliments the shape of the subject
5. Move the camera up and down and side to side to get the cleanest, most complimentary background you can find

Your Assignment

Using a similar subject, conduct the same experiment as above! When you are done, post your best 3 "final result" photos below (each one in a separate reply) and we'll take a look at them. Don't be afraid to experiment!

If you have any questions or need any help, post your questions below!

Hi Jim,
This was fun! We've had a very rainy weekend, so finding good light was somewhat more of a challenge than usual, but I found a spot in our hallway with an overhead skylight.

So here are the three photos. I chose this subject because of the two layers of texture, the black decorative painting and the grid texture of the vase itself.

I also tried cropping another photo that I liked in this series to see how it compares to taking the photo with the techniques you've described above. I found that the cropped version lost some of the sharpness of the original photo which made it less appealing. Is that because when a photo is cropped, the remaining pixels are simply "blown up" to fit the same size photo rather than having the original amount of detail?

Looking forward to your comments.

Second best.

I like this one the best. I adjusted the angle a bit to take the photo a bit more from the top so that it filled the frame a bit more.

One problem that I had was that I couldn't get the f stop lower than 5.3. With the longest focal length of 55 mm on this lens the f stop setting would only go down to 5.6. To get to 5.3, I had to adjust the focal length to about 45 mm. I'm reading through the manual again to see if there is another way to adjust the setting.

Sharon

Thanks, Jim.

Sharon,

Another idea for the subject is to go vertical and back off enough to get the entire shadow in the frame too. Shadows play a vital role in our visual perception (see photo above).

Because of the spherical shape, a little more DOF might be good to try, maybe around f/8.

Also, this is where a tripod is tremendously useful - you can make those fine adjustments to composition while not having to hold the camera. Also, sharpness will increase dramatically.

As time permits, find some subjects outdoors to give this a try on!

Woke up in the middle of the night and realized I didn't even try the lesson going to a lower focal length number to see if I can get a larger aperture setting! For some reason I was stuck on using more zoom to get closer. One thing I did experience yesterday though was that some of my shots were blurry so I needed to ensure I steadied the camera so getting to an even larger aperture will make this even more critical. I am going to try this one again tonight.
Sharon

Here is a shot I took on Fire Island, NY of a weathered rubber ball. Notice how the shadow adds to the perception of depth/3-dimensions. Also notice how I moved the subject out of the center of the frame.