The iPhone Photography Book

Avoid Distracting Bright Spots in the Background

Our eyes are drawn to the brightest part of any image—we immediately go right there, and then we look at the rest of the picture. Since we know (from loads of research) that our eyes are going to those bright areas first, we’d better make sure they’re not in the background behind our subject (as seen above). I cannot tell you how many images have been ruined by a big, bright area in the background that draws the viewer’s eyes away from the subject and onto that spot. You see this a lot in portraits where something in the background behind the subject draws your eyes, and it could have been fixed ...