Some of the most emotion-packed photographs derive their impact from portraying relationships. Wedding photographers and photojournalists practice this art in depth, and so can you. Here are 10 ways to explore relationships with your camera that will give eye and heart-pleasing images to share and treasure.
1. Put People at Ease
Almost everyone is camera shy at one time or another, but your presence will fade from their minds if you stay quiet and wait for them to become involved in a mutual pursuit. Your photos will have a natural look that you?ll never get if you direct their activity. By the way, sometimes it might help if you promise not to photograph their faces.
2. Respect Privacy
It is legal to photograph people in public places, but be aware that your photo may contain images of people who are not supposed to be together. The risk of causing problems for others is lower in crowd shots, and so is the risk of causing problems for yourself. Using a long lens to surreptitiously photograph people in public has been considered an invasion of privacy in some court decisions. If you discover promising subjects in a public place, ask if you can photograph them, and consider offering prints in return for their signatures on a release.
I noticed the dual water bottles and similar hats when this couple walked past and quietly let them move along their way until they reached an eye-pleasing place in the photograph that did not reveal their identities. Now I have a nice photo for editorial use.
3. Seize opportunities
Moments in relationships can vanish as quickly as they appear. Stay aware and ready to shoot and your odds of capturing them will increase dramatically. The photo of the unusual work crew heading for their job site wasn?t planned and it passed as quickly as it arrived. A quick response made all the difference between a fading memory and a moment that could be shared and relived. The horses were not a part of my assignment, but I began to watch as they moved closer and was rewarded with a nuzzle. It is easy to get lost in the viewfinder and miss what else is happening. Learn to stay aware of all that is going on around you and interesting photos that you might have missed will end up in your collection.
4. Move in Close
The days of stiff formal portraits and shots of the family lined up in the yard squinting into the sun have gone the way of the cameras that produced them. Moving in close gives a sense of intimacy that long shots just can?t capture. The simple story of people of widely different age holding hands told here bears repeating with each new generation.
5. Look for Sharing
Sharing is essential in rewarding relationships, whether it is an activity, a diversion, or something tangible. Sharing food and drink is part of many relationships, and it takes on added meaning when one member feeds another. Have you seen a wedding albums without a shot of the newlyweds feeding each other their cake?
6. Include Eyes
When people in a photograph look at each other our minds and eyes move along the imaginary line of eye contact. Though invisible, it can be a powerful component of a relationship photo. Look again at the previous photo and the importance of eye contact in it. Eye contact is important in inter-species relationships, too. Even though we can?t see the boy?s face, his eye contact with the cat is a compelling part of the image.
7. Avoid Clutter
Cluttered backgrounds have ruined millions of pictures and now that you know that you can look for clean, simple ones. Quiet water seems to encourage reflection and conversation, and the lack of distraction in the women?s visual fields probably helped get the girl talk started. From the viewer?s perspective, the clutter-free background helps our eyes and minds to focus on the core idea of the image ? the desire to relate through conversation.
8. Composition Makes a Difference
Relentlessly practice the techniques of good composition and you will begin to use them reflexively as I did in this grab shot from a Florida beach. The kayaker and his scout were captured on the uncluttered harbor water and framed to leave more room in front of their craft than behind, helping convey the idea of space to paddle into. Placing them closer to the center or left edge would have undercut the idea of embarking on an adventure and made them look a bit crowded in the frame. The strong yellow line of the kayak runs at an angle to the frame and gives energy that would be absent if it were parallel to the bottom of the picture. Finally, the dog?s head at the forward part of the action occupies the upper left ?rule of thirds? instersection.
The line of action in the photo of the girl and cat runs from lower left to upper right, adding energy to the composition, and the region of eye contact falls on the upper right ?thirds? intersection. The simplicity of black and white makes it easy to focus on the subject?s relationship.
9. Use Silhouettes
As is the case with black and white, the absence of detail and color differentiation in silhouettes forces us to see the essence of a shared moment. Because our minds are not distracted by facial features or the colors of clothing we get the point of the picture instantaneously and can stay with the idea that it is communicating. You will usually get a good silhouette if you meter the background. that causes the camera to expose to give it a medium tone, and that forces people and objects into darker tones.
The first picture reveals a father and three children sharing the view from a bridge. The other shows us two women pausing their hike to enjoy the twilight sky colors reflected in the water. In both cases we might conclude that these moments will linger in their individual and shared memories of the subjects into the next day and perhaps much longer.
10. Build Your Own Lists of Relationships
The examples we?ve considered are necessarily generic and we?ve only touched on relationships between friends, generations, couples, animals, and people with their pets. Add more categories to this list if you like ? siblings, classmates, coworkers, teachers and pupils, and leaders and followers, etc. Then populate those categories with the names of real people and you will have a long list of photographic possibilities. Some photographers dabble at capturing relationships, some make a career of it, and most fall somewhere in between. I hope you will have fun developing your skills as you learn to explore relationships with your camera.
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