"Hotspots" Are Not So Hot!

Since your eye goes to the brightest area of a photo, it is important to not let anything be brighter than your subject.  Here is an example to help illustrate this point.  This cute little subject was in front of a pond and the reflection from the sky was very bright… so in the first image your eye goes to that bright spot in the lower left corner (as well as the blown out area of her hair) rather than to her face.  To help in this situation I moved to my left thus moving that bright spot out of the background.  I do know that when working with children you have to work quickly and there are times when the mood and expression is right and you grab the shot before you have a chance to fully assess the background.  Yes, it is possible to fix the first photo in Photoshop, but if you can learn to look for these “hotspots” in your camera as you are composing the picture it will save a LOT of post-production time when working on the images.

 

Bright areas in image distracts from the subject: 

       

 

Moving a bit to the left helped move the hotspot out of the picture to improve the photo:

 

Categorized In: arizona | children | children's photographer | photograph | portraits | scottsdale

A Photo A Day

Inspired by another photographer friend of mine, I decided that this is the year that I will take a photo a day just for ME...  As a professional photographer you would think that this would be an easy goal to obtain, yet I find that I seldom have my camera with me when I am not photographing for a client.  At first this goal of a photo a day scared me because I thought I'd have to get some award winning image every day, and that's a tough assisgnment even if I DIDN'T have a full time business to run as well. But that is NOT the goal.  The idea is to just have the camera with me and be aware of all the photo ops as they come up.  It could just be a snapshot of my dog sleeping, or some self assignment related to a theme or subject. I don't even HAVE to share the images I take, although my plan is to post many of the images on this blog as I go, so if you want to check up on me occasionally feel free to check back often.  BETTER YET, join me in this lofty goal to see the world with a fresh eye everyday.  It could be fun...

So... here is today's image (taken while on a hike with some friends) of a Cholla cactus using backlighting to add to the glow of the spines.

Categorized In: arizona | cactus | photograph | photographer