Got a question for you.
I’m trying to master layering — a pursuit I’m not particularly good at; a pursuit that is particularly difficult to master. The attempt here is to capture several elements in one background that communicates *bike race* in a small town. I found this cyclist from Germany just as he was sitting down in front of a small knick-knack store near the main thoroughfare of town for the fifth leg of the 2008 Tour of Missouri.
In the slideshow, you can see how I engaged the subject and waited for more elements to converge in the scene. The cyclist looked at me for a few frames while his colleague and the store owner appeared. Then a female colleague stepped in as a photographer walks through (for a second time). Which one of these frames is layered correctly — if any? I need to rely on some better talent (ahem, you) to give me some better direction on how I could have shot this better. Should I have been closer? Tighten it up or let it loose? Does any of this even work at all? This feels like a Dear Abby letter.
Comments 1
Many things can be considered layers. I would consider a layer anytime that you have a moment going on in a foreground and a background. It’s when you bring the image into more of a 3D state, instead of 2D.
I think you came closest in 8. You have four elements here broken into each part of your frame. The thing that takes away from this is that the one main element is a butt. I think in the next frame she moves too far away and the picture starts to become more 2D.
One thought would of been to get really close to the guys bike. Put that in the left side of the frame, the guy sitting on the chair in the middle and then woman/store/items on the right in the background. This would of broken your layers into a rule of thirds, which tends to work pretty well. Also you would of had something dominant to build off of. There are a few different ways that I can see to layer this scene, and you might need to work them all.
There is a lot of examples of layering in my portfolio at http://www.chadpilster.com. My favorite is probably the goats at http://www.charink.com/photojournalism/LIFE%201.htm. Another is at a parade at http://www.charink.com/photojournalism/LIFE%2017.htm. And one more http://www.charink.com/photojournalism/MOTION%2050.htm.
Hope this helps. Drop me a line if you want to talk about it some more!
Posted 16 Sep 2008 at 9:33 am ¶Post a Comment