{"id":33253,"date":"2017-01-19T12:21:03","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T20:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=33253"},"modified":"2017-01-16T22:07:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T06:07:15","slug":"the-bookend-technique-in-street-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/19\/the-bookend-technique-in-street-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bookend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Technique in Street Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The man’s face filling the right side of the frame is the “bookend”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If I started street photography all over again, one technique I wish I knew was the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d technique.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What do you need bookends for?<\/h2>\n
\"Cindy
Cindy on the right is the bookend, and Cindy’s mom on the left is the other bookend<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Imagine a book-shelf. You have tons of books on the shelf, but it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite full. You have some books falling over.<\/p>\n

What is the solution to prop up the books and prevent them from falling over? Simple: add \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookends\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to each side of your books. This keeps them together.<\/p>\n

Bookends in photography<\/h2>\n
\"Cindy's
Cindy’s shoulder on the left of the frame is the “bookend”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can apply the same metaphor to your photographs. If you want more energy and focus in the center of your frame, figure out how you can add visual \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookends\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the left and right side of your frame.<\/p>\n

A \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be a wall, a side of someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face, or some other element. The secret is you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want any negative space between your bookend and the background. You want the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to fill perhaps 30% of the left (or right, or both) sides of the frame.<\/p>\n

How to capture \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookends\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in street photography<\/h2>\n
\"Person
Person on left and right are both bookends to help you focus on the kid in the center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shooting street photography, a way you can integrate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookends\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to your images is to shoot with a relatively wide-angle lens (35mm or 28mm) and focus on the thing far away in the background. Then while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re clicking, try to add a subject\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face, or bodily part to the extreme left or right of the frame. In a perfect world, you would want two bookends (to subtract distractions from the background, but also to add more dynamism to the middle of your frame).<\/p>\n

Also by adding bookends\u00e2\u20ac\u201d you can add more depth to your photographs. You can also help lead your viewer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eyes to the center of the frame\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and direct their eyes onto a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153visual anchor\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (the most important thing happening in your photograph).<\/p>\n

Capturing bookends are hard in street photography<\/h2>\n
\"Note
Note quite bookends, but notice the dynamic tension between the left side of the frame (eyes looking left) and the right side of the frame (man moving towards the right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Capturing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookends\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a more intermediate\/advanced technique in street photography.<\/p>\n

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re starting off, give it a go. Start off by having your friends or family members being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookends\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on the extreme left or right side of the frame.<\/p>\n

Then once you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re comfortable doing that, try it out on the streets. Trust me, it will be damn hard\u00e2\u20ac\u201d but once you master it, it will add additional interest and depth to your photographs.<\/p>\n

Learn more about street photography techniques<\/h2>\n

To learn more street photography techniques, check out the article \u00e2\u20ac\u015315 Street Photography Techniques<\/strong><\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n

For a more comprehensive overview, check out Street Photography 101 ><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I started street photography all over again, one technique I wish I knew was the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bookend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d technique.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/eric-kim-street-photography-kodak-tri-x-1600-1552.jpg?fit=1545%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}