Project 52: Week 9 - Learn to Isolate

I'm back with another week of Project 52. Continuing to work from David DuChemin's book "The Visual Toolbox", this week's lesson is Learning to Isolate. When making an image, it's as important to decide what's going to be included in the photograph as it is what's not going to be included. David covers a couple of different ways we can do this.

The first is to consider our point of view. Sometimes just shifting our feet a few steps in any direction can change what is and is not include in the background, thus isolating a subject.

The second is to consider which lens to use. A wide angle lens used closer to your subject makes it more prominent in the image, and the background more diminished.

The third is motion. When your subject is in sharp focus against a blurred background, it makes the focus of the image the subject and the background less dominating.

There are other ways to create isolation in creating compelling images, but these will be covered in future lessons. When I think of isolating my subject, I never considered using a wide angle lens and changing my point of view. So for this assignment, I went out and did just that. I took Izzy to a park with a creek. Since it's winter, it's much too cold to get in the water, so I had her stand along the edge. I got down low, really low, and shot wide just a short distance in front of her. My intention was to make her larger and have the background be less prominent. While I was successful in executing this, I think there are too many elements in my background to really make this a compelling image. I'm glad I tried though. It's something I will consider in the future when I want to isolate my subject.

Now, go see how everyone else isolated their subjects, starting with See Spot Run Photography, Charlotte NC. Keep clicking on all the links until you get back here.