Sometimes there is nothing wrong with your focus or exposure. Your image is sharp enough, and you can easily discern the subject, yet somehow the photograph still feels boring. Flat photos are among the most frustrating problems that beginners face. It is hard to describe because you may look at the photo on your phone and wonder what is wrong with it because, to be honest, there isn’t really anything wrong. The person or object you are looking at is clear and interesting. The reason the photo may seem flat may be that the elements in the photo do not stand out from the background or that the light hits the subject and the background equally. Good photographs generally involve some form of contrast, whether that is light versus shadow, blurred and in focus, motion or stillness, or a clear subject and background.
The best way to start learning how to make photos less flat is by paying more attention to depth rather than just finding more interesting subjects. Beginners tend to walk around and shoot pictures while standing without really moving from their spot. Cameras record the relationships between foreground, mid-ground, and background objects, and moving changes those relationships dramatically. Try taking photos of something simple and small, like a cup or a bicycle, or something by the window like a plant.
Shoot it once eye-level, once from below the eye-level, and once from slightly to the side. Review these photos and notice which shot is stronger. The subject has more shape in one frame than the others. Or, one of these frames is less distracting, or more clearly describes the lighting in the scene. This isn’t accidental or a matter of luck; these differences are based on how your placement relative to the object influences the relationships between the background and the subject.
It is easy for beginners to center their subject without taking a step to notice if the frame needs balance or tension. Yes, a centered photo can work well for a subject, but shooting all your photos with your subject in the center makes them feel static. The trick isn’t to put your subject in every corner. Instead, consider what your eye first focuses on and what is fighting for attention. Bright, distracting objects in the corners of your shot, random things in the background of your subject, or even empty space without a purpose will ruin a photo. When your photos look flat, check for distracting details around the edges rather than thinking your subject is boring. A half a step to the side will remove a distracting element, leaving a bit of space in your frame. Or, you may want to move in so you are photographing one thing in a clear way, rather than several things in a blurry way.
You may also underestimate the role of light. Often when photographing during mid-day the sun flattens the surface of your subject because it creates few shadows and lights up everything with equal intensity. This doesn’t mean that you need to wait for a dramatic day to take a great photo, but rather it is worth learning when the sun is to your left, right, back, or front of you. When lighting a scene, try to imagine lighting a face, bowl of apples, or textured wall from a side window, as opposed to lighting the subject from behind.
You can even try this with a simple exercise by photographing one object three different ways: facing a window, facing side of window, and standing farther back from a window. See which of those three photos makes that subject most three-dimensional. Learning how to construct a photo with depth and dimension from the light rather than relying on the subject to do that heavy lifting will save you time in the long run.
When you still keep seeing flat photos, consider decreasing the scope of a photo shoot to be a single scene and a single goal. Take fifteen minutes with one scene and one goal, which can be “Make this look dimensional.” Spend the first few minutes observing and learning without snapping a photo. Then, take a series of five or six photos of the same subject moving only your location. Then, do the same, changing only how far away the subject is.
Finally, if possible, change the direction of light and shoot a series of that. Save the strongest photo from the series and one of your weaker photos from the series. Slowly look between them and see what the difference is. Perhaps the subject appears cleaner. Maybe the shadow is more descriptive. Or maybe the background stops distracting. Comparing photos between one another is more instructive than shooting fifty different random photos.
Great photos tend to be built of small, incremental details. A slight change in subject position, a simpler background, or a more descriptive angle of light can make a significant difference between a flat frame and one that is interesting and dimensional. Once you start paying more attention to this type of detail, your photos won’t look great simply by accident. They will look great because you intentionally made them that way, and that will ultimately help you have more fun in photography.
