Challenge – “Interesting Doors”

Theme – Interesting Doors

Entries for this theme will depict images that fall under the following description.

1. Point of View
   Take a few steps back and use a lens with a longer focal length. Too many folks get way too close to the subject and use a wide-angle lens to capture the entire door. The issue in this case is distortion caused by the wide angle, which needs to be corrected. Shooting from across a road using a slightly longer lens is much better. There is much less distortion and it helps you better frame the image.
2. Framing of image
   Frame your image very carefully. ask yourself, “Why are you interested in this door? Is it the door or is it the setting of the door? Could including some of the surrounding wall provide more context and add to the story? You may find that the door itself has little interest but set in its surroundings, it becomes much more interesting. Framing your image to crop out the surroundings may produce a much less interesting image. That said, more is always better and you can still crop the surrounding elements out in post-production if you wish.
3. Lighting is Everything
   Work in the best light for the door’s location. Shooting doorways in bright conditions is often tempting and often the case, but direct light will cause you a problem. Doors tend to be set back in their frames which then cast shadows. Our eyes may see easily into these shadows, but the camera’s exposure system won’t. The result can be dark ugly shadows that diminish the image. Quite often having the door in the shade or shooting on a cloudy, overcast day will produce better results.
4. Shoot RAW
   Shoot with the camera in RAW format. If you do find you need to shoot a door with bright light falling on it, if you shoot in RAW format you will have more flexibility to control the highlights and shadows.
5. Camera Position
   Keep your camera upright. It can be easy to tilt your camera slightly when shooting a door in order to frame the image. Try to avoid this and instead keep the back of the camera parallel to the door. When you tilt the camera you introduce distortion and convergence where the sides of the doors will slope inwards. Use a tripod if you don’t have a steady hand, but you know this already.
6. Lens Aperture
   Select a mid-range aperture. If you’re shooting with a full-frame camera, f/8.0 to f/12.0 will normally be right. It’s very easy to have too little depth of field and end up with soft edges, especially if you tilt the camera slightly.
7. Story Telling
   Try to suggest a story with your image. Doors are the barrier between two worlds. There is the outside world that you are part of and there is the world inside which can’t be seen but which you might be able to hint at it. Photographing a door that’s open and allows a glimpse of this other world can send a powerful message.