When we talk about shallow depth of field photos , most of us immediately remember those beautiful portraits with the subjects face sharply in focus against a colorful blurry background . But today were applying a new use for shallow DOF , with the human element out of focus , and in focus will be "something" we will use for "story telling" . So lets get creative . Below are three pics I took that have the very same out of focus background with urs truly sitting in the same position each time . So basically I fixed the background just to show u how flexible this technique is . All were gonna be changing is the foreground and notice how different each pic becomes .
In this first composition I placed a watch in focus in the foreground . The immediate effect is the "Waiting" story . Time becomes the subject here . We start thinking of , "whats he waiting for" , or maybe it’s a "too late" scenario . That’s not the end of creativity though , if we were to place urs truly sleeping on a bed , we get the different story of " late to wake up " . If we were to place urs truly on a desk with a pencil and paper ud get the effect of " no time for this tough exam " . Go as creative as u want !
In this second piece here , is a tiny very unattractive consumer "point and shoot" cam in focus . Now the story is totally different than the previous pic . Now its more like " is he a photographer , maybe a beginner ? " . If I had maybe layed the cam on its back with it turned of it could maybe have sent the message of " no inspiration " . Wanna get creative ? Lets make urs truly hand someone some money " still in the background " , and the cam still in focus , now the story is " Cams are expensive " . Or maybe lets make the out of focus area in the pic someone posing for a portrait with urs truly shooting him with his pro cam , now the story becomes " this cam is as good as a pro cam " . See how rich this technique can get ?
In the third and last pic here , we have a bunch of pills in focus . So the story is " addiction " maybe or "sickness" , maybe or "depression" . Now lets get creative , give me a bunch of weights in the background and a couple of dumbbells and a gym suit , and now the story is " steroids " . Make me sit on a dinner table and eat something in the background and the story is " food supplements " …
There, ! Ive bounced off some ideas for u . Go crazy ! .
1 comment:
thank you for the interesting post!
havent come across any tip similar to this, though they are plenty about shallow DOF, but not as helpful as this one!
good tip for stock photographers and the occasional hobbyist photographer i reckon!
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