Photography ideas: Center of Interest

Photography ideas: Center of Interest

As photographers, we all like to create images that grab people’s attention. The question becomes, “What are the characteristics of these types of images?” Once we know these characteristics, we can use them to capture strong images.
Emotion
One of the most important characteristics of strong images is that they communicate an emotion to the viewer. For example, the image of a firefighter saving the life of a young child, an image of a beautiful sunset over a tropical island, and an image of a war torn village all communicate strong emotion that rivets our attention on the image.
Communicate
That being the case, the next question becomes, “How can we communicate emotion in an image?” Well, one of the best ways to communicate emotion is to create an image that has a strong center of interest. The center of interest is the most important object in an image. It is the object that, when properly composed, draws the attention of viewers.
Being the most important part of an image, the main role of the center of interest is to communicate the emotion in an image. Thus, the stronger the center of interest, the stronger the emotion and the image will be.
Creating Strength
So, the last question becomes, “How can we create a strong center of interest?” Five of the best ways to do this are: identifying emotion, single center, brightness, color, and contrast.
Identifying Emotion: Of course, the most important thing is that the center of interest must personify the emotion that the image is to communicate. As an example, if it is desired to communicate the emotion of the love of a parent for a young child, the center of interest could be a mother tightly holding an infant. In other words, you must first identify the emotion that you wish to communicate. Then, you must find a scene, object, or person that personifies that emotion and make it the center of interest.
Single Center: For most images, it is generally best to have only a single center of interest. This helps to focus a viewer’s attention. If there is more than one center of interest, the viewer’s attention is split. In many cases, this can weaken an image.
Brightness: Great, you now have a single center of interest that personifies an emotion. The important thing now is to make it stand out. An excellent way to do this is by managing the brightness in an image. The eyes are drawn to the brightest part of an image. By making the center of interest the brightest spot in an image, it will naturally draw and hold a viewer’s attention. As an example, the mother and infant previously mentioned could be well lit, but the rest of the image could quickly fall into shadow.
Color: Another way to make the center of interest stand out is to make sure that it contains saturated color. Since saturated color naturally draws the attention of viewers, saturated color can strengthen a center of interest. Another way this can be done is to create a center of interest composed primarily of one color, and surround it with a background of a contrasting color.
Contrast: Like brightness and color, contrast also captures the attention of viewers. With this approach, the center of interest should be high contrast. The rest of the image should be moderate to low contrast. With this method, viewers will naturally be drawn to the high contrast center of interest.
Photography Project
So, why not start a project centered on creating images with strong centers of interest. The goal of this project would be to create images where each image has a single center of interest that communicates an emotion. Then, use brightness, color, and contrast to strengthen the image.
Summary
If you would like to check out several additional photography ideas, just click Creative Photography Ideas

Filed in: Types of Photography | rbigelow | July 26, 2010 | Comments (16)

Photography Ideas: Color

Color is a very good place to start to improve images because color grabs people’s attention. For instance, a couple of the most popular photographic subjects are sunsets and flowers, and the primary reason that people like sunset and flower images is because of the color. Thus, the utilization of color is one of the most effective means of creating impact in images. However, to use color effectively, one must understand a little about color.
There are three aspects of color that can be used to create dramatic images: hue, saturation, and contrast.
Hue: Hue is what we normally think of as color (technically, hue is determined by the wavelength of the light).
One of the biggest reasons that hue has such a large impact on photography is that our visual system has different degrees of sensitivity to different hues. With respect to the three primary colors (red, green, and blue), the human visual system is most sensitive to red, is moderately sensitively to green, and is much less sensitive to blue (approximately two thirds of the eyes’ color detecting cones detect red, one third detect green, and only one percent detect blue). As a result, images with a lot of red (or related colors such as orange) tend to really grab people’s attention. So, one way to create eye-catching images is to start with subjects that contain these colors.
However, there is more to hue than just its affect on the human perceptual system. Hue also has an emotional impact. In many situations, the warm colors (e.g., red, orange, and yellow) bring feelings of comfort. The red glow of a fireplace, a gorgeous orange sunset, and a beautiful yellow flower are all examples of the comforting affect of the warm colors. However, in some instances, red can bring feelings of alarm or excitement (that is why stop signs, stop lights, and fire trucks are painted red). Green often brings feeling of newness or freshness (as in a lush, green, springtime meadow). Blue tends to create feelings of calm as in a peaceful ocean as dusk approaches.
So, what does this mean for a photographer? Basically, it means that the predominant hues in an image should be selected carefully to match the mood of the image. As an example, the proper use of green could enhance the mood of a landscape, but it might detract from the mood of a romantic image.
Saturation: Saturation refers to the “pureness” of a color. For instance, a saturated red is perceived as a very intense red while a less saturated red is perceived as a diluted or washed out red. Saturation is important because it helps determine the strength of response a person has to a color. Highly saturated colors create strong reactions in the human perceptual system while poorly saturated colors create a much weaker reaction. From a photographer’s perspective, this means that saturated colors will create a stronger reaction to our images.
Contrast: Color contrast refers to using two or more colors that are different enough that they contrast. Using color contrast is one of the most effective ways to create powerful images as the human visual system is highly stimulated by contrasting colors (in other words, our visual system is set up to respond to contrasting color). So, why not use this to create great images by looking for subjects that have contrasting color.
Photography Project:
Your assignment is to create a portfolio of images that uses color to draw the attention of viewers. Use your knowledge of how hue, saturation, and color contrast can be used to enhance images.
In Summary
If you would like to check out several additional photography ideas, just click Creative Photography Ideas.