1. Den of Angels is closing in August 2026. New account registrations are closed. Please see this thread in Den of Angels news for important information: /threads/the-future-of-den-of-angels.893314/
    Dismiss Notice

Using Background Composition to Select from Several Similar Shots

Dec 3, 2011

Watch Thread
    1. Like most of us, I take many photos in the hopes of getting a few good ones. Much of the volume is comprised of half dozens of very similar shots with the understanding that only one of that half dozen will make it to the web. It can be hard to chose the best photo when there are things one likes about each and one is somewhat blinded by the emotional attachment to the subject. Sometimes we want to post them all in an endless gallery thread, but I find that the impact of each individual photo is increased with scarcity.
      So how do we chose The One? One of the ways I narrow the field is by looking at the background composition. Once I've figured out that I want to represent a particular type of shot, I group all of the available shots of this type and look at them all together. Sometimes they are in chronological sequence, sometimes I revisit the same composition or idea later in a photo session. In the example I am using here, I took these photos in quick succession and I have left them in chronological order.

      [​IMG]
      The feel that I want to convey with this photo is a sense of the large-scale urban setting in which he was posed, the palpable breeze that merited the overcoat and scarf, and the urbane manner of the character as illustrated by the clothing.

      [​IMG]
      This shot is a nice crisp closeup, but the reflective water feature is entirely lost. The angle of the background building leads the eye to the doll's face, but doesn't add much other interest.

      [​IMG]
      Shifting the viewpoint slightly adds more depth and context to the background. The scarf is fluttering nicely and the doll is now looking into the camera. Unfortunately, there are out-of-scale fixtures under the surface of the water.

      [​IMG]
      Stepping back a bit, we loose the sky but gain it in the reflection. This maintains the feeling of a large open space without having to show it up there. More stuff underwater causing problems, but now we can see the full line of the body and the too-expensive-to-go-unnoticed shoes. Maybe we aren't quite as happy with the scarf blowing around as we initially thought.

      [​IMG]
      Adjusted the scarf so that it does not cut across the line of the suit. Eliminated some of the troubling underwater distraction, but this angle lacks the compelling gaze of the previous shot. The lines of the buildings once again direct the eye right to the dolls face.

      [​IMG]
      A closeup in the style of the first, but with the adjustments to clothing and angle. The lines of the buildings are more evenly placed than in the first shot. Not bad but at this point I felt done with the pose and moved on to a different location.

      Ultimately, I decided to go with the long shot and the most reflection. I felt the classical style of the building related to the character and I liked the symmetry of the reflection. I did some retouching in photoshop to reduce the distracting underwater stuff, and tweaked a few little things like blurring the grain of the bench to make it look less out of scale as well. I am not well versed in PS, so it's entirely likely that more could have been done or it could have been done better, but this is the result.
      [​IMG]

      I'd be interested in hearing about how other members deal with the process of elimination. Do you bother to do a lot of PS when you've got a lot of photos to chose from, or do you save that for trying to rescue a shot you really wanted to work? How many similar shots do you take? Do you generally know when you've nailed it, so you usually end up using the final shot in the sequence?
       
      #1 St. James, Dec 3, 2011
      Tools
      + Quote Reply
    2. I liked that shot too -- and my first thought about the pool was, clone-stamp away all the distractions!

      I always take a variety of angles/distances, and even a couple in each position, especially if it's windy out. Only one shot might have the nice hair movement that enhances the look. It IS hard to cull and eliminate extra shots, especially when you love the subject and he's looking fine in all of them! It's also hard to go lean when you take a lot of extra shots for photostories too, and resist creating extra, non-plot-productive dialogue just so you can use a bunch of extra shots (which are usually fairly repetitive, and should be cast aside).

      My eyesight isn't the best, so I don't make any really final decisions based only on what I see in the viewfinder. In fact, I turned off the 2-second review function. It's only when the images are large on the monitor that I make decisions, when I can decide if what may seem a lesser shot can become prime with a bit of cropping or clone-stamping or tone adjustment -- so a lot of times the shots used may be from the beginning or middle of a "cluster", as I call them. A pure gallery shoot might have clusters of 10 or more (a particular location, or arrangement, or pose). Photostories require a lot more photos (mine do, anyway. I'm missing a brevity gene for either text- or photo-stories), so the "clusters" might only be from 3-6 or 7 in size before moving to another set of characters or poses.
       
      #2 hobbywhelmed, Dec 3, 2011
      Tools
      + Quote Reply
    3. I take background into consideration as a last resort when I'm torn between two photos. My usual process is not to line up all the similar pictures and compare them, but to only compare two at a time and eliminate which one is worse. Usually, for me, what makes a photo "better" is if the doll's face looks more flattering... I am all about the face, I admit it. :P But simple flaws can make me immediately reject a photo when I have a similar one, like a stray hair, schmutz on their face, or an unflattering shadow. So basically, even if I like photo A better than photo B because the doll's face looks better, if photo A has a stray hair I'll reject it. If there is one particular picture that I'm really in love with that has a flaw, and there's nothing similar enough to replace it with, that's when I bother to edit it in Photoshop. I hate shooping stray hairs so I almost always choose to use a different photo... XD;

      As for the number of photos, I usually end up with what you've got there... maybe 3-6. You would think by the end of that sequence I would have gotten the perfect shot, but nope, I often don't use the last one I took.

      I think a lot of people could learn from this thread... sometimes, a Gallery thread will leave me yearning for more because they only posted like 4 pictures. But other times, someone will post like 20+ pictures and it's just overwhelming, even if I love the doll and photography, because many of them are repetitive in both pose and composition. I'm guilty of it too but I try to trim down my photoshoots to under 10 photos. Like you said, the less photos you post, the more impact they have!
       
      #3 overlordu, Dec 4, 2011
      Tools
      + Quote Reply
    4. I try to choose between just 2 photos, which are usually, but not always, in sequence. Going back and forth on Windows Photo Viewer helps me in this, generally, haha. When I choose between similar photos, it's usually like this:

      1. Focus
      I choose the shot that is clearest or has the best focus. Most of the time my hand shakes when taking photos, so this is a necessary step for me.

      2. Colour.
      I know it's not an important consideration if you have photoshop or other software to edit, but I find that even if I use photoshop, the photo will not turn out as nice as one that originally has a nicer lighting/colour/brighter eyes etc. So I choose whichever one looks more pleasing PRE-edit.

      3. Background
      Since I usually photograph dolls with rather simple backgrounds, (no water features or faraway buildings like St. James's, haha), my main consideration is LINES. I hate seeing vertical and horizontal lines that are not parallel to the side of the photo. I also hate having distracting details that get cut off at the frame of the photo.

      Here's an example (Sorry about missing the 2nd step. I'm using photos that are already edited to show the 3rd step only)

      [​IMG][​IMG]

      The photo on the left clearly has a non-parallel horizontal beam while the one on the right has a parallel beam which I find is more aesthetically pleasing. On the other hand, the photo on the right has a "cut off" hand which the one on the left doesn't. Overall though, I would normally choose the photo on the right. However, in this case, because I was playing with focus, I had another shot:

      [​IMG]

      which I wanted to put together. Because the 3rd shot has a slanted beam, I chose the shot on the left earlier to accompany it, so it won't look so odd. So in the end what I had was these 2 shots side by side in the gallery:

      [​IMG][​IMG]


      Hope you understand what I wrote ^^
       
      #4 cian, Dec 19, 2011
      Tools
      + Quote Reply
Draft saved Draft deleted
Toggle Width
Styler
Styler
Color Options
Color Options