My photography class is winding down for the Spring semester, but there’s one area that I want to talk about before sending these budding photogs out of the nest.
Layering!
Utilizing this technique to create a lot of visual complexity for the viewer and ending up with a nice interesting image.
The first image has different layers to the image. A foreground which is the out of focus flowers and the mid-ground which is the girl and her flower. Finally, we have the wall which serves as our background.
Let’s take a look at another image

In this next photo, the foreground is defined by the out of focus leaves and flowers which leads us back to the girl (the mid-ground) and the background which is the grass etc.

Here’s a simple image:
The child is in his crib and I crouched down to view him through his “bars.” The bars are the foreground and the baby is the mid ground, while the background is the rest of the crib behind the subject.
The out of focus areas just naturally lead the viewer’s eyes right to the baby, exactly where we wanted them to go.

Finally, we have some kids on a trampoline at a party.
Look at the foreground of the leg on camera right coming into the frame and the girl on the left. The mid-ground is the first girl in the middle of the frame and our background consists of the last girl and the foliage.
On your next shoot, attempt to show a foreground, mid-ground and a background. It forces the perspective of the viewer to deal with a more realistic-looking image.
Push yourself and be inspired!

Layering a photograph is a great digital photography technique. It creates visual complexity and when combined with effective composition, it helps to lead your viewers eye to your main subject while maintaining visual interest.

Here’s a few techniques:

Look to place items such as plants, other people even parts of your main subjects body like their hands.

In the photo with the boy holding his hand, his hand leads you straight to the subject’s eyes. This is a great example of how the technique helps to lead the viewer’s eyes to the subject.

The photo of the boy looking through the bars at a playground helps to illustrate utilizing whatever is in the environment to create visual complexity. The pattern of the red bars leads the viewers eye right to the boy’s face.

Our image of the little girl smelling the flower uses a plant in a backyard to create multiple layers for the viewers. Because of the use of shallow depth of field, that also creates more visual layers that leads to the in focus area where our main subject is. Enjoy!