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This is the third in a series of articles to help you create amazing photographic compositions. 

Part A - What is Your Subject?

Part B - Place & Frame Your Subject

Part C - Find an Angle

Part D - Creating Depth

Part E - Balance Your Composition

Part F - Keep It Simple

Part G - Lighting in Your Composition

Part H - Break the Rules

Part I - Minimalism and Negative Space

FIND AN ANGLE - 9 EYE CATCHING PHOTO TECHNIQUES

It’s not too difficult to take pictures. Set everything on Auto…auto focus, auto aperture, auto iso and auto shutter speed. Stand on the street like a tourist literally begging to have pickpockets to have their way with your trousers and shoot away. You might end up with some pretty decent shots to share with friends who you have bribed with wine and desert, but coming up with something that interests those who don’t know you is a bit more of a challenge. The results of this challenge can be creative, fulfilling and appreciated by almost all lovers of art.

So just what are some techniques that will help you differentiate your images from the norm? Here are a few of my favorites.

Shoot at a level that relates best to your subject. Shooting from standing eye level is okay for your standard travel shots or scenic overlooks, but you can almost improve on your shooting position. If it’s down on the ground, get down near it. No squirrel wants you shooting straight down on its head. Shoot at your subject’s (eye) level. If it’s up in a tree figure out a way to get up there with it…maybe from a second story window. 

Shooting down on an animal or person can make them look sad and dull. Similarly, shooting down on foreground objects limits their emotional impact on your images.

Shooting an animal or person at eye level help convey a sense of alertness and hope. Note how close-up foreground objects can help convey emotions in your landscape images.

Look up and down! Usually, choosing between shooting straight out at eye level or getting down or up to  the level of your close-up subject is the correct technique. But don't neglect to look up and down for a unique perspective and attractive lines and shapes. This will add interest to your travel photos. Using a wide angle lens will emphasize height when looking up at trees or buildings. 

"Shooting up" can be a good idea if it's not done with needles. Keep your eyes peeled for these opportunities when in the city or the forest.

You can often find a variety of shapes when shooting down. Looks for shadows and shapes. These images were taken at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Experiment with your lens length. Let’s face it, Jimmy Durante’s nose was a heck of a lot more interesting than Leonardo DiCaprio’s nose. Take those interesting, near objects and accentuate them with a wide angle lens. Okay, so it may be a flower, colorful rock or street sign, but this is the time to literally stick a nose in your photography business! If your subject is far away, zoom in! We want to know what your subject is and know why it is interesting to the photographer.

Shooting with a long lens can effectively get you closer to a shy or inaccessible subject compress distance, isolate the subject due to the narrow depth of field. What feelings do you have about this fox because of the downward angle of the shot?

A wide angle lens can emphasize a near object and make the background less significant while keeping a wide range of distances in focus. Some photographers use this technique extensively as part of their portfolio.

Put a person in your landscape images. While I do this rarely, it is a great technique to provide perspective, direct the viewer’s attention and add a touch of bright color. If that person is yourself, keep some colorful outerwear handy and know how to use a remote trigger.

This scene lacks perspective and has only a little bit of interest.

With a person in the scene there is context. Not all scenes beg for a person as much as this one, but look for these opportunities.

Show movement. Life moves. Cars move. Leaves move. Water moves. Use slower shutter speeds and/or panning to separate elements and show action in your work. You might even move your viewer if you can capture some of this motion. This is not an excuse for out-of-focus prints, however. The best way to capture motion is with longer exposures. Some long exposures do not need a tripod, say when you are tracking an athlete or moving vehicle. By moving at the same speed you can often keep part of the subject in excellent focus. For most scenes, however, you can best show motion by freezing most of what is in your frame, but letting the subject do the moving, whether it is water in a stream, wildlife, a pedestrian in walking in front of a building, or stars in the sky (okay, I know they don't really move). Specific techniques for capturing movement will be covered in future articles.

Pan with the movement of your subject. You will have to experiment with shutter speeds to determine what speed will capture part of the subject in focus and part of the subject blurred to show motion.

With a tripod you can keep your image in focus and allow the movement of water to be experienced with a long exposure, in this case one second. There are a few cameras that may allow you to hand hold longer exposures.

Tilt and double expose! Not recommended for landscape photography or still life photography unless you are combining with movement. But tilting your images forces the viewer to get engaged and it may provide a totally different feel for a scene. Landscape images with a horizon work best with multiple exposed images, but for close-up and isolated scenes without a horizon, tilting a single exposure can be very effective. More than a couple tilted images can be overdoing, so show self control. 

This single exposure lake scene is all about tranquility and color. It really does not say much beyond that. If you insist that scenes are depicted naturally, you will likely be very pleased with this result.

A double exposure may be created "in camera" (with some camera)s or in post processing. Minor tilts both left and right are blended to create a softer scene and palette. Experimentation is often necessary to end up with a suitable result.

Tell a story! Say you are taking pictures of the colors of the Grand Canyon. Do you want to convey depth? How about having a foreground of gripping hands on the railing? Or put a romantic couple at the edge of your image. Don’t worry, they are unlikely to ruin your shot and you can always take a backup without anyone in it. Don’t forget to take some interesting close-ups of roots clinging to the cliffs and sandstone striae to complete the story. Always put a little extra thought into what you could do.

It's fine to just show an image of the sunburst coming through the trees in the morning.

But if you want to tell more of the story, you might included yourself or your buddy shooting the scene. The picture in the next section tells even more of the story.

Keep out the distractions. Look for situations where you don’t have many distractions in the first place. You can move in tighter, smooth out the sand, remove a few sticks or ugly leaves. It’s easy to get so caught up in the main subject that you miss the periphery. Double and triple check!

This image helps tell the story (see above) of the fall season among the aspens. There are quite a few distractions in the picture.

I removed or reduced many of the distractions in post processing since I did not get them all out of the scene. The edges of the frame are the most critical areas. A little bit of distractive elements might be kept to keep the scene natural.

Find a shtick. I suppose it could even be a stick. You don’t have to do this with all your pictures, but if you can come up with something clever that is rarely seen, then give it a try. Examples I have seen are gnomes hidden in the picture, your initials carved on a piece of wood and placed in the picture (you won’t have to buy as many signing pens!), an attractive figure in flowing garb as part of a scene. A shtick can even be taking many of your pictures in a certain style, such as all pictures are taken through a glass ball or a homemade kaleidoscope. Barbara uses a Lensbaby lens to intentionally throw much of  images out of focus. Since most of us don't do this, it becomes a recognizable style for her. These are just ideas to get you thinking. Good luck on finding something that makes your work even more interesting.

These two images by Barbara Strain show a style she employs in many of her photographs, where the lens will only focus on a small area within the picture. Areas at the edge of these photos will always be very soft due to the lens design.

Over time you will experiment with and find styles or gimmicks (shticks) that appeal to you and will make your work recognizable as uniquely your own. Keep this in mind as you photograph. It will come!

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