Lesson 2 – Abbreviate Your Subject

In the previous lesson, we talked about using RELATIONSHIPS in your compositions. I hope you had a chance to go out and practice that technique. Today we're going to talk about the power of abbreviation in photography.

In photography, LESS IS MORE. By showing only part of a subject, you force your viewer to imagine the rest of the scene. 

By and by engaging your viewer’s imagination, you suddenly turn them from a passive viewer into an active participants in your image. 

And THAT makes for a more compelling image.The power of still photograph isn’t about perfectly replicating everything we see in real life, it’s about representing the bits and pieces that excite or entice us the most.

So how you do the LESS IS MORE concept in photography?

Simple. You ABBREVIATE your subject. 

Instead of giving away the whole scene, you show a mere sliver that suggests the rest of the scene. 

Trim the fat. Don’t give your viewer the entire meal, give them a snack. Give the details and ideas that suggest and insinuate the greater scene.

Make them work for it. Make them think about what’s outside the borders of your frame. I promise you, it will pay off. 

The easiest way to do this is by cropping or zooming in on your subject. Shoot the details. Make sure you crop in a natural way, or else it will just look sloppy and unfinished, like you put little thought into framing your scene.

Make sure you don’t hide any critically important elements in the scene. Also, the pieces you do show need to stand on their own, because they’ll need to carry the entire image. That’s a lot to ask from an abbreviate subject, but if you do it right, you’ll create a visually stunning photography that will hold your viewer.

Here's another article on how to improve your compositions.