The MOST COMMON feedback I give PHOTOGRAPHERS

a lot of beginner photographers send me their work to critique there's normally lots of points to go through but there's one problem that crops up in almost everyone's photographic work when they start out and I know it did in mine is when we go out to take a photo the world is already there and it's our job as photographers to capture a part of it we start with 360° and we need to edit it down cuz photography is in part a process of removing everything that we don't need in the frame and this is where a lot of beginner work falls down there's often too much stuff in the shot too much distraction and this leads to shots that lack both aesthetic and narrative focus and I completely understand the mentality of not wanting to exclude things it's more difficult than it sounds to let things go I'm sure we've all in that position where we travel somewhere with a breathtaking View and we wanted to capture all of it with a wide lens we want to showas just how stunning this Vista is however the way we experience reality and the way we interact with photography are two distinctly different things shooting an amazing view with a wide lens will generally not work as well as taking a longer lens and selecting a section of that view to make a composition with so what are some good methods that you can employ to refine your shots and to make them cleaner and more tonally focused Robert kapper famously said if your pictures aren't good enough you're not close enough um while I appreciate this sentiment it's not always strictly true because there are many ways to simplify and refine your shots so let me take you through a few different ways to remove some of the distracting elements and factors from your shots now the last one is a little controversial but I'll try to approach it in a purely instructional way rather than a morally didactic one so here are nine tips to help you create more refined shots number one use a longer focal length or just getting closer using is sometimes viewed as an easier form of it graphy I don't buy this at all because it seems to me that when you use a longer lens you have to make a lot more decisions about what your frame consists of it's much more a case of making an image than maybe capturing one and both wider and closing approaches need a lot of skill to make a striking image it's just that the approach takes a slightly different skill set to master take for example the work of photographer Craig Whitehead AKA six Street under when we think of street photography it's common to think of scenes shot on wide lenses 28 mm 35 mm the work of Gary winand Joel mywit Alex Webb Bruce Gilden but there are also plenty of Street photographers who don't take this approach and Craig Whitehead is one of these he tends to shoot on an 85 mm lens or a 50 mm lens but a bit closer in because it's more than just the lens you use it's also how you use it whiteheads work on a 50 mm for example looks very different to the work of Helen levit who also shot on a 50 mm his work has a very clean and striking aesthetic he employs multiple techniques to achieve this he keeps the amount of elements in his compositions minimal and he focuses in closely on details he creatively crops and obscures part of his frame forcing the viewer to consider the shot in a more abstract way while his shots are often bursting with color that color is controlled his palettes are kept minimal and balanced he's also not afraid to let large areas of his shots fall into deep black shadow or Into Obscurity don't always avoid complete darkness or non-recognition in your shots you can expose your image so that areas fall into Shadow or out of focus if they're not an important part of the image Shadows blurred objects in the foreground areas of flat color these can all be pivotal elements in helping you balance your shot and focusing your viewer's attention Craig wad street photography work is very much about creating artworks from elements on the street rather than documenting people in events

