The Unexpected Challenge of Photographing Comparisons

by | Jun 22, 2019 | Assignments | 0 comments

Looking for a unique challenge?

Biblical Character Illustrated Curriculum has handed one over to us!

They’re looking for a comparison. Two photos, from the same perspective, that illustrate “organized” and “disorganized”. And so thus we have this month’s real-life photo assignment, Organized Toys vs. Disorganized Toys!

Here's how my attempt at shooting it went . . .

 

At first, I didn’t think it was going to be much of a challenge.

“Set up a scene, shoot it organized, mess it all up, and then shoot it disorganized, right?”

Sure, until I realized just how erratic my regular shooting habits are!

I’m used to setting up a photo, taking a shot, shifting around to a better angle, taking a second shot, tweaking elements in the scene, taking a third shot . . . and so on until I feel like I've explored enough setups to know that I have at least two or three good ones.

This photoshoot wasn't any different for the first setup. I framed up everything nice, shot it organized, messed everything up, and shot it disorganized.

And then I went to move on to my second setup. . . .

And that's when I realized my erratic, shoot-tweak-shoot-tweak shooting-method was going to need some tweaking.
For each new setup I decided to shoot, I would have to take the time to re-organize or re-disorganize everything in the scene!

And that would take forever.

I was shooting a comparison. And comparisons posed a greater challenge than I realized. I would have to be a whole lot more intentional in how I set things up.

I ended up only having time to shoot two vertical setups.

The first one was nice, but I felt it just looked kinda plain.

1 comparison

So I decided to shoot from a lower perspective. Now I could include the concept of “foreground, middle-ground, and background”. Blurry elements in the foreground and blurry elements in the background created a sense of depth. The frame had been filled better, too, and I felt like it was a more artistic interpretation of the scene.

2 comparison

So now it’s your turn to shoot this comparison!

Be sure to read the details on the Organized Toys vs. Disorganized Toys assignment page first.

And be ready to be more intentional with your setups . . . for such is the challenging nature of photographing comparisons! 

And for this month’s premium training . . . did you notice how the photo changed when I decided to use bounce flash instead of ambient light only?

bounce flash comparison

The photo on the left is as good as I could get with ambient lighting. It's good, but it doesn't feel as refined and even as the photo on the left where bounce flash was used.

To learn more about bounce flash, how to make it work, and what speedlite you can buy on a budget to start using this effect in your photos, Lenspiration Members can view the new training here: How To Use Bounce Flash.

 

Get each article as soon as it goes live!

Recommended Ebook

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Send the next blog post straight to your email inbox!

Thank you for subscribing!