The Hero in Photography Composition: Directing the Eye

Organizing objects in composition is easy when we photograph a single object.
It has no competition; its presence in the image is unchallenged.
But what happens if there are more objects? How do you prioritize?
How do you show the viewer who is the most important one?

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If our photography has a storytelling component in it, we can take advantage of the Hero Concept.
The Hero Concept helps you direct the viewer's attention to a particular person or object that is driving the narrative of your photograph.

By using lighting, composition, and color strategically, you can make your subject the hero of the story unfolding in the photograph.

The hero concept applies to everything.
A dog, a chair, a mountain - any visual object in your photograph can be promoted to be the hero.

Anyone can become a hero in a photo — Who is the hero in this photograph?

So how do you apply the hero concept in your photography?

USE CENTRAL PLACEMENT

Central placement in composition emphasizes importance and helps the character appear like the hero in the scene. When the main subject is positioned centrally, it becomes a focal point for our eye.

Hero central placement — The woman is centrally placed, hence the main attention goes to her

Hero central placement, standing main character — The main character is standing and centered. The supporting characters are off-centered and all sitting; none of them is in competition with our hero

Hero central placement in composition — Our hero is centrally placed in the composition. The supporting characters are not in the center and far behind, which makes them lose any dominance in the frame

USE LIGHT TO POINT AT OUR HERO

When it comes to composition, light is another powerful ally, and we can use it with great success to assign priorities to our characters.
The most efficient way is to use light as a torch: we place our main character in the scene in such a way that the light is pointing at him.

The scene is lit in such a way that light points towards our main subject; the rest of the characters are in the shadows

We can use light the opposite way. By making our hero a silhouette against a brightly lit background, we create an area of high contrast that naturally attracts the viewer's eye

Our hero is centered, light points at him, he is the largest object in the frame, closer to the camera and standing. The girl in the back might be considered a candidate as well: she is brightly lit, but she is further away and smaller, which gives her less presence in the frame

COLOR: A POWERFUL TOOL TO POINT AT THE HERO

Color is probably one of the most powerful tools in photography, maybe even second only to light itself. It's amazing how often you hear something like, "This would be a fantastic shot, if only there was a woman in a red dress in the frame!"

Why is that? Why do we want a woman wearing red in our frame? Simply because she will be a massive attention magnet. She will stand out no matter what; she will be the hero

Using a contrasting color can instantly isolate your subject, and it doesn't have to be a red dress - any color will do the trick, it just needs to be different from the rest of the scene!

Just like light, color can easily isolate a person or a part of the scene, making it important

Of course, there's a bit more to it than just throwing color in.
For it to work effectively, the color needs to be used in clear contrast with its surroundings.
You also want to avoid competition from other colors in the scene.
Even two objects of the same color can confuse the viewer's eye and detract from your main subject.

ith the color, there is no confusion about who the hero is

Here it gets confusing. The objects compete with each other, making the prioritization of a hero a harder task

DISTANCE FROM THE CAMERA

Distance matters. An object or person closer to the camera will appear larger and therefore more important. This increased size translates to a sense of dominance and draws the viewer's attention first.

The man on the left is the closest to the camera, and the camera is focused on him. Even if we focused on the character in the back, the dominance of the object in the front would be so strong that we couldn't ignore it

The focus of the photograph is actually on the soldier behind, but the use of a high aperture (f/13) creates some sharpness in the foreground character. Even though she's not perfectly sharp, the woman in the front still has a more dominant presence in the frame and feels more important

DOF AND FOCUS

We tend to read better the areas in focus. By using a lower aperture and focus, we can isolate a particular hero from the rest. Using shallow DOF is by far the easiest way to assign priorities in photography.

Using DOF to prioritize one subject over the other — A simple example of how to prioritize one subject over the other by using shallow depth of field

By using shallow depth of field, we can blur the competition in the front and the back and make a single subject stand out from the crowd, naturally directing the viewer's focus to their face.

Shallow depth of field isolating a subject from a crowd — Even though our hero is in the middle and surrounded by others, shallow DOF helped her stand out from the rest

By combining an understanding of subject distance with shallow depth of field, we can easily strengthen the identity of our hero.

Having the woman close to the camera could do the job, but by reducing the strength of her competitors with a little bit of DOF blur, we've made her presence stronger

You can really play with DOF and hero roles creatively.

This photograph challenges the common composition approach.
Normally you would focus on the person in the front, the one closer to the camera, as we spoke about a moment ago.
But by using a low aperture and focusing on the person in the back, I've made an unexpected hero in that frame. That brings extra interest to the photograph.

USING SUB-FRAMING TO ASSIGN PRIORITIES

Sub-framing is the classic composition technique to use if you want to assign importance to a certain part of the image. In this case, it has been used to frame only one person and show him as our hero.

Using sub-framing to assign priority between multiple objects — By using sub-framing, I could easily focus the viewer's attention on the person I wanted

GESTURE

Now we are getting to the non-technical ways to assign importance to a particular person in a photograph.

Gestures are a form of nonverbal communication that helps us understand the intentions and emotions of others. Our brains are wired to pay attention to these.
That makes gestures so important in photography: we will always notice them when we see them.

Gesture emphasizing importance — Although the character is centered, which should already be a hint that he is our hero, the moment of the hand gesture emphasizes that

Selecting one out of many by gesture — The characters are similar in size, and it would be easy to miss a hero in this photograph, but that hand gesture of the man adds some bonus points to him

Relationship between people pointing towards the hero — Although there are multiple happenings in this frame, our gaze will most likely first go and examine the relationship of the couple on the right. (Yes, both are heroes)

EYE CONTACT

When a character establishes eye contact with the photographer, it directly engages the viewer. The character who looks at the camera instantly becomes the hero of the frame.
This is a trick used by many event photographers.
They would say to a group of people, "Now everyone look at me," and everyone becomes a hero.
Or "Now only one person look at me," and that person becomes the hero.

ye contact establishing connection with the viewer — Eye contact used to establish connection with the viewer and create nonverbal selection

It works the same way with animals. The moment eye contact is initiated, the subject engages with the viewer and becomes the hero.

Animal eye contact showing the dominant figure in the composition. The dog is undoubtedly the hero of this image

It is enough even to face towards the camera and have the eyes visible. If there is no other competition, the one facing the camera will win the dominance challenge.

Facing the camera to align priority — The girl is not looking directly at the camera, but she is still the most dominant person in the frame

Eye contact overpowering sharpness. Although the girl is sharper in the frame, the eye contact comes from behind and overpowers her presence

EYES / HANDS DIRECTION

Using gaze direction to point towards the hero. Not only eye contact - even the direction people gaze can point us towards our hero

In a similar way, a hand pointing towards someone will elevate that character to a more important one.

Pointing hands directing attention in the frame. Here we don't get closure. He is out of the frame, and we can only wonder

BEING THE HUMAN IN THE FRAME

We are wired in such a way that we perceive the human as the dominant ruler of this world. Therefore, if there is a human among other species, the human will always be perceived as the hero.