It is important to have a subject in your photo. Without a subject, a photo could be less interesting to look at. Sometimes the object is easy to spot, but at other times it can be more difficult. You can ask Lightroom for help to check if your photos have a subject.
I find that photographers often have a hard time finding a good subject for their photo. If you’re shooting models, this can be pretty easy. Unless you’re trying to do something unique, you’ll see clearly what you’re showing with your photos.
It becomes more difficult with something like landscape photography. A good landscape photo will also have a subject. It should be something that catches the eye and prevents the viewer from getting lost in the photo. It’s annoying to browse through a photo with nothing that stands out. The photo will be easily forgotten. Of course, there are exceptions.
Adding a subject will not only attract the eye, it will attract attention and the photo will be seen for a long time. Under ideal circumstances, it would be remembered.
Find the subject in your photo
A subject can be anything. It can be a prominent plant or a flower in the foreground. Perhaps a group of objects can form a single subject, as long as they are somehow related or linked in some way. Light and shadow will help isolate the subject. The subject can also be the human element in the landscape, as I explained in my previous post.
If your photo lacks something that catches your eye, you can try to determine if there’s a clear subject in the frame. And if so, does it stand out enough? This can be a daunting task, but if you identify the problem, it will be very informative. This knowledge can come in handy the next time you go out for a photo shoot.
Use Lightroom to help you
In 2021, Lightroom has an update to automatically select subjects in photos. It is used to mask local adjustments or for global adjustments without the subject itself. The software does an amazing job at finding and masking an object without having to further refine the mask itself.
I use the options for finding subjects a lot in Lightroom, mostly for local adjustments. But sometimes, the software has trouble finding the right topic. It may select the wrong element in the frame or find too many elements. That got me thinking about the photo itself. Does the photo have a prominent subject?
Instead of making local adjustments, Select Subject in Lightroom can be used to help determine if there’s an obvious subject in your photo. If it doesn’t find a topic, you need to check the results. Did it find the element you wanted to show in your photo or did it find something else? Does the software find just one subject or a group of elements spread throughout the image?
If the software has trouble locating the subject, you may want to ask yourself if the photo has a clear focus point. It could be a photo that the naked eye can’t stop passing. If the software selects the wrong element inside the frame, the photo has a distracting element. If either of these happen, you may have found a problem with the photo. Maybe that’s why the photo wasn’t attractive enough.
The method is not a lie
Don’t make mistakes. This method is not easy. It can even be completely wrong, even when there is a clear object in the frame. But remember, it’s one way that can get you through the photo itself. It can also give you new insights or ideas.
If the software is displaying multiple elements, you may be asking yourself if these elements are closely related to each other. Is the relative spacing within the frame accurate or do you need to crop the image to increase the relation? Elements can also compete for attention, making it difficult to focus.
It’s just one of many methods
Using the Select Mask Theme option in Lightroom is just one of many methods to discover why a photo is working or not. Perhaps the subject, or the lack of it, is not the problem at all. The photo may be less appealing for a completely different reason.
That’s why the Object Selection method in Lightroom is just one tool you can use to your benefit. It may not work, but you can learn a lot if it does.
Another simple tool to check your photos is color removal. Looking at an unsaturated image will show you the overall distribution of brightness. Another useful tool is to turn your photo upside down. Don’t reflect the image but rotate it 180 degrees and look at it from that angle. And as always, look at the photo after a few days or so. Without the emotional connection, it’s easy to criticize the outcome.
Try the Select Theme method in Lightroom and see if it helps. It may not work for everyone or every photo, but you can always try it. If you have another helpful tip about checking photos in an important way, feel free to share it in the comments section below.
