Check out my new workshop on the six concepts in the Psychology of Gestalt: Gestalt Workshop link
I’m always after visual interest while at the same time generating visual tension. It’s not something I live or die for, it’s just something that’s always in the back of my mind. As I tell my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet, one of the ways to create visual tension is the use of light.
I go on to say that whenever I see anything that’s translucent I always try to backlight it. This especially holds true for me when it comes to photographing flowers. I just love to see them glow, and the only way to do that is to have the sun behind them. Actually, if you read my post on “The Clock”, the sun would be somewhere between eleven and one to make it pure backlit.
In the two photos shown above, and if you remember my clock, the light on the sunflower on the left is coming from behind me at 6 O’clock. This is front light and although it’s still fairly nice (only because it’s about a minute after sunrise), to me it doesn’t have the visual tension as the sunflower on the right does.; where the light is coming from 12 O’clock. FYI, both sunflowers were taken a few seconds apart and are next to each other in a field.
So, the next time you’re out and about shooting, before you bring your camera (hopefully secured on a tripod) up to your eye, consider the clock. No matter where you are and what the subject might be, think about where the sun is in relation to your subject first and foremost, and I’ll guarantee you that your photos will jump up to what I always refer to as “up a notch”.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. country.
JoeB
