The Shut Up and Shoot Documentary Guide

Composition Tricks

Hiding Undesirable Backgrounds

In documentary, you will often have to make do with the settings you have to work with. However, there are a few tricks you can use to make those settings work better for you. Distracting or undesirable objects such as the boathouse (circled) can be “flagged” out using a foreground object such as a leaf or sign. This also has the added benefit of creating a more interesting composition. If you need to block out a crowd of people, an ugly setting, or other large area, you can always raise ...