A lot of the time, people tend to focus too much their subject that they forget to check the other elements in the frame. Today’s article is about avoiding mergers. A merger occurs usually when something in the background seems to “merge” out of or into your subject.

Take a look at the photo below. Is there anything unusual about it?

You may have noticed that it seems a plant is growing out of the teddy bear’s head. Take a look through your own photos and see if you can spot any merging objects growing out of your subjects’ heads too. It could be a lamp post, a tree, a sharp line or any number of things that distract the eye from the subject.

Mergers are not only limited to the above examples. For instance, you may have a border merger where a body part or someone’s head is cut off at the edge of your image. There is also something called a near merger, which describes distracting objects that are too close to the subject.

Avoiding mergers is another rule to keep in mind when you are composing your shots. By simply moving your body to the side or another angle, you can easily separate the imposing object and keep the subject clear of any major distractions. This will save you a lot of time during post processing if you’re trying to clone or extract the offending merger out.

I didn’t move the bear nor did I move the plant. I just shuffled to the right a bit and voila! No more organic teddy bear for baby to play with!

You can always move your subject to another spot with less distractions in the fore and background but for this article, I left it as is to illustrate a quick and easy composition correction by changing your angle.

So, keep an eye out for potential “growths” out of your models’ heads and your model will thank you for it!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 50 mm
shutter speed: 1/40
aperture: f/2.5
ISO: 200
flash: none

When I shoot in portrait rather than in landscape orientation, I like to fill the frame with my subject and I try to line up the eyes following the Rule of Thirds. Using a smaller aperture (a larger f-stop) helps to keep more of the facial features in focus. Because I was shooting next to the sun room, I had plenty of light to shoot at ISO 200 and still get a sharp picture.

It was Sophie’s first time eating strawberries. This face isn’t of disgust. She’s actually saying, “Argggh! Mommy! Why didn’t you give me strawberries before!!??” She loves them. Can’t you tell?

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 50 mm
shutter speed: 1/100
aperture: f/1.8
ISO: 500
flash: none

Your subject needn’t always be looking at the camera but as long as her eyes are in the frame, I think it makes for a nice photo. The viewer is left to wonder what the subject was looking at and a story is built out of a split second in time. For this image, I brightened it slightly and increased the contrast a bit.

Sophie was having a ball splashing around in the tub. I think it might be time to take her to the pool!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 50 mm
shutter speed: 1/80
aperture: f/1.8
ISO: 400
flash: none

No, I didn’t shove the camera into my little one’s face for this shot. She was crawling closer and closer to me and I was trying to get further back but the couch got in the way but that didn’t stop me from snapping away. You never quite know what you’ll get at such a close range. I like this photo even though part of her face is out of the frame. I like the high key look and the blown out white background. I was shooting against a window and adjusted the shutter speed in manual mode to get it to look this way, which is straight out of the camera with no post processing. If I were to print this, I’d run an unsharp mask to sharpen up the eyes as the image is “soft” due to the close range and large aperture.

When Sophie was younger, she’d always go straight for the camera. Now she has lost interest in it, probably because she sees it everyday, all day!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.

focal length: 50 mm
shutter speed: 1/125
aperture: f/1.8
ISO: 200
flash: none

You may recognize this photo from my last article, Composition: Lines, where I had cropped and straightened a very slanted image. I still wasn’t satisfied with the cluttered background, especially the brightly coloured flowers behind the subject on the left side of the frame. So I tried a black and white conversion to take away some of the distraction. What do you think? Better?

This shot was taken during Sophie’s very first playdate with her good friend Malia. My, how time flies!

Laura is a Vancouver wedding and portrait photographer. Visit laurahana.com.