Photography Lesson #1 – GET CLOSE

This is one of my favorite pictures.  As you can see, the original was taken farther away.  I cropped in close because my subject is a girl laughing; it’s not a girl standing by a tree.  This picture is about the emotion the girl feels and the emotion you feel when you see the picture.  It’s not about the hair or the outfit.  In order to make the picture more interesting and emphasize the most important part of the picture, the laugh, I cropped in close, and then closer, and then closer.  After that I had a little Photoshop fun.  I converted it to sepia and added contrast and chocolate tones in the shadows for drama.  I think the result speaks for itself.