Adding The Human Touch
Several years ago I shot this image of a parking meter in Tampa, Fl. While technically I achieved my goal of having a sharp subject and a blurred background of the passing vehicles on the causeway in the background by using a simple technique of slowing the shutter speed I never really liked the image for in my mind it was "missing" something.
When I started out in photography years ago I avoided taking or including people in my images. Not that there was or is anything wrong with that but I felt uncomfortable including people whether I knew them or not and would purposely seek out subjects where I was guaranteed I didn't have people in my compositions and other times I would simply pass up opportunities. If there has been one thing I have learned that once you overcome your fear and meet your challenge head on only will you succeed.
The one thing we as humans need is contact with others. Whether it is by touch or using the spoken word it is that contact that makes us human. When it comes to photography it is when we can make that connection to not only the photo but also the subject itself do we feel more intrigued to learn more about the image. We stop and explore and start to have that connection and there lies the secret ingredient to some of the most compelling images you can capture.
This is why we all stop and stare at images that have people in them. If we see an old, abandoned interior of a school that is dimly lit by a small stream of light coming in from a window and in that light we can see the interior is crumbling and decadent we take notice. But when we see a young child sitting in that light, dirty, hungry with overpowering sadness on his face do we stick around and study the image. We make a connection to the child and our emotions overpower us to become connected. Had that child not of been there we would of left a long time ago.
Take for example the two images below. I found myself in that same parking lot last year during a break in my on location photography workshop. I decided it would be a great opportunity to recreate the image I took years earlier and improve on it. I set my camera on the tripod and mounted my 70-200mm lens to give me a narrow field of view. Since it was also very bright at the time I threw on a 3-stop neutral density filter to slow the shutter speed down to give the impression of movement of the passing cars in the background. Once I got my composition set up they way I wanted, all that was left now was to wait for the passing cars.
Here is the composition I settled upon as clearly I achieved my goal and had a much better image then my original. By setting my camera to ISO 100 at f/22 combined with a 3-stop ND filter and using burst mode on my tripod, my shutter speed was perfect to render the meter in perfect focus but the cars in the background to blur to give it a sense of motion.
After a series of shots of several vehicles passing by I quickly realized two things. The first was the color of the vehicle. White, black or grey vehicles didn't give me the "pop" I was looking for. So I waited for vehicles that had color like red, green, yellow and so on. But something was still missing. I asked my assistant Blake to get into the photo and this is when it all started to come together.
Here is the composition I was looking for. By simply inserting my assistant Blake's hand into the image so it gives us the impression he is feeding the meter, when we look at the two images side by side we now make a connection to the composition. The human touch gave me just what I was looking for and a much stronger image by a long shot.
So the next time you are out and find subjects they may not have the impact you were looking for think of ways to include the human touch so that you complete the connection between the subject and the viewer. Doing so will accelerate your compositions to a completely new level and give you that "wow" that will surely be a crowd pleaser.
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Robert La Follette
www.robertlafollette.com
