Photography Assignment: Check Your Corners

Welcome back!  Thanks to everyone who participated in the last technical assignment - An Overview Of Light.  This week our assignment will focus on a composition topic - Clutter.

Clutter is anything in a picture that takes the eye away from the subject.

One easy way to eliminate clutter in your photographs is to Check The Corners.  When you check the corners you allow your own eye to inspect each corner of your image, while the picture is still in the view finder, and make adjustments in composition to eliminate clutter.

Let's take a look at some examples of cluttered and de-cluttered pictures.

 

There is a lot going on in this first picture.  Right away I wish he was wearing a different t-shirt, but there's not much that can be done about that so let's move on to things we can change.  In the background of the image I see a picture hanging on the wall, jackets hanging on the end of the banister and an easel.  In the foreground of the image I see lots of playdoh toys.  Putting that all together with his busy t-shirt I can hardly tell what the subject is let alone where I want my eye to land.

One way to fix this is to change the angle of my shot.

 From this angle I can still tell he's playing with playdoh.  It's more of an "action" shot because he's actually making something I can focus on and there are no distracting items in the background.  I still wish he was wearing a solid color shirt but even so, I can see less of the shirt making it less distracting.

Let's look at a different one.

For this photo Christopher wanted me to take a picture of his face smiling next to his creations.  My first attempt is a disaster!  Checking my corners I see so many things I can barely focus on the starfish and bucket he's showing off.  His sister is in the background, there are playdoh toys everywhere and there's a random white bucket in the foreground.

To fix the shot we cleared some things out of the way and centered his creations.

Much better for a "posed" shot.

Checking corners and removing clutter isn't only an indoor exercise and doesn't always require physically removing clutter from the scene.  Often you can remove clutter by changing your angle or zooming in just a little but other times it requires you to physically move your body to another location.  Check out this landscape example.

When we were in the Bahamas I saw this great lighthouse and immediately took a picture without thinking.

When I saw the picture on the screen I realized two things.  One, I love digital photography and the ability to instantly view my shots.  Two, the ugly car in the foreground needed to go.

My second shot wasn't much better.  Way too many trees.

It took two or three more shots and moving around to the opposite side of the lighthouse to get my money shot.  I even like the little chain in the bottom, interesting detail not too much clutter. 

Last outdoor example and then I'll give you the assignment.

The clutter in this first shot of Christopher on the swing is clear. 

Switching the angle up just a little bit gives the picture an obvious subject and frees the eye to look at only one thing. It's still a picture of a kid on a swing at the playground.  You can still see the trees and the sky.  Removing the clutter takes the snapshoty-ness out of the image.

Your assignment, should you choose to accept it:
1. Check your corners!  Before taking a picture make your eye aware of the clutter in all four corners.
2. Move!  Do what you can to free your shot of clutter.  Move the perspective by changing the angle or zooming in, move the clutter by physically picking up an item and taking it out of the frame, move your entire body and walk around your subject until you have eliminated unnecessary clutter from the shot.
3. Take a lot of pictures!  Spend all week and next weekend taking clutter free pictures. 
4. Read and research!  For those wanting some more information about removing clutter from your images read this article on DPS.

I will post the Assignment Due Mr. Linkey on Friday, March 5 and keep it up until Monday, March 8.

Did you find this assignment helpful?  Confusing?  Leave a comment with questions or thoughts about de-cluttering your photos.