AOP part 38: Stop Shooting Square On
Somehow all portrait photographers are programmed to shoot square on to the background. It really does take some effort of will to move the camera off the perpendicular and go for some angled shots. This is a shame, because we really do miss some opportunities.
This particular backdrop has an awful lot of vertical lines. Which is a shame because the only real leading line we get is the slightly toned wall running at head height. So I asked Maja to bring her feet out and lean back into the wall, to get the band and her head at the right position.
The coloured space top right fills the negative space quite nicely and gives some angular shaping in contrast to the curves of Maja's body.
Incidentally, if this was shot for publication that little space would be ideal for a caption. If you are thinking you might end up with shots for publication you want to leave a little extra space around the subject. This means the publication can crop to fit their page format (say 8x11 instead of 8x12 from camera). It also allows them space to caption - particularly important for fashion spreads.
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This is an excerpt from "Anatomy of a Photoshoot" which gives a complete breakdown of two days shooting with a full in-depth step by step review of everything that I do.
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