Brightness problems – distracting elements in photographs – Photography podcast #46

June 29, 2008 on 1:28 pm | In Photographs, Photography podcasts, Photography tips, podcasting

Photography podcast #46 talks about being really careful about NOT including distracting elements in your photographs. The eye naturally wanders toward the bright elements in photographs so being aware of brightness problems, unwanted highlights and other distractions will improve your photography.

Links mentioned in this podcast:
Transcript to photography podcast #1 – being aware of the background
Histograms in digital photography

The 2 images below show how brightness issues and distracting elements can take the viewer’s eye away from the subject. Shot 1 is unmanipulated. Shot 2 has the brighter elements burned in (darkened) very quickly just to illustrate the point. Many thanks to merman from our photography forum for allowing me to use his photograph as a teaching tool.

brightness problem in photographs

brightness problem corrected in photograph


Thanks as always to Cybasumo, Chris, Sergey and De3montecarlo for recent comments and suggestions. We LOVE comments and suggestions so please send more.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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7 Comments »

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  1. Another good podcast with some good tips. Merman’s photo really illustrates the point. Keep up the great work. Benny

    Comment by Benny — June 30, 2008 #

  2. [...] « Brightness problems – distracting elements in photographs – Photography podcast #46 [...]

    Pingback by Sleepy Dog — July 5, 2008 #

  3. great podcast! I learned alot from it, and i am glad to be a part of it (so is paisley, the kitten)

    Comment by scotty (merman) — July 5, 2008 #

  4. [...] Links/topics mentioned in this podcast: Distractions in photographs [...]

    Pingback by Baby - newborn photography - Photography podcast #48 — July 22, 2008 #

  5. [...] histograms to prevent clipping – your rights as a photographer – simple back lighting outdoors – brightness and other distractions – photographing babies – dodging and burning in [...]

    Pingback by Photography tips (recap) - Photography podcast #50 — August 18, 2008 #

  6. Download link for MP3 should be:

    http://www.photography.ca/wp-content/uploads/photo-podcast-46.mp3

    Comment by Just Me — July 27, 2010 #

  7. Thanks so much for letting me know!

    Comment by admin — August 27, 2010 #

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