Add a little separation between your subjects or from the background to improve your composition. There are many ways to separate – you can use lighting for instance. Today, we’ll only talk about moving your body to improve your photographs.

On our St Croix photo workshop, I saw this part of an iron railing and thought it was pretty.
This is the first picture I took.



Notice how the railing has the stair right behind it. I just moved a bit to separate the railing from the background and came up with a nicer image.



Here, at Whim Plantation, I saw these two carts and thought they would make a nice image with my infrared camera. However, they had too much separation between them.



So I moved over to the right and took the second picture. Now they are right on top of each other.



I didn’t like it, so I moved again to come up with my final image.



Last set of pictures. I wanted the wind-powered sugar mill and the oxen-powered mill in the same picture. I was way too close on the first one so I backed up a LOT to get the second image.





It’s a very simple thing to do; you just have to be aware of it. Keep in mind “separation” when you are taking pictures!

** We recommend LifePixel.com to convert a regular digital camera to an infrared camera. Please use our affiliate link if you decide to go infrared!

~ Peggy Farren is the founder of Understand Photography. She’s a sought after speaker, instructor and award winning photographer.