NEW Basic Assignment #3: Foreground Interest

Okey, My first entry. Taken with a200|18-55 SAM

Tak berjudul oleh ompunggaro, di Flickr

Assignment #3
I think it would look better with snow on the ground, but no luck so far
C&C is welcome

Mill Pond Pavilion


Grant Park, South Milwaukee WI
A55, Sigma 17-50mm F2.8 EX HSM

@ Obelix -- good shot and it is a definite pass. Off to your next assignment.

@jtmason99 -- can't say the same for your shot. The foreground has nothing special to commend. Pse try again.

teguh, you only need one pass to go to the next assignment, but I would say this is another pass as well. Same qualities as your previous entry and no white triangles this time

Ok, I guess Ill try this again. Let me know what you think.


Smoky Mountain Reflection by jtmason99, on Flickr

jtmason99: I guess discussion is allowed here, so I'll throw in my (hopefully) 2 cents worth, even though I'm not a moderator.

I would say your most recent submission is closer, but still falls somewhat short of the mark. The point is to have something interesting in the foreground. The grass in the foreground does a nice job of balancing the composition -- it's enough to keep from just having a rather empty foreground. At the same time, however, there's nothing about it that's particularly unusual or interesting either. The sole subject of the photograph -- the only part that's really interesting -- is the mountains. If you had, for example, some sort of water animal (e.g., frog or turtle) next to/at the edge of the water, that might qualify as a foreground interest.

You usually need a bit more than just its being there though: it needs some emphasis. This can be anything from the animal itself being particularly bright or pretty, to lighting or depth of field, or its looking at the camera with an interesting expression, or something like a predator ready to pounce on its prey. One way or another, however, the general idea is that it should almost immediately catch my eye for long enough to "hook me in", and get me to spend the time to look at the rest of the picture.

I think that gives an idea of why the "Dinner Time" shot wasn't given a pass. Under the right circumstances, a bird in the foreground certainly could qualify as a foreground interest. Unfortunately, in this case the bird is facing away from us so we can't see an expression. It's not particularly bright, nor have you done much with things like lighting or depth of field to particularly emphasize it or generate much interest. Most people have seen backs of birds before, and this doesn't stick out as a particularly unusual or interesting one.

So, that brings us to thinking about what to do. I think I'd start by picking out an object to act as the foreground interest. On one hand, we don't want to completely isolate it -- to qualify as "foreground interest", we still pretty much need a recognizable background to go with. At the same time, we do need to emphasize it. In some cases (an animal with an interesting expression) that's pretty much a matter of luck. Barring that, however, I'd think about using the classic photographic manipulations like lighting and depth of field to place the emphasis on that object while still retaining enough background to avoid a picture of that item in total isolation. You might use flash to light up that foreground object just enough that it sticks out as well lit while the background is recognizable but much darker. Another possibility is to use depth of field so that item is extremely sharp, and the rest is much "softer" looking, but still recognizable (for one example, this is often particularly effective with flowers). While it looks like you did focus on the grass in the foreground in the Smoky Mountain Reflection shot, the rest of the picture is still sharp enough that the emphasis on the foreground is extremely minimal.

One last point: if you ignore the specific assignment at hand, I think the Smoky Mountain Reflection shot is really good. It really is a nicely balanced composition.

Pieter and Jerry, thank you both for your insights. Sorry if I seemed pushy on getting it checked, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't forgotten. Jerry, I actually had one from the same time as "Dinner TIme" that had a male Mallard looking at me over his shoulder, but for some reason chose the other one. I thought the duck rushing toward the lady to get his food seemed more interesting. Perhaps if I had done something to show how quickly he was going to get his food. Thank you for the better explanation, I think I have something that might work from a couple of days ago. I took it just in case the last one didn't work. It has been difficult around here as it is the dead of winter, everything is brown and there's really not much of interest. If i could only find one flower blooming...

Ok, here's my next try:


Sunrise over Thunderhead Mountain by jtmason99, on Flickr