K.I.S.S

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Grande Prairie, Alberta Canada geese take flight over Grande Prairie Regional College as they head to a field to graze. The birds are building up strength for their long flight to wintering grounds in the South.The old acronym KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) applies to a lot of things in life from life style to writing to photography.

In photography keeping it simple can actually make a photograph stand out — especially when it comes to keeping backgrounds simple.

Most sports, portrait and wildlife photographers know that one of the best ways to make the subject snap out in a photo is to use a clean background.

That can be anything from the sky to seamless background paper to out of focus trees thanks to a shallow depth of field.

Just take a look at the difference between the photo at the top of the page and the one at the bottom.

Which one captures your eye and draws you in? Which one do you have to make an effort to pick out the subject of the photo?

Shooting with a long lens and wide open aperture can do wonders for cleaning up the backgrounds in your photos.

But so can several other simple things like making sure you take the time to study what the background is like — no trees sticking out from behind a brides head giving her antlers— or getting down low to shoot against the sky.

Perhaps you can make use of light and dark. By lighting up a subject with flash and having the background in the shade, your subject pops out.

Often it is just practise. Shoot photos and then either by yourself or with someone who will sit down and honestly critique your photos, in other words not your mom or your biggest fan, analyze everything that adds to the photo and takes away from the photo.

Then shoot again working on improving your technique.

Like almost anything else in life in photography practise makes perfect.

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Grande Prairie A cluttered background takes away from the subject of the photo — the geese.