Flat photos usually come down to one thing: no sense of depth. Understanding how to build layers into your compositions is one of those skills that quietly separates the work of consistently compelling photographers from everyone else.
Coming to you from Max Kent, this practical video breaks down how layers and depth actually work in photography, and why shallow depth of field is not the shortcut most people think it is. Kent makes the case that shooting wide open at f/1.8 and blurring the background is often the least effective way to create real depth. Instead, he walks through the idea of a clear foreground, midground, and background, and how separating a scene into those distinct planes gives an image a three-dimensional quality that pulls a viewer in. He references the street work of Alex Webb as an example of what this looks like at a high level, where sometimes so many layers stack up that a single frame looks like several scenes fused together. Getting there takes more than just awareness of what's in front of you.
Kent recommends shooting somewhere in the f/8 to f/11 range when you're trying to work with layered compositions, since that keeps enough of the scene in focus to actually see those distinct planes rather than collapsing everything behind your subject into blur. On focal length, he points to the 28mm to 50mm range as a practical sweet spot, wide enough to include multiple elements without distorting the scene. Overlapping subjects is another factor worth thinking about: when two or three people mash together into a single indistinct mass, the layering falls apart unless they function as one deliberate group. These are the kinds of technical decisions that directly affect whether your composition reads as deep or flat.
The second major approach Kent covers is using layers of light, which he argues is one of the most important tools for creating depth across photography, cinematography, and painting alike. The basic principle is alternating zones of light and shadow moving through the frame, giving the eye clear stopping points at different distances. He ties this directly to the angle of the sun, explaining why golden hour and blue hour work so well: the low angle of light creates directional shadow that falls across subjects in a way that midday sun simply can't replicate. Midday isn't a dead end, but it requires more creative problem-solving, like shooting from within a shaded area looking outward. Kent also touches on contrasting textures, contrasting colors, and even slow shutter speed movement as additional ways to build layers into a frame, though those approaches get less screen time in the video.
What makes this video worth watching is that Kent doesn't stop at theory. He walks through the practical decisions, the tradeoffs, and what to actually look for when you're out shooting, including how to train your eye even when you don't have a camera in your hand. Check out the video above for the full breakdown from Kent.
1 Comment
Light is one part as far as where when and how! you advertise a Color course but have not really learn the main point of light and that is the colors.
Your Tee shirt is a great test! There are different colors but to some or most they are all on the same depth plane. There is a part of vision that is never really tested. Cover each eye separately when out doors in the sunlight. you will see each eye has a different shade like sunglasses of brown and blue or green. Think about it, each eye has a different shade of color it the lens of the eye But your brain mixes them together some how to make just one shade and that is what you work with in photography.
Now for a twist look at your tee shirt or even the icons on your computer screen say at the bottom. when i got some new classes with a common coating I saw in 3D sort of, now different were on a different depth plane, Blue and green are close but red and orange are closer. I used to work as a computer geek and one day after coming to work and turning on the monitor the world icon is where I could see around the sides and all other icons where deeper and some closer, Yep and i could only talk to a eye doctor for fear of being laughed at. Like when studying a computer book and using a yellow highlighter the print would like float up from the screen.
The point is the lens coating Crizal but there are other my eye doctor always puts on my glasses. Also my vision is 20/10 to 05 corrected I can read a sign in a Walmart from one side to the other clearly.
A very god point here is that the military sun protection is green it is the clearest in all types of light.
The other point is not only light but its colors.
Lastly color blinded people never see your depth in a photo, like deer see mainly in yellow but can see blue and green best during sunrise/set blue like a state troopers lights. and just recently found out how they can go through the darkest of woods and never hit a low limb is They lack a UV filter in their eyes, allowing them to perceive blue and UV wavelengths intensely they can see urine glowing in the dark to find each others location. Bet we can not.
Why Are so many paintings famous basically the light off the colors and very few can see all of them.
What is it that you see that gets your attention the light or the colors of depth at just looking. Why is it everyone loves a sunset/rise or even later during the blue hour. Why the normal camera can capture the colors in the night as well as the brightness with a longer than just a second or two exposure.
Did you know that humans could at one time see in the darkness of caves/tunnels proof of no soot on walls or anywhere.
The Camera of today digital as it be and the pixels that capture both light and colors a many unseen ever but there somehow making a difference to most all eyes.
By the way the best colors are captured on cloudy days with the jpeg color selector set at cloudy, leavers will tell you that!