Working a Subject

Through my many on-line photography classes, I have been repeatedly instructed to "work the subject."   Applying this advice when I find a subject that interests me forces me to look at the subject from many different perspectives.  A few simple concepts for working a subject:

• Choosing perspective:
  • low or high
  • askew or balanced
  • dominating the frame or part of a larger composition
• Choosing composition
  • centered or off-center
  • "rule-of-thirds" or breaking the rules
  • minimalism or regular scale
  • horizontal or vertical orientation
• Choosing lighting
  • back-light, sidelight, front light (amazing differences when dealing with foliage)
  • is there a better time to revisit the subject than right now?
  • strong light or diffused light
• Other Considerations
  • shallow depth-of-field or maximum depth-of-field
  • frame within a frame possibilities
    
    

The list goes on and on, but this sets the mind in the right direction.  In practice, I will usually shoot about 30-50 images of a subject I really like, modifying my camera position for each shot.  Trying to compose multiple ideas of the same subject often yields interesting results.  Sometimes I am frustrated by how I only have one image out of 50 that is actually good, while other times, I come away with more than one image from the bunch that I like. 

An example using my own photographs:

The following four images were taken on a trip to South Africa last November.  The first one I shot before going into the winery and tasting the local grape juice. While sipping the wine and viewing my images in-camera, I realized that I had a subject that deserved to be "worked."  The last three images are the result of that extra work. 

Comments

[Lawrence Ripsher]

I love the last image - why did that never get shared anywhere before!

[Maryam Montague]

Really loving those first two. I feel like I could walk right in.