Emphasis in photography dictates where someone’s attention is drawn in a photo. It’s also how photographers keep viewers engaged in an image. Learn why it is such an important part of this art form.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Emphasis in Photography: Choosing the Focal Point of a Photo
What Is Emphasis in Photography?
Emphasis in photography refers to the art of drawing a viewer’s eye to specific elements within a photo. It’s how photographers communicate what’s important. It’s also how photographers keep viewers engaged and interested in an image—even if they are no longer actively looking at it.
Emphasis can be created in-camera, but is also something that photographers can enhance once they bring an image into an editing program like Photoshop.
Before the days of digital photography, it was common for photographs to add emphasis in the darkroom by cropping in on frames and using techniques—like dodging and burning—to alter the highlights and shadows of an image.
When photographing a scene, there are a variety of techniques that photographers can use to highlight what they feel are the most important elements of a frame. Having a solid understanding of image composition is a great place to start.
Emphasis in photography is a technique that is used in all genres of photography, and having it in the back of your mind as you are shooting and editing will enhance the impact of your images.
Why Is Emphasis Important?
Emphasis in photography is important because it will make your photography memorable. It’s the best tool to keep viewers engaged with your work and interested in whatever story it is you are trying to tell. Emphasis directs your viewer to the focal point of the work.
Historic images are a great tool for understanding why emphasis is important and how it works.
Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” photograph is one of the most well-known pictures in the world. It’s also a great example of emphasis in photography.
The composition of the image makes it so that, as a viewer, your eye is drawn directly to the woman in the frame and her anguished expression.
The three children act as a framing device, but also reveal more information. The way her head is resting in her hand acts as a leading line and creates another emphasis point within the image.
In the original negative, there’s an out of focus thumb that can be seen on the tent-pole in the lower-right corner of the frame. This thumb can’t be seen in the most well-known version of this image, and was likely removed because it added an element that directed emphasis away from the woman’s face.
Lange experimented with a variety of other compositions before landing on the frame we’ve come to know as “Migrant Mother.” These alternate views show how emphasis in art changes depending on the decisions of the photographer.
In this alternate view of the woman and her children, Lange is further away, includes more visual information about the tent and the land, and only two children are present.
This alternate view of the scene isn’t bad, but it doesn’t emphasize the woman as well as the close up view where the children’s faces are obscured. It simply doesn’t create emphasis in the same way that the cropped-in view manages to achieve.
Emphasis is a technique that’s used in a variety of visual art forms. Learning to identify it in other mediums, historic photographs, and everyday life is a great way to train your eye so you can use it in your photo work.
Where Emphasis Fits Into the Other Principles of Photography
Think of emphasis as the big picture thing that every image is striving for. As a photographer, you can achieve emphasis by utilizing the other core elements and principles of photography within your creative practice.
What Are the Other Principles of Photography?
The principles of photography are the ways in which photographers create visual harmony within a frame. Visual harmony can also be referred to as good composition.
Using these principle elements of photography in your work will create images that have good emphasis, thus making them more memorable.
Here’s a breakdown of the basic principles of photography:
Light/Shadow
Shadows and light are one of the most basic ways to create emphasis in a frame. Darkroom photographers used tools like dodging and burning to emphasize the highlights and shadows within an image.
Images that utilize the full histogram of highlights and shadows are often described as having good dynamic range.
Texture
Elements with contrasting textures will create a natural emphasis point within an image.
Angles
An unusual camera angle or view in a subject is a great way to bring attention to something within an image. A tilted dutch angle can make an image feel jarring and uncomfortable.
Choosing a high or a super low perspective can provide a more visually interesting image than something shot with a straight on angle.
Depth of Field
This in-camera technique is a great way to draw emphasis to elements within a frame.
An image with a shallow depth of field is one that is shot with the lens aperture wide open and results in an image where a very limited amount of the frame is in focus. It’s a technique that’s often used in portraiture to focus on the subject and let elements of the background fall into soft focus.
Images with a deep depth of field are created when the lens aperture is stopped down. Deep depth of field images are used to keep more elements in the frame in focus. Deep depth of field is generally used in product photography and architecture photography.
Focus
Related to depth of field, the elements of a frame that are in focus will naturally create emphasis in a photograph. An image with a blurred background and shallow depth of field will pull the viewer’s eye to the in-focus subject.
Rule of Thirds
One of the basic lessons of framing, the rule of thirds refers to placing the most interesting parts or the most important parts of an image on the crosshairs of a 3 x 3 grid that divides the frame.
Digital cameras include a feature where you can add these gridlines to your viewfinder so you are constantly thinking about it while you shoot.
License this image via Monstar Studio.
Using the rule of thirds is an excellent way to easily create emphasis in your images. However you shouldn’t feel locked into always using this as a framing device. Sometimes breaking the rule of thirds is an excellent way to create emphasis in an unexpected way as it adds some visual intrigue.
Distance
This can refer to the distance you put between the subjects in your frame, or the distance that you are from a subject as a photographer.
Zooming in or being physically close to your subject adds emphasis in a portrait. Having a zoomed out perspective when photographing landscapes will emphasize the scale of the land.
License these images via A.sm and Cristina Conti.
Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother” images are a great example of how your distance from a subject can change the emphasis of an image.
White Space
Also known as negative space, these are the areas of the frame that give the viewer a visual break. The white space within a photograph will emphasize the focal point of the frame.
Cropping
This particular principle is often utilized in post-production. Cropping is one of the most common ways to add emphasis to a photograph.
Is there a distracting element on the edge of the frame? Crop it out. Problem solved.
Colors
Using contrasting colors within an image is a great way to add emphasis and make a memorable photograph. Placing two colors that sit across from each other on the color wheel is a great way to add a visual pop to a photograph.
This technique is regularly used in product photography and food photography to make elements look appealing.
Framing
Look for frames within the frame as you compose an image through your viewfinder to emphasize a subject. Windows, doors, or natural elements can be used as framing devices within an image.
Leading Lines
Leading lines refer to the vertical, horizontal, and diagonal elements that run through an image. Using leading lines is a great way to add emphasis in pictures as it naturally directs your viewer’s eye to the most important elements of the frame.
Leading lines can be buildings, shapes, and shadows, or even a bright beam of sunlight cutting across the frame to illuminate the subject.
Shapes
Creating photographs that include a variety of shapes is a great tool for adding emphasis. Triangles, circles, and rectangles can all work together in a frame to lead a viewer to the focal point of the photography.
Visual Weight
This principle refers to how much space each element takes up within a photograph. Placing large elements next to small ones is a nice way to create emphasis in photography.
How to Practice Emphasis in Your Photography
Practicing emphasis in your own photography is all about training your eye to find it.
Here are some strategies to get started. . . .
Look at Historic Images
Look at historic photographs in art books or visit a museum. The most well-known photographs hold that place in history because they do a good job creating emphasis. Study their composition and see where photographers placed certain elements in a frame.
Exhibitions that include a photographer’s contact sheets can be particularly helpful in understanding emphasis because you can see all the frames that they shot to get to the most memorable and famous image.
It’s usually no surprise that the most-well known frame on a roll of film is the one that has the best emphasis.
Use Your Smartphone to Take Notes
Train your eye by looking for moments of emphasis even when you don’t have a professional camera with you. Your smartphone’s camera can be a great way to keep visual notes on finding emphasis, as well.
Convert to Black and White
If you find yourself getting stuck in identifying emphasis once you are editing, try converting your image to black and white.
Removing color (at least temporarily) can be a useful tool for determining which elements in a frame are naturally creating emphasis.
License this cover image via Galyamin Sergej.
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