Fill the frame....
One of the most important techniques of all in photography is to fill the frame. So many people miss this one. They take a photo where the subject is such a small part of the picture that it is lost. The person looking at the photo cannot even tell who or what the subject of the photo is. You should strive to have the subject be the predominant part of the photo. There should be no question what the subject is. Take this photo of my granddaughter as an example. There is no question that she is the subject of the photo. Well it helps that she is just cute as can be. So her cuteness just oozes out of the photo. But I filled the frame too.
I did make one pretty serious mistake in it on the left arm. I have an elbow and no hand. Well no fingers at any rate. A side rule to keep in mind is that if you have elbows you really should have hands (or fingers). If you have knees you should have feet. So when you are filling the frame get an even tighter shot so you don't get the elbows without the hands, or back off just a touch and get it all. I would shoot just a touch wide because you can always crop it later. It is better to have all the limbs in the shot and crop down than to be kicking yourself later that you are missing part of the shot!
I find I need to be really careful about this. I especially have to watch the feet. I am regularly shooting a touch short and getting the subject at the ankle. Then I have to argue with myself as to if I am going to break the rule or am I going to crop down to a picture I don't think is quite as good.
I did make one pretty serious mistake in it on the left arm. I have an elbow and no hand. Well no fingers at any rate. A side rule to keep in mind is that if you have elbows you really should have hands (or fingers). If you have knees you should have feet. So when you are filling the frame get an even tighter shot so you don't get the elbows without the hands, or back off just a touch and get it all. I would shoot just a touch wide because you can always crop it later. It is better to have all the limbs in the shot and crop down than to be kicking yourself later that you are missing part of the shot!
I find I need to be really careful about this. I especially have to watch the feet. I am regularly shooting a touch short and getting the subject at the ankle. Then I have to argue with myself as to if I am going to break the rule or am I going to crop down to a picture I don't think is quite as good.
Shallow depth of field...
When you get in tight to the subject then if you are running a somewhat wider aperture you will also get a shallow depth of field. This has the added advantage of helping separate the subject from the background. I love to shoot with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. Wide open it has an amazing shallow depth of field when I am close to the subject. I even got a neutral density filter to reduce my light coming in by three f-stops so I can use it in bright sunlight and still be at f/1.8 aperture.
There are two main things that change your depth of field. The first is the aperture. The wider the aperture the more shallow your depth of field. So f/1.8 will give you quite a shallow depth of field. Usually to get an aperture that wide you will need to use a prime (also called a fixed length) lens. There are some zoom lenses that will give you f/2.8 through the entire zoom range. But you will definitely pay a pretty price for those.
There are two main things that change your depth of field. The first is the aperture. The wider the aperture the more shallow your depth of field. So f/1.8 will give you quite a shallow depth of field. Usually to get an aperture that wide you will need to use a prime (also called a fixed length) lens. There are some zoom lenses that will give you f/2.8 through the entire zoom range. But you will definitely pay a pretty price for those.
The other thing that affects depth of field a lot is distance to the subject. The closer you are to your subject the shallower your depth of field is. So filling the frame and shallow depth of field go hand in hand since you will often be very close to your subject. This is even true of telephoto lenses. You might not be physically close, but in relation to where you would be if you did not fill the frame you will be closer. So you can see how filling the frame really affects the photo a lot.
One thing you do need to be really careful of though is getting too short a depth of field. I always cringe when people just off the cuff will tell others to get X lens because it is a really fast lens, meaning a very wide aperture. They act like it is just a solution to everything. But you can easily get into trouble where your depth of field is just too shallow. This photo of my daughter (I still cannot decide if I like the black and white or color better) was shot from just over a foot and a half away from her. I was at f/1.8 when I shot it. On my D80 with that aperture and that distance from the subject my depth of field was about 3 inches. It was one of those shots where I got one chance to get it out of the blue and then the moment was lost. Well the focal point hit her nose instead of her eye. If you look closely her nose is in focus, and her lips are in focus. But her eyes are not in focus. Her ear is definitely NOT in focus. But the bummer is that the eyes are not in focus. I suppose I could say that it helps the artistic quality of the expression, but it still bothers me that I did not get the focus where I wanted, or if I had just had another 3 inches of depth of field. But I did get awesome photos of my granddaughter that same day. That is who I was actually shooting when this photo came along. You can see one of the photos of my granddaughter from that day in the gallery below.
One thing that you do need to be mindful of is that if you are going to print the photo you might need some space around the edges. I will post a different article on prints and some of the things to think about with that. But do keep in mind that you want to shoot a bit wide if you are planning ever to print the photos so you have some space for the overlap in the frame, or room for wrapping if you are doing a print on canvas.
So take some time and get really close to your subjects. Really fill the frame. Get as possibly close as you can, then get a bit closer. You will find that in the beginning rarely will you ever get too close.
One thing you do need to be really careful of though is getting too short a depth of field. I always cringe when people just off the cuff will tell others to get X lens because it is a really fast lens, meaning a very wide aperture. They act like it is just a solution to everything. But you can easily get into trouble where your depth of field is just too shallow. This photo of my daughter (I still cannot decide if I like the black and white or color better) was shot from just over a foot and a half away from her. I was at f/1.8 when I shot it. On my D80 with that aperture and that distance from the subject my depth of field was about 3 inches. It was one of those shots where I got one chance to get it out of the blue and then the moment was lost. Well the focal point hit her nose instead of her eye. If you look closely her nose is in focus, and her lips are in focus. But her eyes are not in focus. Her ear is definitely NOT in focus. But the bummer is that the eyes are not in focus. I suppose I could say that it helps the artistic quality of the expression, but it still bothers me that I did not get the focus where I wanted, or if I had just had another 3 inches of depth of field. But I did get awesome photos of my granddaughter that same day. That is who I was actually shooting when this photo came along. You can see one of the photos of my granddaughter from that day in the gallery below.
One thing that you do need to be mindful of is that if you are going to print the photo you might need some space around the edges. I will post a different article on prints and some of the things to think about with that. But do keep in mind that you want to shoot a bit wide if you are planning ever to print the photos so you have some space for the overlap in the frame, or room for wrapping if you are doing a print on canvas.
So take some time and get really close to your subjects. Really fill the frame. Get as possibly close as you can, then get a bit closer. You will find that in the beginning rarely will you ever get too close.