Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Keeping an Eye on Your Photo Background by Tracy McLennon

Design Team member Tracy McLennon has some terrific photography tips for you today!

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It's easy to get wrapped up in the moment that you are photographing. Making sure that the subject of your photo is looking great. But keep an eye on what's happening behind them. If not, it can lead to a sometimes humorous, but always distracting result.

When you look at any professional portraits, one thing that they all have in common is that they all have some sort of neutral background. This can be almost anything: the wood siding of a house or barn, a wooded area, gardens, snow, the options are almost endless.

Once you have your chosen background, then you would be checking for any other objects that may be entering the shot and distracting the eye. This can be something like: a stick behind the head, looking like it's going through it. Antlers on the wall behind someone's head....I've seen it! People in the background, stealing the scene aka the photo bomb. Sometimes it can be something as simple as a sock on the floor in the background.

Soon enough it will become second nature to take a quick look around the frame of your shot before you start shooting.

Here are just a few samples of slightly distracting backgrounds.


So here is our first image. Zoe not only has a guard rail going through her head, but a stop sign coming out of the top.


Our second image, is pretty good, but the shovel on the ground is distracting.


Zoe is acting as the classic scene stealer in the background aka the photo bomber.


That's better, a clean, close-up image without anything distracting in the background.

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Here are just a few of Tracy's beautiful layouts made with our September kits:





Please visit our Design Team Gallery to view more of Tracy’s beautiful work.

For full descriptions of our kits, subscription information, and more, visit our website at MyCreativeScrapbook.com