An ordinary composition of a photograph will contain one or more subjects as focal points and a surrounding consisting of other objects. Based on all these elements, an observer will be able to recognize, the subject, the environment, and the message. Close-ups, on the other hand, may provide some sort of ambiguity, which will keep any observer guessing.
Boring surroundings may have a very bad effects on your subject, because, most probably, they will not have elements to balance the photographs, leaving a lot of empty spaces. An effective remedy to this is to fill the frame with your subject, so as to get rid of these empty spaces.
Sometimes it is even better to include nothing but your subject. For example, consider this situation in which you are photographing a wild animal at the zoo. The most common composition is one that consists of an animal, a cage, and maybe spectators. Getting rid of all the element except for the animal itself, may make the photograph look as if it was taken in the wild. The ambiguity resulted from close-ups lead observers use their imaginations to complete the picture .A close-up on two hands holding each others will strike a certain emotion that may be different from one person to the other, depending on his experience. Here, all you did is that you removed the subjects’ personalities, so as to give a space for the observer to think.
Of all types of close-up photographs, portraits are the most famous. While taking a portrait inside a specific environment is always nice, close-up portraits are used to give a very different sort of experience. Filling the frame with your subject will produce a very personal look. A facial portrait usually makes you in direct contact with the subject, as if you are looking to someone sitting in front of you. Close-ups on other body parts produce great photos too; they may create an abstract feel, or emphasize a certain action.
Even with still life, close-ups work great. Getting close to object show new details that are not obvious when photographing from a distance. This is particularly important when photographing products and machine parts.
A frame can be filled by walking towards your subject, zooming on it, or by cropping a photograph. Cropping allows you to cut any part you want from any photograph, making it flexible to carefully choose your composition, but you have to know that the image size will be smaller than the original.
As you can see, close-ups open a new door for your creative expression using photography. So use your imagination, and make your audience use theirs.
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