If you want to enhance your photos, it is important that you know how to use visual focal points. The great thing about them is that they are everywhere. We use them everyday without realizing that we use them. I once took a picture of some red beans and rice that was served to volunteers for lunch. It made a great photograph, but I wasn’t exactly sure why at the time. Now I know it is because I used a visual focal point without knowing I used it.
Create Contrast
It is important to create contrast when you create visual focal points. Those posters that have a bunch of red apples and then one orange are using contrast. All of the apples a red, but the orange is orange. Because of this, the eye is drawn towards the orange. Some of the easiest examples of contrast are when there are a lot of fruits of one color, but then one of a different color stands out from the others. When I took the picture of the red beans and rice, most everything was white. The table cloth was white and the rice was white. The plate was black, but that was not the main contrast. It was the the light brownish and red colors of the beans that stood out and drew the eye to the picture.
Multiple Focal Points
My picture of the red beans and rice did not use multiple focal points. Some people may think it did because of the black plate and then the beans on the rice. However, it all draws the picture together to the focal point of the beans. Multiple focal points have focal points in two different places. If I had a picture with another plate of red beans and rice sitting across the table so it looked smaller, that would be another focal point. If I had a smaller plate of red beans and rice placed next to the main one, that would create another focal point. A big fish in a fish bowl next to a small fish in a small fish bowl creates two different focal points. It is good if the background with the water is one main color. If the water looks blue, the rest of the wall being blue is a good idea. If the water is clear, any color wall will work as it will show through the water and the glass fish bowls.
Remember, you can create as many focal points as you want. However, if there are too many focal points, it makes the photo too busy and the viewer’s do not know where to look.
Isolate the Subject
Sometime when taking photographs, people try to put a lot in the background. This is what makes photos cluttered. Instead, keep the background simple. The plate of red beans and rice is on a white table cloth. The picture is only of the red beans and rice and has some of the table cloth. It does not capture anything else that was happening at the table. Instead, the focus was on the plate of food on the table.
Isolating subjects can also be done by making the subject a silhouette against a colored sky. This is a common technique for pictures of crosses. Another idea is placing the subject against a blue sky. However, if you try to create contrast with a picture such as a bush, it may contain different colors such as greens, yellows, and browns. You will need to find something that is a completely different color from any colors on the bush. However, this is why a flower of one color such as pink, purple, or red on a bush with only green leaves makes such a great picture. The flower is the focal point and is also creates good contrast from the leaves in the bush.
The Rules of Thirds
This has been mentioned in a few of my other pieces about photography, however, I have never actually called it “the rule of thirds.” This is when a subject or focal point falls on one of the lines that separates the view into thirds or is at the inside of the fame where the line separates the view into thirds.
My picture of the red beans and rice has a clump of beans that falls onto the first line separating the view into thirds the vertical way. This helps make the photograph look interesting. Try placing your subjects on the lines that separate the view in a photo into thirds for interesting photograph composition, especially when there is good contrast in the photo.
Sources:
Personal Experience
Peterson, D. (n.d.). How To Use Visual Focal Points To Enhance Your Photography by Digital Photo Secrets.Get Your Hands on Fantastic Pro-Photography Knowledge! by Digital Photo Secrets . Retrieved January 4, 2012, from www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/713/how-to-use-visual-focal-points-to-enhance-your-photography/