using a tighter focal length and getting in closer can help you get into the mindset where you're being more selective with what you put in and what you leave out of your shots number two Go black and white as well as getting in closer to remove unnecessary clutter from your shot you can also remove factors such as color if you shoot black and white you reduce everything down to just light and dark and as black and white is a step further away from reality than color is it gives you a little more license to push your images abstract qualities and it also gives you a little more license to work with your images in post you can get away with slightly harsher editing edits that may look overly processed on a color image you have more scope to dodge and burn but you still should be careful not to overdo it because it's an easy mistake to make especially if you're new to photography a great example of minimalist compositions are the self-portraits of artist Noel OS fold always working in black and white OS fold jux deposes semi-abstract images of her body against precise geometric shapes and Landscapes she allows large areas of her images to fall into dark black while simultaneously keeping the tones soft with smooth textures this results in compositions that exud a harmonious Simplicity whilst also having an invocative and Atmospheric quality number three use long exposures on the subject of textures long exposures can also help remove clutter from your images because with a long enough shutter speed things like water textures and skies can become very smooth moving objects can vanish I find an exposure of around 4 minutes to be a good length to get something like sitting water to become perfectly smooth obviously shorter exposures work when the water's moving it's also possible to make people in traffic vanish I made a whole video on this so check that out on my channel for a deep dive into long exposures four use color so in contrast to the black and white approach color can also be used to simplify composition and this can be done by finding scenes with a selective range of fuse by tweaking and boosting colors in post or ideally a mixture of both a great example of this is the work of photographer prit UD going under the handle of Simply prit or visuals by prit on Instagram PR has a very distinctive approach to his use of color working under the philosophy that there are photographs to be made everywhere and even the simplest of scenes holds their own Beauty PR's images are minimal and striking and bursting with saturated color through a mixture of selective compositions and post-processing his color palettes while bold and striking are minimal and balanced his images have a warm nostalgic feel to them another thing to note here is that he is a Dubai based photographer who takes his influence from the city around him his images are very specific to The Climate architecture Aesthetics and Landscape of Dubai it's important to take inspiration from the subject that you're shooting and not try to make something it's not I love PR's work but it would be difficult for me to try and emulate his style here in the UK find the athetic that works for what you're shooting number five change your angle or your position another photographer who works in bold color in a very different way is Petra trer using a drone she captures mesmerizing views from above her rigid geometric approach to her compositions gives us a new perspective on often familiar things she says that the most boring things that you can walk past are sometimes the most interesting things when you see them from top down tennis courts basketball courts and other sporting environments feature prominently in her portfolio her work turns these everyday spaces into beautiful abstract tapestries of shapes and color she often employs the use of harsh Shadows to add some more figurative elements to her semi-abstract images number six use repetition and pattern while these colorful abstractions form a large part of her portfolio her work extends Beyond just

sporting venues and one thing that really struck me about her drone work is how much closer in she frames her shots than typical Aerial Work that we're used to seeing she shoots in close she keeps her compositions clean highlighting repetition and pattern and geometric form we can also see example of this in Craig Whitehead's work repetition of color repetition of objects but it's not just about repetition of elements but also repetition in terms of visual themes like how the stripes of this person's hoodie mirror the stripes of the background repetition is a great way to eliminate clutter from your shots repeated elements create a cleaner aesthetic than many different things put together number seven use negative space so when we start learning photography one of the key things we're taught right at the start is to fill the frame and this comes back to Robert famous quote and it's generally good advice it's for exactly what I'm saying in this video cut out those bits that we don't need in order to tell the story we're trying to tell with our shots but not all photography needs to be about depicting a subject sometimes subjects can be used to create an image that's about the composition as a whole photography we can appreciate in an abstract way maybe where we look more sh Shen at color and form and balance Craig wads work is also full of images like this images where he's utilize texture pattern color or Shadow to frame a subject or to create a sense of balance consider how much more conventional some of these shots would look if that negative space wasn't here they would be perfectly fine but the framing and cropping techniques he's employed makes the shots considerably more engaging large areas of negative space can also imbue an image with a more peaceful and calm feeling subjects have room to breathe and to be it can make the world around us feel more spacious and less chaotic the larger the area of negative space the more insignificant and small Humanity can feel and this can be used in both a disconcerting and in a liberating way depending on the context so look for subjects that have negative space around them large empty walls Pavements roads colored shutters and hoardings large areas of sky and this is a lot easier to do if you're using something like a longer lens because you can compress perspectives of elements such as stairs if your subject is surrounded by a crowded scene you can always create negative space by obscuring part of the foreground you can shoot through something a gap in a bus shelter a window or you can shoot around a pillar or a wall or past other people and objects you can use anything really you can blur these elements out to make them indistinguishable and you can draw emphasis to your subject that way number eight crop your images in post so these days digital cameras have such high resolutions that it's often possible to crop quite severely imp post you'd be surprised how few megapixels you need I used to shoot weddings for clients and I shot them on a 5D classic and that was 12 megapixels and that was perfectly fine so never be afraid to crop your photos down in post who some of the greatest photography of all time is great largely because it was cropped Arnold Newman's famous Sha's travinsky at the piano is only so striking because of how much he cropped the image in the dark room Elliot wit's famous shot of the small dog next to the pair of feet is a fantastic image but it's only so good because of the way he cropped it sometimes there are great photos hidden inside a busy photo and I've said this before in other videos but the more you practice cropping in post the better you will get at getting the composition right in camera number nine the dark arts photoshopping stuff out so I know this is a highly contentious topic and it's one that tends to divide people Steve mcc's use of photoshopping out objects and people created a lot of debate for example so for me it's totally about context but we all have our own ethics and value systems and I've made a whole video on

