Get in close / Blurred background

Less is often more. Even before the rule of thirds, I personally think that simplicity should be the first thing to think about when composing a photo. Try to keep your image ‘clutter free'. Remember that you want to draw your viewer to the main subject of the photo. To simplify your composition you should:

1. Get in close

Remove the distractions around your subject by zooming in. Once you think your close enough, zoom in even more! This is a very simple, yet very effective, way to simplify your image.

2. The blurred-background effect.

In technical terms, we talk about limited depth of field. That's a geek term meaning, “which part of the scene, front-to-back, is in focus”.

What we are looking for is: “Subject yes, background no.”

• Dial up a wide aperture (a low f-stop number) on S.L.R. cameras or choose Portrait mode on a pocket cam.
• Move your subject away from the background, the farther, the better.
• Now, use the back-up-and-zoom-in trick. That is, stand away from your subject and then use the camera's zoom to bring you back up close again.

Images by Thorsten Becker, Xava Du