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Very often we hesitate to get in close with our subject but we also have to realize that details are very important.  The best way to show details is to get up close and personal. Don’t be afraid to really push it and even get close enough the parts of the subject get cut off. Whatever you are shooting, try experimenting with getting closer and closer, past the point where you are comfortable and see what happens. In the rest of this article we will look at some examples to see just how big of a different this can make.

Example 1

In this first example we have a pretty normal shot of our subject. While there is really nothing really wrong with it, there are some distracting elements that would make the shot better if we cropped them out of the image.  Zooming in more removes the background, the subject’s arms and hands, and really focuses on her face.

Example 2

In this next example, let’s take one image and keep cropping in tighter and tighter. In the first image, our subject is seen laying on a couch  and we see quite a bit of the checkerboard floor, the wall, and the couch. While it is a good image, I felt it was lacking any real “oomph” to it.

We can eliminate some of the distractions by zooming in a little tighter which not only gets rid of some distractions but it allows you to see the details more clearly.

Normally I would have stopped with the last image as I feel it is a good balance between showing more of the scene and capturing details. However, let’s see what happens when I crop in past my normal comfort level.

This tight crop really changes the mood of the image by accentuating the dramatic lighting on the subject’s face. While it could still be consider to be a rather sexy image, it is a more implied than the way the previous two images were cropped and I ended up really liking this particular crop even though it is beyond my normal comfort level.

Summary

Don’t be afraid to get close to your subject. If you generally are zoomed out more, go ahead and get your shots but then zoom in really tight and see what you get and you just might surprise yourself at how good some of the images turn out.