How To Pose Photos Taken By Bystanders - and edit

 

Finding a Suitable Bystander

When you are travelling around, either to an event, even in your home city, or overseas, you have many places and people you may wish to record. If you are concerned about permission and copyright, instead of taking other people you can take yourself next to a landmark or in an historic place.

Who can you ask? To be sure that no stranger runs off with your camera and disappears down a side street, it is safer to ask somebody with your own group, or a static, known person, such as your tour guide, or the waiter in a restaurant.

This picture was taken by a bystander. She was good enough to take half a dozen pictures. 

Editing

What is wrong with this version? Everything. I am trying to show off my new Anthony Sicari outfit. I have tried to make it look formal and save myself having to wash the heavy, bulky knitted jacket by wearing a lightweight white shirt underneath. 

The first thing I noticed when I got home and blew up the picture on the big screen is that the collar is lopsided. It is and bent on one side. 

My earliest pictures of myself in clothes on dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com were mostly taken my my husband in good light and re-posed when necessary. Or we took several different poses. 

My husband has the know-how and patience to correct this, by copying white from the collar, or copying the point of the other collar and adding a blob of white, then marking a line and deleting alongside it.

Looking at this version of the picture later, more critically, I see more aspects which would need correcting. I checked at the time that my head was not cropped. However, I did not get both my feet fully visible in this picture. I think I had in mind that it did not matter because if I had socks or leg showing I would crop the picture. 

It looks better to crop at waist level than to have part of the footwear missing.

Here is a list of items to check when photographing

1 Subject is smiling to look cheerful and lift wrinkles around the mouth.

2 The glasses can be removed. If the eyes are crossed or baggy or too small, the mask of the glasses might improve the picture or add variety.

3 Remove items growing out of the subject's head. Occasionally the subject can be re-positioned to have flowers or a tree as a halo or frame. In this picture, the photos behind cannot be seen properly and destroy the outline of the head. The head should be between the pictures. 

Standing forward or backwards against the scene will change the ratio of how large the head appears compared to the pictures in the background. Also, you can blur background. 

However, in an historic building, usually the background is an enhancement and you want it in focus. So the reverse is the case. Check that the camera is not in portrait mode.

Editing