minimalism at white sands national monument in new mexico
I have written previously about the idea of minimalism in a photograph. You can read more about that in ‘Photography Movement – Minimalism.’ A brief review is that minimalism is a composition with a great deal of negative space, or open space, where the items that are missing are just as important as the items that are present. It is the concept that ‘less is more.’ Many beginning and seasoned photographers make the mistake of trying to put too many elements into an image and in the process they loose their focus. This is not a pun. I think that the wording is important. When a viewer is confronted with many elements in a photograph they can become confused about what they should be looking at first. You do not want to confuse the viewer, unless you have produced some fine art piece with that type of psychological component. For the most part I recommend keeping your compositions simple. For some advice on improving your composition you should read ‘Good Composition in Photography‘ and ‘Photographic Composition With Jim Zuckerman.’ Both articles are filled with useful information that will make you think differently about how you compose an image.
For me, composition is a vital component of a good photograph. Not that every good photography needs to have good composition, but I believe that it is vital in most situations. I have mentioned before that I have a great deal of formalism in my style. So I am very concerned with the shape of objects and how they fit together visually to create aesthetically pleasing compositions. A strong aspect of the formalistic view of art is simplicity. For me there is a difference between minimalism and simplicity, but the two often cross over. Many simple photographs are also minimalistic ones. Simple photographs are not cluttered with distracting information. Every part of the frame is used efficiently. In photography there are several ways to simplify an image. The obvious one is to put less things in your frame. The photograph above from White Sands National Monument in Alamogordo, New Mexico is a good example of this method. Another way to simplify your image and direct the viewer’s attention is through the efficient use of depth of field. When your main subject is the thing that is in focus, and the background is out of focus, you are telling your viewer what to look at, what is important. So if I am taking a portrait of a bride at a wedding, I want to place her away from busy backgrounds that will distract and then I want to use a wide aperture to blur the background and to really draw attention to my subject. Simplicity can also be obtained by limiting the colors in your image. This can mean more of a monochromatic palette or moving into black and white. If you are interested in learning more about black and white photography see my posts ‘Ode to Black and White Photography‘ , and ‘The Allure of Black and White Photography.’
There are other ways to simplify your images. Just keep that old adage in mind of K.I.S.S., keep it simple stupid. Start taking things out of your photographs and see how they can become better.
Gary Miller
Houston Fine Art Wedding Photographer
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[...] can read more about formalism in my posts ‘Photography Movements- Formalism‘, ‘Simplicity in Photographs‘, ‘7 Steps of Better Black and White Photography‘ and many others. I actually [...]