Make More Than Just a Photo

Sunday 12 July 2026, 15:51 by Nando Harmsen | 1,218 views | 1 comment

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

Taking a photo is not difficult. Pressing the button is enough. Showing your subject well in the frame is a bigger challenge. Make more than just a photo by thinking about how you photograph your subject.

Don't worry too much about exposures. The camera can take that work perfectly out of your hands. Instead, it is more important how you place your subject within your frame. This is called composition.

The landscape I want to photograph. Buttercups in Iceland with mountains in the background.
Of course, we all know that this is called composition. Background at 1/3 from the top. Foreground at 1/3 from the bottom. Perhaps at 1/3 from the side. In many cases, that is where it ends.

Take it a step further. Sometimes literally. Think more about how you show that foreground and background in the frame. You can do that like in the top photo, or a little more creatively.

I will use the field of buttercups with the mountains in the background as an example. The photo above is an overview shot. Everything is in the frame, but nothing stands out.

Think about what you want to show. It is the flowers with the mountains in the background. This actually already says that the flower is the subject, and therefore the most important part of the photo.

The flower is important. Why not make it larger in the frame? The mountains are nothing more than the background.
Make the buttercup larger in the frame. Let it be a clear subject. This stops it getting lost in its surroundings. The mountains form part of the flower's surroundings.

What stands out less now are the other flowers. The view of the other flowers in the field is blocked. You can solve this by choosing a higher viewpoint. You change the perspective.

A higher viewpoint creates more space to show the field of flowers.
The flower and mountain are further apart. You can see the other flowers between the flower and the mountain. A clear foreground, middle ground and background have appeared. You do have less sky in the frame.

Now look at the mountains in the background. Is the size of the mountain what you want? Or would you prefer a larger or smaller mountain? Its size determines how noticeable that mountain is in the photo.

Stand further away from the flower and zoom in to make the mountain larger.
By standing further away from the flower, you have to zoom in to keep the flower large in the frame. This makes the mountain in the background larger and more noticeable, and therefore more important in the whole image.

Stand closer to the flower and zoom out to make the mountain smaller.
By standing closer to the flower and zooming out a little, the mountain in the background will become smaller. This gives the mountain less attention. It is less noticeable and therefore less important in the whole image.

You can see what is possible by thinking more about how you are going to photograph something. This allows you to make more than just a photo. It does take more time, but that is not a problem. Take that time.

Of the examples I show, none is especially right or wrong. Each shows the landscape in a different way. Make sure you have thought about it before pressing the button and taking the photo.

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