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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
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Three Ways to Make Your Subject Really Pop From the Background

Chris Gampat
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03/30/2015
3 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer TriggerTrap Flash Adapter review black and white (1 of 1)ISO 2003.0 sec at f - 6.4

Let’s say that you’ve got a product, portrait subject, bride and groom, or something else in your photo that you really want to make stand out from the rest of the scene. How would you go about doing this? A shallow depth of field is that many people will say to start, but that’s the most basic of methods. Indeed, there is a specific 3D effect that photographers talk about and there are also lenses with micro-contrast that can help you do this.

Believe it or not though, it all comes down to contrast.

Effective, Artificial Lighting

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Profoto B2 first impressions review portraits of Megan (1 of 5)ISO 4001-100 sec at f - 2.0

When photographers talk about a 3D effect, they’re often referring to lighting. This can be done with a single light that has a fast flash duration and/or high speed sync.  A fast flash duration will make a subject really, really crisp and add details to them that will pop out even more. These are typically called specular highlights and they’re at their best when your light source is very diffused.

Alternatively, high speed sync can overpower the sun’s lighting if you’re outside and will illuminate your subject to be effectively brighter while darkening the rest of the scene.

So why specifically do you need artificial lighting? It has to do with contrast as we will talk about later on. But it helps your subject stand out from the rest of the scene. Effective lighting can also make specific colors pop more, which then adds even more of that 3D effect that we’re looking for.

A Longer Focal Length Lens

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Zeiss 85mm f1.4 Otus product images review (4 of 7)ISO 4001-125 sec at f - 2.0

We talked a bit about depth of field, and the effect that we’re specifically talking about here is best achieved with a longer focal length. That essentially means that an 18-55mm kit lens won’t cut it. We’d recommend the equivalent of at least an 85mm lens, but this varies depending on the sensor size, effective depth of field, and more. For starters, get close to your subject–as close as you can without compromising the intended composition that you have in your head.

Then consider the fact that the longer a focal length is, the less will be in focus at a given distance at equivalent apertures to shorter focal lengths. What does this mean? When focused out to 12 feet, a 135mm and a 35mm lens will both have a different depth of field when they are at the same aperture. The 135mm lens will have much less in focus.

So with that said, use the bokeh effect and combine it with effective lighting. But overall, ensure that you’ve got a big emphasis on the next step.

Adding High Contrast To Your Image

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Profoto B1 500 TTL light extra images (1 of 2)ISO 1001-200 sec at f - 2.8

Lastly, something that we’ve been essentially talking about for the entire post is contrast. The higher the contrast and the deeper the blacks are in an image, the sharper it can look without actually being sharper. So to make your subject stand out, you need to add contrast naturally in camera and in the post-production phase. This can be done through specific color channel work, adding contrast, messing with the black and white levels, etc. Start off by having a faster shutter speed than you’d normally shoot, getting a shallow depth of field, combining this with a lower ISO setting and getting a healthy balance between highlights and darks.

Essentially, make it as far from an HDR as you possibly can. Do that, and you’ve got yourself a subject that can surely stand out.

3D effect colors contrast depth of field lighting
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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