At Martin Creates, we focus on professional photography and videography in all parts of London. In this particular blog we will show stills from a shoot near Liverpool street and Bank.
Martin Creates boasts a lot of experience in shooting lifestyle stills and portraits in particular which can be used for commercial brand photography or simply a model's professional portfolio.
Many claim that wide lenses such as the Sigma 14-24mm 2.8 or the Sony 16-35mm 2.8 are only practical for environments where there is a tight space e.g. indoor group photos and property photography.
As a professional photographer, I think this is incorrect.
So I wrote this blog to demonstrate that wide lenses also have a place in the genre of portrait and lifestyle photography.
Layers in Photography
A layer refers to an element or object within the frame. The more relevant layers there are, the more depth and substance the photo has. Some of the best photographers of all time have mastered the balance between capturing enough layers without the photo becoming cluttered with distracting elements.
Knowing how to spot layers is a crucial skill in photography. Until a photographer masters this, it will be difficult to create and apply layers in a controlled environment. The quickest way to develop this skill is by practicing various forms of street photography and shadowing professional photographers on shoots.
Why street photography?
Because you'll be shooting in completely uncontrollable environments. You'll need to focus your eyes on countless moving and static elements at the same time, before prioritising the ones which will form part of an enticing story that you capture. After enough practice, you will start spotting layers much quicker until eventually, it becomes second nature.
When photographing models, or taking portraits of people using "wide lenses", you will encounter a lot of variables that require your attention. In other blogs, you'll notice I've always reiterated that "less is more". However, when shooting on a wide angle lens, you naturally capture "more" in the frame. This can lead to unwanted visual distractions thus reducing the quality of the story you're trying to tell. To avoid this, choose your location(s) carefully and direct your model(s) in a way that matches the environment. You will also need to be comfortable being uncomfortable e.g. lying on the floor and leaning in different ways.
You can see in the image below that Marica (the model) has chosen a very simple outfit that brings attention to her hair colour. The location is also very simple with only two colours being prominent, grey/white and red (the box).
Notice how, in the photo below, her left foot is intentionally closer to the lens and in the photo above, her hand is closer to the leans and her head is in between her foot and her hand. This is all intentional and it visually elongates her body around the environment she's in.
Her poses give the images a deeper 3D look which is exactly what we were trying to achieve This is the sense of realism that we want in our photography because it catches people's attention.
Furthermore, the angle is from below (we're shooting upwards) so it compliments the upward trend of the lines pointing towards the sky (ref. leading lines). We chose an area with taller buildings for this reason. The red box is taller than her, the building to the left is taller than the red box and the building to the right is the tallest of them all.
And notice how we create a triangle from the sky? You don't notice it exactly but your brain is working to make sense of the shapes and colour sequences and how they all come together in a harmonised way.
Spotting potential layers and manipulating them around your subject is going to elevate your photography when using wide angle lenses. This is a skill that is great when combined with understanding of basic composition rules in photography.
I am a professional freelance photographer and videographer based in London, UK. I started Martin Creates in order to help empower people and brands worldwide. One of the ways I do that is by publishing blogs with free information to help any creatives out there reading this. I welcome you to check out my work on this website as well as my newly launched site martincreatesweddings.com. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.
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