Tips On Shooting Abstracts

Sometimes you don't need anything to be sharp and in focus to make an interesting image.

The following shot, taken by David Pritchard as part of his 365-day road test of the Tamron 18-270 VC PZD superzoom, has nothing in focus but it wasn't taken by accident, as David explains: "There was no point in trying to get details, because the view from my window is not inherently attractive. What mattered was the colours of the sky, and the softness of waking up earlier than you'd like. The foggy window gave a beautiful, soft-filtration effect, giving a lovely glow to the sunrise.

Even the water droplets on the window would have felt like a distraction to this, so I defocused the lens, and I didn’t worry about holding the camera steady. Because I could only have taken this from where I was stood, I had to compose the shot by choosing the right focal length through the viewfinder."



As you're losing the texture and detail you're used to seeing in sharp shots, blocks of colour work well in these abstract shots. Just make sure your tones don't clash and check to see if any shades are overpowering certain areas of the frame.

Shapes are obviously softened so it can help to photograph something that has a recognisable shape and if you want to use lines in your image, try to find a location that gives you a shot that has lines that vary in size and colour. Bolder lines can have more impact than small, faint ones and do remember they will still guide the eye through the shot and tell the viewer where they should be looking.

"I love things like this," added David. " They don’t invite technical analysis or in-depth critique. You like it, or you don’t, and it’s left to the imagination to explain what you're looking at."

Take a look at David's blog to see more of his images taken with the Tamron 18-270 VC PZD superzoom.