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Shooting people on the back


arthuryeo

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I just wanted to start a thread to discuss when we shoot people on the back: the effective scenarios, the principles to follow, the guidelines to remember, etc. Gurus out there, please feel free to contribute.

<p>Just to start the ball rolling, let's begin by viewing the attached JPG and start from there.</p>

<p><b>N.B. The photographer of this photo is withheld for the moment so we can discuss this more objectively. For those who know her(him), please do not reveal.</b></p><div>003ZMZ-8950484.jpg.e5fdb244f100a3b2b7d45b5523279493.jpg</div>

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People pictures can have the problem, that you tend to look at the face first. If the face is interesting the pic will be interesting. Nothing wrong with that, but the focus is more on that particular person, the picture is about THIS person. When you don't see the face its more anonymous, which can give the picture a more universal appeal, meaning the focus is not one particular person, but all persons that fit whatever properties the picture ascribes to the people shown.

<br><br>

That's the reason, why a lot of the pictures I took of my family are not in my portfolio here, they are of interest to me, but not to anyone else. Only a few, <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/708557">where the face is not so important</a> are here, because I hope they have a more universal appeal.

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I shot this person from the back because to me the whole picture is of an individual contemplating something (and maybe escaping for a time, the crowds of the city below). I don't believe that my getting him to turn around would have made anything better.<P>

<center>

<img src="http://www.photo.net/photodb/image-display?photo_id=922419&size=lg">

</center>

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Ask yourself "Why is this person being photographed from behind?" If the answers relate to capturing a telling moment or expressing something important about the scene, that's good. If the answer relates primarily to your fear about "getting caught" photographing that person, that's bad.
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Portraits, and other photos in which the subjects are looking out of the photograph at the viewer, obtain a lot of their impact from the feeling they create in the viewer that they are meeting another person. <a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/906886&size=md"><img src="/photodb/image-display?photo_id=906886&size=sm" height=198 width=135 align="left" border=0 alt="Looking out"></a><p>Some photos of people, though, obtain their impact mostly from the feeling created in the viewer when they momentarily imagine that they <i>are</i> another person: the person in the photo. <p>When I look at photos like the first two above, I am drawn into them in a very particular way: I imagine myself in the the position of the person(s) shown, and it cause me to think about, or wonder about, what their experience is like at that moment, what that person is thinking and feeling as they look out upon some view, . . . <p>If the point of the photograph is to try to make the viewer feel this kind of identification with the subject of the photo, you don't necessarily need the subject's face in the image. After all, as we all look out on the world from the inside, we don't see our own faces . . .
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<i>Candid streetshots dont work when shot in the back IMO. --- Henk</i>

<p>Why is that so? What's the rationale behind it? Can you share them with us? Attached is another example with no possibilities that it was meant to be a scenic photo. <b>Again, the name of the photographer was withheld for objectivity purposes.</b></p><div>003ZR5-8954984.thumb.jpg.8ba1c2891352b19f7cbbf3878c783a21.jpg</div>

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This is not a steetshot, it "floats" on tranquility, if you get my "drift". :)P

 

But seriously this particular shot(i persume france, dordogne maybe?) of a famimily outing really shouldnt have been interfered with. It would blow the whole sense of being together, which this shot is all about IMO. Therefor the first situation applies.

 

Does it add to the composition? Yes it does, you should not interfere with something good, point well made.....

 

As it comes down to asthetics anyway, do we need to take an active role as it comes to portraits anyway? Or should we just reflect on what we see, capturing valuable(to us?) moments?

 

Greetings,

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I should have brought Brads pic into this, but hesitated.

I dont have an example myself that illustrates it that well, the behind of a person has a sensitive side to it, it does not tell us(as a viewer) anything at all about the person itself.... In this perspective there is nothing gained by shooting someone in the back there is no other information about the subject to be found in the pic. If Brad would have focussed on another person this would not be the case, the woman standing there would be a bystander.

 

In other words you deny the viewer to satisfy its natural curiousness about what he is seeing, an unsatisfactory sensation occurs...

 

I hope this makes any sense, my english isnt that good,

 

Greetings,

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Another good reason: Shooting the person straight face-on shows you the person, shooting in the back let you look over their shoulder and let you show what they are looking at / for / forward to, where they are headed, what caught their attention.
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I saw your pictures, all really nice but i wonder if you all are making a compositional choise when shooting in the back, or just observing and reacting to an interesting situation? Personally it think some of the pics ive seen would benefit from seeing the subjects face.....They still are nice, but thats not what this is about(making nice pictures) or am i gravely mistaking?

 

Greetings,

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