When a picture shouldn't be interesting

 Most of the time, photographers try to create pictures which grab the viewer's attention. It's what you'd expect when you make pictures to stand on their own merits.

Ribblesdale, January 2011

Sometimes though, pictures need to be there, but not take over. This picture is a case in point.

It was taken half way up the side of a snowy hill in North Yorkshire on a cold and windy day last January. I was out walking with a bunch of old school friends (and yes, we are all getting on a bit...) and simply wanted to document the trip.

In the back of my mind though, I knew that I would have to make a dvd for the group so that everyone could have a copy. And I knew that meant a dvd cover.

A dvd cover is not the main product, just part of the packaging, but if it's done right it can certainly enhance the enjoyment of the product.

As well as looking for pictures which would be interesting in themselves - combinations of light and shade, compositions based on perspective, muted colours and distance effects - and of course including a sufficient number of pictures showing each member of the group in suitably heroic and/or idiotic activities, I also knew I had to shoot a few 'empty images'. I use that term in the same sort of way as the original Japanese meaning of Karaoke; an empty orchestra, acting as a backdrop for some as yet unknown performer. In the case of my dvd cover, that performer would be the text and logos added to the image before it was wrapped around the dvd case.

If I used a picture which was in itself interesting, it could be terribly distracting. Neither the image nor the text would dominate and as a result, neither would hold the viewer's attention. By deliberately choosing an image to melt into the background (sorry, that icy pun just had to go in there...) the text does not have to compete.

It's a common enough technique, used for all sorts of advertising and marketing purposes, but strangely ignored when photographers consider composition. Maybe the idea of producing an image which will only ever be used in a supporting role doesn't sit well with some photographer's egos.

There's another time when I often use this technique of creating empty images. In my studio, I have an optical front projection system. Used sensitively, this allows me to add outdoor scenery and atmosphere to an image created in the studio without resorting to digital methods. such as greenscreen. Optical has an important advantage because of the inherently much greater ability to composite with extremely fine detail such as hair and gossamer-fine fabrics. The key things to remember are to match the lighting effects if you want to create a realistic composite and to remember that the background image is just that - a background - and you don't want it to attract attention to itself. Done right, the effect can often look more natural than many pictures actually taken on location!

Other times, the frontpro can be used to deliberately create very artificial effects - backgrounds which don't even try to look like normal scenery. That's another story...