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Shooting people on the back


arthuryeo

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To try and make my point a little clearer, when i firts went to artclass, the first thing my teacher asked me was,

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOOD ABOUT YOUR PICTURES.....

 

Is this just something he said to open a discussion or did he think we should analise our own work?

 

In other words, should we be comparing several back shots, and find out why some are better then others?

 

Greetings,

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There are no hard and fast rules. Here is an example where a

person's back takes up almost a third of the frame but she is not

the subject but rather part of the scene directing the eyes

towards the subject. Just use your imagination and ask yourself

whether it takes you anywhere?

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I think that a lot of the pics here are environmental portraits where the picture is not of someone but about that person�s relationship to their environment. Also I think that in the very first picture it draws attention to what the people are looking at.

<br><br>

I would put forward the following rule (noting that breaking the rules is a good idea)

<br>

<b>1.</b> </i>That the person or people should not take up all of the frame allowing the viewer to see the environment

</i>

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I dont know if it is pointless to continue this discussion, but i think some context in the environment should be there.... Maybe even an obvious context. Or is using a wide to shoot people in the back enough? Is the context of Arthurs last pic clear? Does it need the still of the boy's back. Maybe we dont need guidelines at all and its just a decisive moment, only needing an esthetic evaluation at that time?

 

Then again maybe i think too much ;)P...

 

Greetings,

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I guess the overriding principle I hear is context, context and context; without it, the photo just doesn't make sense.

 

Thank you all for the contributions.

 

<p>PS: the 2 shots I attached in this thread was photographed by none other than our good friend, Henri Cartier-Bresson.</p>

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This has been a fascinating thread, all the more so because it gets us away from the recent spate of photo-manipulations and back to the basics of photography - making, finding and celebrating images framed by the world that surrounds us.

<p>

On to the topic at hand... We tend to think that the characteristic features that instantly identify our subjects to us are their faces; we're tuned and evolved to see things that way. We see so much more, but our own recognition is obscured from us by the glare of the all-important face. We tend not to see, or seek out, all that we're capable of seeing so long as the individual stares out from the photo, demanding that we look them in the eye.

<p>

As I've shared my Antarctic photos with friends and family, a couple keep coming back to please me uniquely - both pictures of penguins shot from behind. They reveal the innate "penguin-ness" of each subject in a whole new way, stripping away the unique power of their faces to convey individuality to reveal so much more. Seeing them this way, I'm desperate to return and photograph them in new ways - choosing my subjects more by posture, shape and behavior to reveal both the more complete individuality of the birds and the archetypes behind them.

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Hey Tom,

<p>

Great to see your photos again, I remember you from your POW with 4-penguins. I think the one you just posted clearly expressed the <i>dejected</i> emotion of that animal. Perhaps it was the posture or the shadow that followed it, the effect was very much materialized in your photo.</p>

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