groping in the dark

Composition: Background

When composing your subject you must remember to take the entire frame into account. You could have a terrific subject or be capturing the perfect moment, but have the overall affect ruined by something in the background that you didn't see. This often happens with utility lines. Nothing ruins the composition of a beautiful landscape or architectural shot like an ugly pole and wire protruding into the upper corner of the frame. Utility lines are not only ugly, they also draw your eye, distracting your attention from the subject.

Use this valuable technique while composing your shot: remember the grid I suggested you use for the rule of thirds? Imagine the same grid in your viewframe and scan your shot in a "Z"-shaped pattern like so:

You should be able to catch any unwanted objects in the background before you press the shutter release.

Here's my perfect example. I had finally gotten my dogs to settle into a calm sober pose with just enough light coming in from the window over my right shoulder. As soon as I snapped the shutter, I knew I had a great shot, that is, until I developed the film:

D'oh! where did that tripod come from? and that S plate?

Granted, the dogs themselves look cool and if you know my dogs, you may have some idea how difficult it was to get them to sit still like this. But, although this photo has personal value for me, it also is a source disappointment and frustration, because I know how great the shot could have been. Due to the wonders of digital technology, you can get vague idea of what the shot might have looked like if I had though about moving the tripod, the chair, the plate and drawn the curtain over the window in the background:

Now with computers and whatnot, you might think that small details like a tripod can easily be removed from a shot like this. Truly, the results above are rather hackish and I could have done a much cleaner job of removing what was there. You might not even be able to tell the difference. But that's cheating and I won't have any part of it (usually). I have way more to say on various forms of photographic cheating, but I'll leave that for another day.