How to enhance a shot: a few simple tricks are enough. To take beautiful and interesting photographs, it is not necessary to go who knows where, nor to use who knows what elements. Very often we have everything intone to us, but we don’t see it. With practice and training you get used to exploiting what is often considered an intrusive or disturbing element to your advantage.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation with too many elements or where you don’t know where to start to enhance your subject?
In moments that are not interesting what we can do is use elements and objects that tend to emphasize the shot and enhance the situation.
A caccia di ninnoli
The first thing I do when I get to the bride’s house is to look for interesting objects that can work as a backdrop or create reflections or cover what I don’t want to show, to be placed in front of the camera.
I love the showcases that are usually found at the house of the bride’s mother, full of what we call “trinkets” in Naples, that is decorative objects, favors, frames and all kinds of ornaments. But not only that, I disassembled Plexiglas frames, moved very heavy glass tables, repositioned mirrors to create the shot I wanted, opened before any type of furniture and balcony window windows.
But remember to put back in your place what you have borrowed or you will do like me. During the couple session I found in my pocket a souvenir of Milan that I had borrowed in the morning from the house of the bride’s mother to take photos of the preparation.
Oggi nel mio zaino ho ancora questo oggetto, che alla fine la sposa mi ha regalato. Un souvenir di vetro dai bordi smerigliati, che riflette e crea prismi di luce colorata quando incontra i raggi del sole. Non solo, ho rubato gocce di cristallo dal lampadario del salone di mia nonna, che è tagliato in modo diverso dal primo, per cui riflette la luce in un altro modo. Utilizzo spesso anche le fractal lents che creano giochi di luce e riflessi interessanti.
I always have a mirror in my backpack!
Anyone who knows me and has worked with me at least once knows that reflexes have become an obsession. So much so that some suppliers I work with often give me items that I add to my backpack collection. I love looking for or creating them.
During the preparation of the bride it always happens to have a mirror in the room. I immediately try the right angle to make sure that if I decide to include it in the shot it reflects something interesting.
So to break free from situations in which you do not know how to enhance the subject, situations in which the environment and the surrounding elements do not help, the ideal is to have prisms, objects and trinkets at hand. Also learn to use what seems to us to be an obstacle to your advantage.
Reflections are everywhere in a house, not only in mirrors, and if they are not enough they can be created.
One only has to give vent to ingenuity and imagination, using any type of object to one’s advantage!
Enjoy
F.
