Week 1 Foreground Focus
Turn your attention to the foreground as you begin this Challenge. Learn foreground focus to create eye catching compositions that draw viewers into the heart of the image. As you explore the great outdoors, search for interesting things in the foreground that can serve as eye-catching lead-ins to your main subjects. It could be a flower, a rock, or any natural element that adds depth and dimension to your photographs. Use the foreground as a stage to show-off the beauty of the landscape or capture attention-grabbing details that might otherwise go unnoticed.
What is Foreground Focus?
Foreground focus in photography refers to the technique where the objects in the foreground (closest to the camera) are sharp and clear, while the background is blurred or out of focus. This draws attention to the subjects or elements at the front and creates depth in the image. You might also here it called shallow depth of field.
Here are a few examples:
- Flower in a Meadow: Imagine you’re in a field full of beautiful wildflowers, and there’s a mountain range in the distance. You decide to focus closely on one vibrant flower right in front of you, making it very sharp and clear. The mountains in the background appear soft and blurry. This makes the flower stand out, capturing its details and colors.
- Rock on a Beach: Picture yourself at the beach. The ocean stretches out before you, with waves crashing and birds flying. Right near your feet is an interesting, textured rock. You decide to focus on this rock, making it the clear, it is the star of the photo, while the ocean and horizon behind it are soft and dreamy. The rock’s details and textures become the main attraction of your photo.
- City – Bench in a Park: Imagine you’re walking in a busy city park. Tall buildings standing in the distance, cars are passing by, and there are people everywhere. In the middle of all this, there’s a wooden bench with a lone bird perched on it. You decide to focus closely on the bird and bench, making them very sharp and detailed in your photo. The tall buildings and the busy surroundings become a blurry backdrop, making the bird and the bench the calm centerpieces of your urban shot.
- High Desert – Cactus and Dunes: You’re standing amidst the vastness of the high desert. Sand dunes roll endlessly, and there’s a deep blue sky overhead with puffy white clouds. Right in front of you is a tall, majestic cactus, perhaps with a blooming flower. You focus on this cactus, capturing its spikes and colors in crisp detail. The sand dunes and expansive sky behind it take on a softer, dreamy quality, making the cactus stand out as a sentinel of the desert in your photo.
The Challenge
- Gear Up: Equip yourself with a camera (a smartphone will do if you don’t have a DSLR) and possibly a tripod if you have one.
- Choose Your Adventure:
- If you’re going to the city, maybe visit a local market, park, or street with lots of activity.
- Heading out in the country? Seek out fields, barns, or quiet lanes.
- If you’re near the coast, explore the beach, cliffs, or piers.
- It’s your choice, pick a place, go and shoot some “foreground focused” images.
- Subjects: During your outing, choose 5 different subjects to photograph. This could be anything from a dewdrop on a leaf, to a streetlamp amidst a busy crowd, or a shell on a sandy beach.
- Positioning: Get up close to your chosen subject. Use angles to your advantage; sometimes getting low or shooting from the side can give a fresh perspective.
- Focus: Manually adjust the focus on your camera or smartphone (if possible) to ensure that your chosen subject in the foreground is super sharp and clear.
- Background: Ensure that the background contrasts well with the foreground. It could be busy streets, large landscapes, or a distant horizon. The key is to let it blur softly to make your foreground subject pop.
- Experiment: Play with the aperture settings (if using a DSLR). A lower f-number (like f/1.8 or f/2.8) can give a more pronounced blurred background effect.
- Share & Reflect: Post your favorite shots in the Facebook group or Meetup. Share on your own social media and tag #foregroundfocus. Take a moment to think about what you’ve learned and how you can apply this technique in different settings.
- Bonus Challenge: Use different lighting scenarios (golden hour, overcast, nighttime) to see how they affect your foreground-focused images.
Remember, this challenge is all about practicing and enhancing your ability to focus on the details.
Resources
Foreground focus, or the use of a shallow depth of field, is a common technique has been used by many renowned photographers to emphasize subjects and create stunning compositions.
Here are a few photographers known for their mastery of this technique among other skills:
- Steve McCurry – Recognized globally for his vibrant photo of the “Afghan Girl” on the cover of National Geographic, McCurry often uses a shallow depth of field to emphasize his subjects, especially in portrait photography.
- Annie Leibovitz – Renowned for her portrait work, Leibovitz often captures her subjects using shallow depths of field to emphasize them against backgrounds, giving her portraits an intimate feel.
- Bokeh Yu – Known for his name and his use of bokeh (the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image), Yu’s images are often characterized by dreamy backgrounds and sharp subjects.
- Helmut Newton – A titan in the fashion photography world, Newton sometimes employed a shallow depth of field to bring emphasis to models, making them stand out against the environment.
- Dorothea Lange – Renowned for her work during the Great Depression, Lange used a variety of techniques, including foreground focus, to capture the essence and emotion of her subjects.
It’s worth noting that almost every professional photographer will use foreground focus or a shallow depth of field at some point in their careers, depending on the subject matter and desired effect. It’s a foundational technique in photography that allows for creative expression and emphasis on particular elements within the frame.
YouTube
Websites
Linda Holt Creative -Smartphone
Each week upload your images to the Facebook group. Join our weekly meeting to discuss the images and techniques you used to create the images.
