In this episode I'll talk about
'Selective Focus' on how you can use it to tell stronger stories.
AdoramaTV presents:
'Exploring Photography' with Mark Wallace. Hi everybody - I'm Mark Wallace. I'm here
in a very, very busy street in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam, what we call Saigon, and this is just one of many streets like this and
you know what I could do,
as a photographer, is to get my wide angle lens and jump out to the street and take a
picture
of the street. You can see this picture I took and it really doesn't tell a story.
As photographers we are visual storytellers so instead of trying to tell
all of the story, all at once, there's a better solution and that is to go and look
for very specific stories
along this street and I can do that using something called 'Selective Focus'.
Now we've learned all about depth of field and really what I'm gonna do is
I am going to use a longer lens.
I am going to open my aperture as wide as possible and then get my depth of field
really shallow and then I was gonna look for little stories
along the way. Maybe it's a a person sitting on a bench or
maybe some food that's interesting, I don't know, but join me as I walk this street
and I find little snippets of stories and tell them using 'Selective Focus'. So let's get going!
Well here in this very busy street, I am also looking
not just to tell single-story but I am looking for interesting stories to tell.
I am looking for patterns and color and so these lanterns right here have
a nice pattern so I can fill the frame with those, let them fall out of focus, and then we have these
nice colors. The orange and blue really complement each other.
I'm not just looking for single stories but I am looking for color and pattern and shape and texture
all of the things that you would normally shoot in a photo
and of course, I am a Portrait Photographer, so I am also looking for people to shoot.
So we are going to keep zipping along and see what we find on this very busy street.
'Selective Focus' is more than just opening up your aperture to get a shallow depth of field.
What you are trying to do, is to look and tell stories that are a small parts of a larger story.
So looking at something, it could be as simple as a scratch on a motorcycle or
a stool somebody is using to sit on, or a pot someone is cooking in.
You can apply this to your photography - I am sure you are not shooting on a busy street in Saigon necessarily
but when you are out shooting maybe an event or a wedding or birthday party
you get the entire shot of "Hey here's all the kids at the birthday table!".
But then get those little details - the candles on the cake,
blowing out the candles, that first present that's opening, the look on that little kid's face.
All those small details that add to that larger story.
So when I say selective focus it's more than just
opening up your aperture and getting a shallow depth of field. It's looking for the details
tell a story better. So lets continue on our quest
to tell a better story of the busy streets of Saigon.
Well the next time you find yourself in a really busy
scenario, like a crazy street in a city or maybe something that's more realistic like
shooting at a wedding or birthday party or an event.
Instead of trying to shoot everything that's happening all at once, look for specifics
smaller stories and tell those using selective focus. Open your aperture as wide as it will go.
Get close, that is getting you a really nice shallow depth of field and making sure of those
little things that are happening in that scene.
That will make a more meaningful story and you can put that together if you need to,
with the overall story. So 'Selective Focus' is something that you might want to try
the next time you're out shooting an event or birthday party or
just traveling - it works really well. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode
of 'Exploring Photography'. Don't forget to check out the Adorama Learning Center.
There are a lot of tutorials there - they are absolutely free
and also don't forget to subscribe. You can do that - just click the button right now.
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Thanks for joining me and I will see you again next time.
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