Frame Your Subject

If you want to give a sense of place and time to a picture of a person, forget trying to get the whole of the Millennium Wheel in the background. Well-chosen bracketing details can set your subjects in context and give your photos depth. Both of the following pictures were taken in Cambridge, the first in a college garden,

the second by the river.

Trying to cram in more of the view, by pulling back or zooming out, or trying to keep more of it in focus, by closing the aperture, would have left the pictures cluttered and the people in them diminished—literally and figuratively.

Neither image is particularly exciting or original, but they are kept warm and human by reducing the inanimate objects in them to sets, structuring the scenes rather than dominating them. For the first I used the lines of the college walls in the background and for the second I shot between two punting poles. The contexts are recognisable to anyone familiar with the city and still give hints to people coming to the photos “cold”.

Remember:

• Using static elements of the world to create frames within your photos can add depth.
• Usually those elements work better as frames if they are kept peripheral and defocused.
• If people are more important to you than things, let it show in your photographs by turning the things into a stage for the people.