this subject so I'm going to stick purely to the Practical side here I should preface this by saying that you should always try to get it right in camera there is no better way but also don't hold yourself back just because a stray distracting element crept into your shop and spoiled the balance photoshop's clone brushes healing brushes remove tool generative AI all those features are there for precisely this reason so let me take you through a few tips on how best to remove objects from your shots despite the recent rise of AI Tech removing objects from photos is far from a new Endeavor for photographers Dorothy Al Lang's iconic Migrant Mother shot had a distracting hand retouched out in the dark room I will however be using AI remove tools for these examples simply because it's quicker I can do all this stuff without AI but it would take me 20 times as long so why would I so let's start with this portrait I took at Pride this summer now this person walking through the background I find quite a distracting element I think it would be a stronger shot if they weren't there so I'm going to select them with the selection brush in Photoshop and click generative fill I'll leave the prompt blank so remember to include shadows and Reflections when you select something to remove cuz AI can detect these subtle details and will often generate something in the element's Place rather than removing it and there we go so while it's crucial to do as much as you can in camera you'll often find yourself in situations where you can't always control what's in the frame especially events where you need to be very quick such as weddings this is a shot I quickly grabbed of a bride getting out of the car for a ceremony but unfortunately she stood right in front of this very distracting flag and it appears to be coming out of her head so I'll just select it and remove it now if we add it back in again it looks really weird sometimes it's good to blur your eyes and see what jumps out you in a shot it's a good way of identifying the distracting elements it's also good to try and keep the edges quite clean so with this shot here of an Extinction Rebellion protest I find this guy's hi's jacket a little distracting and also the person to the far left and to the far right of the frame I don't really like so I select the hiis jacket I don't need to select the whole guy it'll probably just give him a regular jacket and it'll blend him more with the crowd and I'll just remove those people that are just creeping in at the edges of the frame and there we go that just focuses the shot just a little bit more for me sometimes you get very little control over your composition or you can't even control where you're standing cuz I was in town not too long ago and suddenly the queen console just walked around the corner so I quickly grabbed my phone and I managed to take a photo phot however from the position I was at she's got people poking out the top of her head so I'm just going to select these people and remove them cuz I just want to focus the viewer's attention back on the main subject and there we go when it comes to removing elements using editing software deciding where to draw your own personal ethical line is a very personal choice it's important to balance authenticity with creativity while respecting different viewpoints point this stuff is only going to get easier and easier as AI technology improves however I would encourage you to avoid gatekeeping in favor of open discussion it's important to remember that the world in art undergo massive changes so we should be aiming to limit creativity as little as possible so my advice here is to try all of these different approaches and to see which ones gel with you and your style and your methodology and as I said at the start having too many unnecessary elements and factors is the most common issue I see when reviewing people's photographic work and the most important thing here really is to just be aware of it when framing up your shot be conscious of what adds to your shot and what isn't adding anything and if it isn't adding anything remove it reframe your shot obscure it with foreground objects physically remove it from the scene and if you can't do anything about it decide that you're going to photoshop out in post and try and take your shot with that in mind also learn not to be precious especially if you're traveling somewhere or photographing something or someone special remember that what makes a good shot and what we experience in reality are two distinctly different things and you can always get those safety shots out of the way anyway first if you want to you can take those touristy shots that wide shot of the whole Vista that straightforward portrait shot and after you've got those safely then that will

give you a bit more license to be a bit experimental expose so the Shadows Fall Into dark black going in closer frame the shot in an interesting way where the elements are half cropped out move your subjects out of the center use a big area of negative space you'd be surprised which of the shots you end up being most happy with I'll see you next time