the larger group, the children, is wearing bright clothes
and the pony is dark colored. The eye then sees the two
units as equal—one demanding attention by virtue of
size, the other gaining attention by virtue of brightness.
Subject Tone.
The eye is always drawn to the lightest part of a photo-
graph. The rule of thumb is that light tones advance vi-
sually, while dark tones retreat. Therefore, elements in
the picture that are lighter in tone than the subject will be
distracting. Bright areas, particularly at the edges of the
photograph, should be darkened—in printing, in the
computer, or in the camera (by masking or vignetting)—
so that the viewer’s eye is not distracted from the subject.
There are portraits where the subject is the darkest
part of the scene, such as in a high-key portrait with a
white background. This is the same principle at work as
above; the eye will travel to the region of greatest contrast
in a field of white or on a light-colored background.
Focus.
Whether an area is in focus or out of focus has a lot to do
with the amount of visual emphasis it will receive. A back-
ground that is lighter than the subject but distinctly out
of focus will not necessarily detract from the main subject.
It may, in fact, enhance the image, keeping the viewer’s
eye centered on the subject.
The same is true of foreground areas. Although it is a
good idea to make them darker than your subject, some-
times you can’t. If the foreground is out of focus, how-
ever, it will detract less from the subject, which, hopefully,
is sharp.
A technique that is becoming popular is to diffuse an
area of the photograph you want to minimize. This is
usually done in Photoshop by creating a feathered selec-
tion of the area. Using this technique, the diffusion effect
diminishes the closer you get to the edge of the selection.At least two highly effective techniques are at
work in this portrait by Drake Busath. The tone
of the portrait is decidedly high-key, but the
subject dominates because of the dark tone of
her hat and coat. Also, the young girl is posi-
tioned between two stately trees, creating visual
brackets on either side of her. The effect is to
rivet your visual attention on the subject—your
eye never wanders.