What Would You Give Up, to Make a Stronger Photograph?

An individual on the “Utah Photographers” FaceBook group recently reached out to me and offered some feedback on my photography. We’ve never met IRL but I have to say I was amazed at how accurately she captured my photography – including areas where I can improve. Suzie gave me some homework and a few book ideas.

One thing we discussed was my composition. When I see a great photo, I see a couple things usually. First, I see great light. Usually amazing light. And I know deep down inside, in an instant, that it can make an incredible photo. Secondly, I see rich, dramatic color. Color you almost want to dive into, like a pool full of chocolate. And finally, I see an alluring subject, something that draws me in. But that’s kind of where it all happens – in my subconscious, without really being captured with intent.

The thing is, I end up trying to record everything – every unique, interesting and appealing element I see. And that confuses the message. The challenge is, of all the information I can capture on my sensor… What is the most important? What am I willing to give up that would make the photograph even more interesting?

So to work on this feedback, I want to do some before and after images, to work through my thought processes. With that, let’s start!

Clouds Over Snow Canyon – Image 1

Back during the beginning of the COVID phase, I spent a lot of time hiking Snow Canyon. My adult son has been diagnosed with leukemia the summer prior, and I was super-stressed during the lockdown, since he was (and at the time of this writing still is) neutropenic. Coronavirus is essentially a death sentence for him. I took solace in hiking and shooting – the hiking tired my brain, and the shooting brought moments of serendipity.

This shot is one of my favorite from that period. It has a bit of everything – light, in the form of clouds. Color, from the blue sky to the red rock. And the skyline created by the ridgeline makes for an interesting subject.

Padre Canyon - First Composition
First composition of the northern exit of Padre Canyon.

You’ll notice a few things – first, the image is perfectly bisected horizontally in the middle. Also, the sun-lit clouds are smack in the center. What was I trying to capture? Well… the light, the rocks, and the colors. All sort of smished together into one photo.

So my first stab a recomposing this image follows. I recognized I had to give something up – my wife constantly tells me less is more. I didn’t want to give up the sun burst, and I’m not ready yet to be forced to choose between the contrasty, dark clouds on the left and the incredibly colorful clouds on the right. If there was one thing I could give up, it would be to move the landscape into the lower one-third and give up some of the rocks. That would allow the amazing sky to grab more attention.

Padre Canyon - Second Composition
Second composition of the northern exit of Padre Canyon, in which I push the landscape into the lower third.

The image already speaks more, simply because I’m not drawn to e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g in the picture. It’s a great trade off, I think – there’s enough rock to “feel” and appreciate its texture and rich color, but not enough to cause contention. Now when I see this photo, I am immediately drawn to that amazing explosion of color and light which makes up the sunset. The edges of the photo (especially the left edge) are darker, which “close” the photo up a bit and force the viewer into the middle.

There’s still more to this image and to recomposing it, but I think this one change is a good start.

1 thought on “What Would You Give Up, to Make a Stronger Photograph?

  1. sssssss says:

    There is nothing wrong with this photo. Finding the subject is the key. The landscape is very dark. That makes it not important. The subject therefore is the space of sky in the middle which looks like a whale. We don’t look at photos piecemeal, we look at the image as a whole first, then it depends how it is edited to where the eye is lead afterwards. On this one my eye is framed in the middle, on the whale.

    Reply

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