Simple point and shoot Minimalist Photography is way different than creating your own custom frame to enhance the aesthetic appeal and creativity of a photograph. Doing so, also makes you stand out as a photographer as the viewer is able to see your vision and perspective more clearly and assess your creative range.
Today, I am going to share some photographs where I have created custom subjects and the techniques I've used to create them with some photo examples.
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| A blue electrical panel splits the frame from a pink wall. Minimalist Photography by © Prakash Ghai |
Build Custom Subjects for Minimalist Photography
1. Vantage Point
Vantage Point is the place where you stand or see the subject from. If that is unique, you can turn an ordinary subject into something entirely different. Steps to get a unique vantage point include things like, lowering your body, climbing up on higher ground, moving directionally to the left or right, moving forward or backwards and likewise, until you get to a point where your perspective of seeing the subject becomes fairly unique. If you vanilla stand, you get vanilla shots. You must learn to maneuver.
2. Layering or Overlapping Subjects
This is a fairly common technique where you place two subjects in the same frame, one which is closer to the lens and one which is farther away from the lens, so that the frame no longer shows you one subject but the relationship between the two. You can have many subjects in the frame of course. More than two, rather quite a few and that depends on what you are trying to compose.
3. Splitting The Frame
Every busy scene has a line hiding in it somewhere, a pole, a wire, a railing, or even the edge of a shadow. On their own these lines are nothing, but they are useful because they can be used to divide a frame into zones that would otherwise just look like clutter. An example of this is visible in the first photo on the page.
4. Borrowing Nearby Elements
This technique is about using an object that is ideally outside of your frame while you are first composing the shot, then you look for elements outside the frame and slowly bring one or two elements into the frame and decide if you want to add or remove them, then look for other things around. For example, while shooting a window on a yellow wall, you may want to take a zoomed out shot to include a red post box or dustbin in the bottom right corner of the frame or a wire on the top of the frame that acts as a straight line or curve. The field is open for creativity here. Go ahead and borrow.
5. Depth of Field Variation
This one is about deciding through aperture, which part of the frame stays sharp and which part goes soft. This also helps create sections or areas in the frame that are normally not found in vanilla point and shoot photographs. Few photographers use this technique a lot.
6. Extreme Proximity
When you get extremely close to a subject and then layer the background and other elements in the frame. This is an interesting way to make a custom minimalist frame for yourself. A naked eye would never see things this way. By getting extremely close, blurred or not, you get a part of it's geometry or color in the frame. Can one call it forced creativity? I'd say no, it's more like creating something of unique interest on purpose in the frame.
Now, let's take a few examples where I used one or more of these 6 techniques to create a custom Minimalist Subject for myself.
Example 1:
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| A blurred concrete platform curve sits against sharp marble steps Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai |
This Photograph was captured at City Palace, Jaipur. My starting point was the steps on the right but to make the composition interesting, I first decided a unique vantage point. I stood at the side of this curved sitting area that hosted a tree and then went down on my knees to bring the curve in the foreground and contrast it with the steps.
Example 2:
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| A single pole splits the frame into color zones and sections. Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai |
This shot was taken from the back side of Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur. I stood on the footpath near the road behind it. (unique vantage point). I then used the electric pole in the foreground as a vertical line and aligned it with the corner of the box structure to split it into two and kept the green tent of an exhibition roof in the bottom row, following the rule of thirds.
If I didn't move around and layer the subject, it was not visible to regular naked eye. A decent example of creating a custom subject for Minimalist Photography.
Example 3:
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| A weathered red wall and a pale blue door, framed at its edge by a black wire. Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai |
This shot was taken yesterday when I was at a Photowalk on shapes organized by Jaipur Photographers Club. I split the frame into 1/3rd and 2/3rd by using the line of the foreground wall. Then, I borrowed an additional element on the top right of the frame, which is a curved black wire coming from an electic pole. I layered and split the frame well enough to create a unique subject for myself.
Example 4:
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| Curves of a car roof against Jaipur traditional architecture. Minimalist Photography By © Prakash Ghai |
Here I have used shallow depth of field and extreme proximity to the subject to cut sections out in the frame and to split it. I have contrasted the blur and the non-blur part of the frame to create a unique subject which otherwise was not available as a standard point and shoot shot. In terms of juxtaposition, there's curves versus vertical lines.
I hope the above examples are clear. Good luck using these 6 simple techniques to create custom Minimalist Photography subjects for yourself.
Regards
Prakash