© Tim Pannell Photography

One of the biggest problems I see with amateur photography ( Wow, am I Andy Rooney all of the sudden?) is no clear subject.

The background is as sharp as the foreground.  Colors are all over the place.  Lighting isn’t thought out.

Am I supposed to be looking at the kid in the shot or the amazing park like setting behind the kid?

I’ve been guilty of this too, we’ve all done it at one point or another.  We’re in a beautiful spot and we want to take a beautiful picture of our child and instead of making it about the child we pull back and include as much of the background as possible and create an image with all the punch of a 90 pound pacifist.

Milk toast, vanilla, bland………eeeeew.  Instead, be bold!  Take a stand.  Highlight that subject, make it stand out.  Give it some separation from your background and anything else that might confuse people.

There are several lessons in the upcoming Photo Mommies Workshop that go over this very important photographic principle.

The temptation to make a photograph that says a lot about a lot of things is very strong.  In my career I’ve had numerous clients (usually home builders) that want a single image to be both a beautiful architectural shot and a classic “warm and fuzzy” lifestyle shot.  It drives me crazy.   It’s never been done.  It’s been attempted nothing shy of a billion times, but it’s never really worked.

If you try to do both, you wind up with a lousy shot that isn’t strong in either of those two areas.   The solution for the home builder is to have a better designed ad.  Do a great architectural shot and then do a great lifestyle shot.  Two strong, separate images instead of one wimpy, straddling the fence, I don’t know what type of picture I am kind of image.

The same principle applies to family pictures and shots of your kids.  Whether they’re set up formal portraits or candids. Simplify!

Just remember, less is more.  Pick one thing and make that what the picture is about.  Everything else should be secondary.