LocalNavy433 Photography

Hello how the hell are you? If this is your first time here thanks for stopping by. In this blog we are going to talk about how to put a K.I.S.S. on your photos and how that is going to help you. The K.I.S.S. stands for Keep It Stupid Simple and I have talked about this before. The main reason for this topic is because when you dive into photography you are going to find that there is complex art to knowing settings to get the images look just right. The KISS is all about taking back a few notches to make the images pop more.

The first reason for keeping a image stupid simple is when you are building out the image you have so many rules, settings and so many other thoughts going through your head at the same time you are trying to build the comp.  Staying with the theme of KISS means that you find one part of the photograph and move on from there to build the comp around that component  of your image. The foreground is a great place to start with this.  Having a strong foreground will lead the viewer to the mid and background.  The foreground could be a simple branch that leads you to the tree, and then the sunset.  The roots of the tree could lead you to the waterfall that is the main subject of the photo.  The rocks on the ledge could lead you to the mountains across the valley that you are trying to photograph.  The simple act of looking for a strong foreground is going to help setup the KISS for the photo.  

The mid-ground of the image is where you are going to make or break the photo.  I say that because if the viewers journey through the photo is torn between something that looks cool in the mid-ground.  This is where I tend to put my subject to help round off the whole image.  The strong subject will take away from the lack of anything in the mid-ground.  Say the subject is a tree and you want that to stand out how are you going to do this.  I use two tips for that and the first is to get really low to cut out the mid-ground all together.  This allows the viewer to go right to the tree instead of searching around the photo for something to look at.  The leading lines from the roots of another tree, or the rocks on the ledge of a cliff will totally lead the viewer to the main subject.  By getting low you take away most of the distracting elements in the photo.  

The background is something that is truly going to make or break the photo. If the background of the images has distractions in it then it pulls the attention away from the foreground and mid-ground.  A clean and clear background is what you need to have your images standout from all the others.  I use this for my portraits, sports images, and for my landscape images.  The landscape images it is easier to do this with because the background is usually a mountain or the sky. The portraits it is a little harder because you want the background to complement the subject.  For sports you get what you get but you have to try and make the background as a non issue by blurring out the background as much as possible.  

Now that you know what to put in the photo for a foreground, mid-ground, and background you have to bring them all together for a finished image.  This means that you have to start looking at the edges of your frame to make sure that there is nothing in the way of a distraction for the viewer.  This is the hardest part in the KISS approach because you want to put so many things in the images to showcase the subject.  By deleting them in camera by way of moving one way or another you get a look to an image that is clean and distraction free.  The way to make sure that you get this is as simple as moving the camera up, down, left, or right this changes the perspective which gives a totally different look to an image.  

In conclusion keeping a photo and any photo like a landscape, portrait, or sports photo simple is so hard because you have a lot to think about.  If you breakdown each area of an image you can put the final KISS to the image which will help it standout and be a great image.  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy from St Johns y’all 

*Chatgpt3.5 was used to help me get the working title for this blog