4 Tips to Make Subjects Stand Out More in Photos

Part of what separates great photos from mediocre ones is the fact that the former often are able to make the subject stand out more. Although that may seem easier it can actually be fairly tricky, and more often or not beginners tend to struggle with it.

If you would like to ensure that the subjects of your photos stand out as much as possible, there are four tips in particular that could be a big help:

1. Contrast the color of the subject and the background

As you can imagine if the subject’s colors contrast sharply against those of the background it will help it to stand out – and so that’s exactly what you should do. Ideally try to photograph your subject against a background that is in one of its complementary colors, but if not any contrasting color will work.

If you’d like to go even further, you could adjust the aperture and shutter speed to control the light exposure, so that the background is much darker and the subject is brighter.

2. Blur the background with a small depth of field

Odds are you’ve seen photos where the subject is sharply in focus while the rest of the background is blurred out. That effect helps to make the subject stand out, as viewers will immediately focus their attention on it.

Photographers normally create this effect by adjusting the aperture and making it wider so that the depth of field is small. Alternatively however you could edit your photo later to achieve a similar effect.

3. Less can be better

New photographers often make the mistake of including too many elements in their photos. If you aren’t careful, each element in your photo could compete with your subject for the attention of viewers, making it stand out a lot less.

That is why less can be better, and isolating your subject and framing it so that there are fewer competing elements will make it easier to focus attention on it. Always remember that white space can be extremely useful in helping your subject to set itself apart.

4. Fill the frame with the subject

Assuming you want viewers to focus on the subject and only the subject – why not fill the frame with it? Although that may seem less than ideal, it will not only help to make the subject stand out (as it is the only element in the frame), but also reveal details that may not be visible otherwise.

If you do opt to go down this route however, try to avoid using digital zoom and actually get physically closer to the subject instead. The reason for this is that digital zoom will affect the overall quality of the photo, which is undoubtedly the last thing that you want.

 

 

As you can see each of these tips should help you to make the subjects in your photos stand more. In some situations you may want to use one or the other, or even a combination of them in order to distinguish your subject and set it apart.

Sometimes you may not be able to make your subject stand out enough when you snap the photo, which is why being able to edit it afterwards can be a big help. To be more specific you could use Movavi Photo Editor to improve your photos after the fact and adjust the color levels, blur out the background, or even replace it entirely by following the instructions at https://www.movavi.com/support/how-to/how-to-change-photo-background.html.

Make no mistake Movavi Photo Editor will give you the freedom to edit your photos in any way you want, whether it is enhancing its quality, removing unwanted objects, touching up portraits, or anything else. More to the point it is intuitive and easy to use, so you should be able to start editing your photos almost immediately and improve them so that the subject stands out more.