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Clearly defined subject

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I went to Wednesbury art gallery last week and this gentleman kindly dressed as a Saxon warrior and posed for a few photos.

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It is obvious what the subject of this photo is and it is a sharp image. Landscape photography is different and there isn't always a clearly defined subject.

[breakout title="Mike Maynard" align="right"]Mike is a photographer and blogger, and key contributor to the Express & Star's Star Witness section! He runs two blogs of his own Mike10613 and A Zillion Ideas.[/breakout]

Scenic backdrop: In this photo, the narrowboat is the subject against a scenic backdrop. I once read guidelines for getting images into a photo library and one of the guidelines was no sunsets unless the Eiffel Tower was the subject and the sunset was the backdrop. Many cameras work much better with a definitive subject even when you are shooting a beautiful landscape and so try to shoot a clearly defined subject.

Landscape: We don't have such a clearly defined subject in this picture, but the fence is the subject and dominates the picture. There is a lot more to interest the viewer and so the bandstand and the landscape come together to form a nice evening scene in the park.

Clearly defined subject: This scene doesn't have such a clearly defined subject and this nice landscape might have been better with a person in the foreground. I can, however, use a narrow aperture and try to get the focus points on different parts of the picture. Where you only have one focus point, use it to focus on a subject quite far away. In this picture, it could be the tree in front of the pylon in the centre of the image.

Out of these images, I like the one with the narrowboat but I would like it more with better light and a spring or summer picture rather than a winter picture. I shall try to get a similar shot again this summer.

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