One more thing
Recently I’ve been trying to add more layers to my photographs.
For the longest time ever, I tried to isolate my subjects. It is very easy to spot the main character of my photographs since there is usually one person in the frame. This approach helps me adapt the fishing technique, as well as gives the shots a pleasing, eye catching look and feel. Because I only have one person to worry about, not to mention that one person mostly randomly steps in the perfect spot that I have chosen beforehand, lights and compositions become the main subject of my shots. Sometimes I get lucky, the said person dresses funny or does something spectacular. That would be a good day.
After building a collection of random people walking by, I started to ask for more. When we do the fishing thing, we wait forever for the perfect person to appear in a pre-determined spot. Now image 3 people, at the same time, and we must click the shutter button at that exact split of a second, where all the stars align. Now imagine 10 people.
The first thing that comes to mind is, I’m ashamed of not being ashamed of cheating. How about we shoot 3 pictures of 3 people when the camera is perfectly still, and in post processing we merge them all together. This is basically what I was doing before, but instead of 1 picture I take several, and instead of reserving 1 perfect spot for my character, I reserve some more. The “story” becomes richer immediately.
This is a combination of 2 photos. The third bike on the bottom was added from another shot of the same burst-shooting series. Without him the picture does not feel complete.
To be honest I’m not 100% comfortable with cheating like that, even though I might argue that it is not that different from taking multi-exposed shots in camera. Yes, I’m afraid people would find out eventually (and they will). Long story short, after realizing the values added to the shots by creating more layers, now I try to take 1 shot that includes them all. Straight out of camera. No more stacking pictures in Photoshop (or in camera). The raw files that I can be proud of.
The very crowded street of Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam. And there I was too. The overlapping men, the expression of the ad board, how we (me and the model’s face) appeared with half the face off the frame, reflections, stickers everywhere… I think this is my most successful attempt at layering my images so far.
By lining up the boats, including the bridge and the faded mountains, I tried to give some kind of depth to the image. The second boat floated almost perfectly in the sun light was a bonus. We can also see the front boat moving by the trace it left behind on the water surface. This picture was taken at Cua Dai, Hoi An, Vietnam. The sunrise there was absolutely breathtaking.
The 3 ladies chilling on the beach caught my eyes, but me shooting at 70mm made it look flat and boring. I saw the old man riding a funny bike, dressing in bright red from a distance, so I waited a little longer and burst shot away. The end result is quite satisfying. A new layer is added, the frame is filled, and we even caught the man gazing at the ladies, which further emphasize who the main subjects are. The fact that the ladies might be “young” to the man is funny to me too.
