AskJoeB: Sense of Scale

Showing scale?

Valeriano submitted this photo to me and as usual, I like to share the photographer’s words with everyone. I find that there’s a lot of people out there that have either experienced a similar situation or have thought similar ideas. Here’s what he had to say:

“Hi Joe,
I’d like to submit a photo to your blog’s section “Ask Joe”.

I was working this subject (cabin’s at the beach), and after finding a nice composition I decided to add a person to the picture to give it a sense of scale. Not having anybody else than myself to model, I decided to self model.

After I’ve found and set the right exposure, I set my camera with a timed shutter release, and I start to walk into the frame.
Out of the several attempt, this one I think is the picture that I’d like the most.

What do you think about it?

PS I haven’t shot this horizontal, indeed I’m having a problem when trying to compose this kind pictures horizontally: distortion I cannot get rid of n camera. The vertical lines on the edge of the frame are always leaning and trying to correct them in camera seems always quite impossible (I’ll always end up with a composition I don’t like). Do you have any trick or suggestion for this issue?

Thanks,
Valeriano.”

Valeiano,

First of all, as I tell my online class with the PPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind workshops” I conduct around the planet, the key to taking your imagery what I refer to as “up a notch” is to “make pictures” not just take pictures. What you have done by putting yourself in this composition is “making pictures”. So many of my fellow photographers are content in taking pictures of what they see, instead of taking pictures of what they could see if they just stretched their frame of mind.

Ok, having said that, let’s talk about “Showing Scale to Your Photos”. In a nutshell, here’s the important part of that post: “The best way to show the scale within my composition is by including something whose size is already known. That being a person, ship, auto, etc. Without something in your photo, the viewer won’t have any reference as to just how big an area he’s looking at.”

In your photo, there’s really not that much difference in size between everything in your composition, namely the person and the building,  I’m not sure scale is what you were thinking.

Moving on, there’s a lot for the viewer to look at, and the more we give him the more he’ll stick around: There’s a Vanishing Point, Patterns, Texture, Visual Tension, Shape, and light. These are the things found on my ‘Artist Palette’ and have taken this photo “up a notch”.

Take a look at this crop. I’ve made the Negative Space that surrounds the man walking equal on both sides and now feels more balanced. I’ve also darkened it and now there’s more depth in the colors and a greater degree of contrast between the light and dark areas that border each other.

Tightened up a little.

One last note, the vertical lines should be as easy to straighten in a vertical as well as in a horizontal format, so I’m not sure why it is you have trouble. It’s a matter of tilting your camera down to straighten lines that bend in, and tilting your camera up to straighten lines that appear to bend out.

Whenever I’m composing, the first two things I do is to make sure the horizon line is straight, then I tilt the camera up and down and watch the vertical lines close to the edge of the frame until they’re parallel to it.

It’s a nice photo, so thanks for sharing it.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2013 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

Don’t forget to send me a photo and question to AskjoeB@gmail.com.

JoeB