Eliminate Confused Seeing - Carry Your Theme All the Way Through the Image

Ansel Adams, one of America's greatest photographers, once provided some critical insight about one of his earlier photographs. He called it a product of "Confused Seeing". His critical insight focused on how the theme of the photograph was not clear...there were too many competing elements with one particular element providing a distraction to the overall impact of the image. Oddly enough, this is a common problem for all photographers, even experienced ones. Sometimes we get so caught up looking, we fail to spend time seeing what is there.

Composition is a workshop-required element of photography and a simple blog post such as this will never provide enough space to cover all of the intricacies of the subject. However we can take a look at the concept of carrying your theme all the way through you image.

First of all, one of the most important elements of a composition is to create a theme for the image. Simply put, the theme is what the image is about. As a photographer you are attempting to show the viewer why this moment was important to you. Capturing it then requires you concentrate the composition in such a way as to eliminate all of the distractions that might interfere with the viewer being able to interpret what you are presenting to them visually.

The photo above is a good example of how a theme is carried all the way through the image. There are no distractions, everything in the image is there for a reason, and everything falls into place. It is also a good example of simplicity. There are just three elements here, the sky, the background hill, and the water reflection. Even the colors compliment each other. It is no coincidence how simplicity and carrying a theme all the way through tend to define the subject.

The photograph on the right is a good example of "Confused Seeing". On the surface it carries an element of appeal. I saw something here that warranted a second look, however, the capture fell well short of what I wanted. There are so many competing elements it is difficult to focus in on what the theme is suppose to represent. Is it the tree(s)? Is it the rocks? Is it the Misty haze? Certainly it is not the light as it is flat and bland. Hard to tell on each of these points.

The difficult part is learning how to see. Simply looking at a scene, like I did with this one, is not enough. You must observe beyond that confused instinct and focus in what is truly important. Ask yourself, "What is capturing my attention? Where does my eye want to go"? More often than not if you can answer those two questions, you will be able to discover the best theme from that moment.  The trick then is to focus in and create a composition that captures that theme. You may have to move around, change lenses, change your angle or camera orientation. You might even have to wait on the light, or even come back another day when the conditions change. There are risks doing so, however most of the time your trained instincts will prove correct and with better light you will capture a more powerful image.

The photo below is a good example of how to focus in on a single element. It is just a part of a fallen tree limb that fell into a pond. My confused instincts wanted to capture the whole pond and the entire tree limb. Needless to say, the first attempts at doing so fell well short of expectations. Then I stopped for a moment and asked myself what stands out...where does my eye want to go? The answer was this photograph. I used a longer focal length lens to compress the image, to isolate the main subject and blur the background, but I used the continuity of the green background to help provide a soft contrast and frame the tree limb. The theme of the moment was carried all the way through and the basics of photography combined with focused seeing resulted in a nice photograph.

Eliminating Confused Seeing requires time and practice to perfect. It is one of those intangible elements of becoming a better photographer we all must learn how to apply through trial and error. Simply knowing about the concept helps, yet you must take the time to look beyond what your "Confused Instincts" tells you to do, to train yourself to utilize a more focused portion of seeing photographically.