Tips for taking better photos: Find Your Subject

Knowing "what" to photograph will lead the "how"

Many people when they take a photo they just look at whatever it is they have in front and press click. But often, what sets a mediocre photo apart from a good one is just knowing what to photograph.

In the past edition of these series, I talked about the most fundamental thing to have in mind when taking a photo: Light.

Tips for taking better photos: Understand Your Light

Your subject is the second most important thing. Even perhaps many will argue it is the most important thing.

When we talk about “subject” in photography we talk about the thing (item, person, animal) that you want the viewer to focus on, to pay attention to. And without a clear idea of what that may be, your photo will be a bit lost. How can you decide how to frame the image if you don’t know what is you want to photograph?

Choose your subject

Unless you have been asked to photograph something very specific (for example, your niece’s portrait after her graduation) you may be the one that needs to make a decision on what to pay attention to.

This means, to keep your eyes open when you are walking down the street, when you are served your food in the restaurant or even when you are at home and the light hits something in a special way. You could be inspired by a raindrop, a cute dog in the park, an interesting-looking building or some beautiful red tomatoes at your famers’ market.

Knowing what is your subject will help you frame it. On the left, the focus is on the action of the milking itself, so the man is out of focus. On the right, all the image is on focus but the attention is on the cheeses, that are positioned on top of a darker surface to make them pop and also in the center of the image.

I wanted to photograph this church but I moved to find a spot where it only peaked from the greenery. Like this, the attention goes directly there and makes it more misterious.

The same effect is created here, where the scene is larger but I chose to focus on the apperitive spread. It creates a feeling of you peeking into a secret party.

Find the right angle

Once you know what you want to photograph, the decision-making process begins. See if you need to move your camera to the side so that the subject is a bit off centre, so it creates a bit more visual interest. Look around you to see if that cocktail will look better against a different backdrop or if by changing the angle of your camera a bit, you’ll capture more light and texture. One same object will look very different from the side, from above or from the front, so experiment with what makes it look the best.

Here you can see a similar subject being photographed. On the left, this English countryside landscape is framed so that the parts in color (where the viewer will focus on) form a horizontal line but at the same time, there’s a vertical line breaking up the symetry. On the right, the composition doesn’t work as well. There’s nothing to focus on. The deers in the image are too small to see.

The same subject is being photographed in 2 different angles creating different compositions and feels. The light on the left is softer while on the right, the pears are backlit which creates more interest.

Here the subject was the flowers and the florist arranging them. I chose to have the main scene at the bottom of the image so the negative space above (greenery) would make you focus your attention on what’s happening below. It is more interesting that having it perfectly centered.

Focus on it

I mean this rhetorically and also literally, because your subject should be the sharpest point in the photo. You could emphasise its presence more if you decide to make the rest out of focus (the background and the foreground). If you are using the camera of your phone to photograph, you can apply this technique by selecting the portrait mode which makes something sharp and the rest burry.

On the left, the leaves in front of the tomatoes are out of focus, which makes our subject more evident. On the right, I chose to focus on the bee and the flower it was laying on. If I hadn’t made the rest of the field blurry, it would have been too distracting.

But you could also have the full image in sharp focus and show what the subject is by the choices in composition. For example, if you want to photograph a bowl of cherries you could choose to have a person holding it, but be aware that if the face is shown the interest of the viewer will go directly there as we tend to connect with other human faces. You could choose to capture only the hands holding the bowl instead, so you have leading lines that end up in your subject, that may also be the most colorful item in the scene.

On the left, everything is on focus but the subject is clear (the whale, and the boat for size comparison and context). On the right, I framed the photo so only the hands of the woman were part of the image and leading towards the butter and truffles (the main subject).

Eliminate distractions

Too busy of a scene may mean the viewer will not know what to pay attention to. There needs to be balance. If it’s a landscape you want to photograph, think about finding something that may present symmetry and move your camera towards that.

If you are taking a photo of your most recent developed recipe of a lemon cupcake and you want to create a scene in which whole lemons also appear, make sure they are not bigger than the cupcake itself, otherwise they will compete for attention. Try to cut the lemons in smaller slices instead, or have them out of focus on the background.

On the left, the composition works because the main focus of attention is on the salad, the rest is slightly out of focus and only add to the context. On the right, the photo doesn’t work because the action is on the lemon and oyster, which unfortunatley I didn’t capture sharp enough. Also, the glass in front is too big and distracting.

To wrap it up

To wrap it up, here’s a summary of what we’ve been talking about:

• Choose what interests you the most to photograph within the image. It could be a person, a specific part of it, an object or a wide landscape.

• Decide how the subject looks better and frame it to accentuate it. Maybe you photograph it from above, from the side or maybe you have it centered or on a side to create more interest. It’s your choice!

• Make sure your subject is in sharp focus. You can decide if you make other parts of the image blurry so your subject is even more evident. You can also have everything in focus but make your subject stand out with a smart composition.

• Your subject is the most important part of your image, so check there’s no other distractions (bigger objects, brighter parts, more colorful areas or human faces)!

• Have fun experimenting and tag me in your photos so I can see them!

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Check my previous photography articles.