Eliminate Background Chaos

by fstop fitzgerald

Posted: November 30, 2010

Remember that photo of Uncle George with a tree growing out of his head?  I know you have one, as do I.  One of my most embarrassing environmental portraiture sessions was with the maestro Ansel Adams.  I was so awed by meeting, interviewing and shooting the president of the F64 club and undisputed King of Landscape Photography that my early images all had Ansel with antlers like Uncle George.

In this next video Layne shows us how to clean up background chaos using a few different techniques.  He demonstrates how shooting the subject tightly helps remove distracting elements. Next we see how use of a long lens can help reduce background clutter and finally how the use of a large-aperture, shallow depth-of-field setting can decrease background noise, rendering a smooth, soft textural surface instead of confusing, unwanted crossed wires….f-stop