Four Ways to Photograph One Scene
A simple way to improve your photography is by shooting multiple shots of the same scene, but in a different way.
When I stumble upon or go to a planned location that I wish to capture, I first take in the whole scene. What am I seeing? A main subject? Special lighting? Reflections? Colors? What is it exactly that draws me to this scene?
Once I have identified that, I start deciding how I am going to share this little story and I go through these steps to make sure I capture what I desire.
1. Take a full, widest angle you can of the scene. Capture it all. Now, was it too much? A little messy or busy? Did you need that wide angle to tell the story you want to share? That answer could be yes, but let's try some more!
2. Now, tighten up that view a little bit. Can you see clearly what you are trying to capture or is it still lost in the bigger scene? Maybe it's perfect.
3. Next, come in tight. Focus on the one object you chose. Did it pull away from everything around it? Does it look like it is the star of the show or does it need a little bit more of the story around it, brought back into the view?
4. Be sure to turn your camera into the vertical position too. Sometimes that allows you to isolate or focus on your main subject and can give a different feel all together.
Look at what you captured. Did the close-up surprise you with a "stronger" image or maybe did it lose something? On your widest angle, did you happen to see things on the outside edges of the images that did not contribute anything to your scene or maybe it was exactly as needed.
Which angle (telephoto, vertical, horizontal, or wide-angle) captured what you wanted to freeze in time?
What is amazing, is that this will change every time! Continue to practice all four steps as you are out and about with your smart phone or your camera. You will find that this becomes second nature to you. You will eventually start seeing the shots in your mind, but I still encourage you to try out these different steps. Someday you will be sad that you didn't get a vertical shot of that one scene that would have been perfect on that magazine cover! ;)
Oh! By the way, these photos were all shot with my iPhone 12 PM on a gorgeous morning in spectacular golden light!
Below is another example of getting multiple shots of one location to find your favorite composition and story to tell!
