Keeping it Simple in Photography

Brenda Tharp over at Better Photo has a nice little piece on keeping it simple.

Never have I looked at a photo, and and said 'I wish there was more background in that'. Generally, I notice things that didn't initially come to my attention, things that, in a photo distract from the main picture, adding complexity to no value. I'm not talking about the classic mistakes of having a tree growing from someone's head, rather I'm thinking of photos taken where there's just too much depth of field, where the background is just so visible that it detracts.

Sure, often you can fix these things in photoshop, but that often feels like cheating. I'm happy enough to edit stuff in photoshop that you simple can't fix from behind the lens, but stuff that I should be seeing, and avoiding (somehow), well that feels like I'm trying to make up for my lack of vision in software. Cheating.

Keeping it simple is good advice for almost any photo - if in doubt, less complexity, plainer background, stronger, bolder foregrounds. Get in closer, narrow your depth of field, crop the distracting stuff out completely.

Your photography will be the better for it.