Be selective

We can use our photographs to show other people things we like. Take these cut flowers for example. Last week I was impressed by the fresh, clean table settings in a small, rural café. It’s an easy task to e-mail such a snap to a far-away friend, but I wanted to be selective about the blooms, rather than include every random, irrelevant item in sight.

Photographers who use what the camera gives them must work mostly with what they choose to include in an image. This, naturally, leads to deciding what to exclude.

The glowing flowers were very conveniently and comfortably close. From my chair, the camera’s viewing screen showed the confused, cluttered background I've shown below.

I really wanted to isolate the petals' backlit colours against much darker, neutral tones, but I lacked a studio. Fortunately, a dark blue car was parked in the street outside. By getting up, then moving back, I was able to zoom in to the flowers. Doing this allowed me to be selective, by automatically narrowing the field of view behind them, confining it to anonymous areas of the car and pavement. The physical laws of optics are, happily, constant, and therefore predictable, so I knew the lens had no alternative but to give me the free bonus of a blurred backdrop. Although no studio was involved, I’d combined knowledge with technique, to achieve the more selective shot I’d wanted.