Composition question

divamum

Gee, I'm just Pposty McPosterton today...

What do you do when there is simply no way of getting an angle with a clear line of view behind something? Obviously, you can clone out afterwards, but are there other techniques I'm missing?

Here's an example: I arrived at the train station tonight, and the light was very cool on this rather bizarre statue stuck bang in the middle of the overflow parking lot (not as bizarre as the giant tooth in front of the factory across the street, but I digress.... . But the background is HORRIBLE ... from all sides (this is one of the least cluttered ones). This the original unretouched photo (sorry for the grain - the p&S gets really nasty at higher iso's...)



Just curious how one handles less-than-ideal sightlines

pathfinder

Get up real close and shoot up into the sky with a real wide angle is one way.

Works for shooting people in crowds too



Shoot to underexpose so that the statue is in silhouette and the background goes black is another.



Sometimes you can look down and find or make a puddle and shoot the reflection - sometimes very ugly things look rather nice in reflections - the water in the Wabash River was greenish, brown looking muck, but I got this image of a bridge abuttment



Or you can always select the subject later in Photoshop and clone in a new background.

Sometimes there aren't great choices, that is one of the things that is fascinating about photography.

divamum

Thanks, Pathfinder. Yeah, I think this was one of those occasions where I actually did pretty well then - the terrain was awkward (well, awkward while wearing a dress and high heels!) so I couldn't get down much lower (although it WOULD be a neat shot, it must be said. Maybe next time I'm up there in more photography-friendly clothes I'll give it a try!).


Thanks for the ideas - I'll mentally pack those away for future reference

Tango

i find myself lying on the ground a lot.....

divamum

AaronNelson wrote:

i find myself lying on the ground a lot.....

Like I said.... 3" diva heels and a snazzy dress complicate things somewhat!! (my mind is now flashing to an image of me in Diva Clothes crawling around in the parking lot by the train station... now THERE is a picture for you!!

pathfinder

A pair of knee pads from Lowe's can be very useful also.

If you watch some of the better shooters around, they seem to spend an awful lot of time very close to the ground. Schmoo says it is a real advantage to be short, (despite what Randy Newman said ).:D

divamum

Well, short I can't manage (oh well - at least being 5'9" means I can shoot over people's heads sometimes

When I go out shooting I do dress appropriately - this was just catch as catch can on my way back from an audition (hence why all diva'd up, and h hence why it was the p&s - I don't like the darned thing, but it fits in my purse and is better than the camera in my cellphone! I've been more than glad to have it with me on multiple occasions now, so I've vowed never to NOT have a small camera on me)

I'm still laughing at the thought of me all togged up crawling around the parking lot. You could call the photo "When Worlds Collide" giggle