Hello Monday Lesson friends!

This week I am giving you guys an assignment! Ah, but I am jumping ahead...first we need to talk about what our topic is for the day.

I personally think one of the main problems when shooting casual photos of your kids is the sheer amount of visual clutter in the frame. It takes away the focus from our subject. If you are at a soccer game you have people, coolers, folding chairs, etc. At home you have scattered toys and laundry piles. The lists go on. When you are trying to catch the moment you don't have time to remove all of the distractors and that's ok. However, when you do have the time and things are moving slower, it always helps to take the time to craft a better shot by cleaning it up.

One way to de-clutter your shot is to minimize the color clutter. What color clutter? Yes. When you go to a professional photographer for a portrait they will likely coach you on what to wear. We do this because when everyone in the shot is wearing a different color it makes it so much harder to look at. A simple way to clean up your compositions and make your images more striking is to limit your color palette. Here is an example:

This trick won't work for your everyday shots that you have .2 seconds to catch, this concept is for the times when you can take a few extra minutes and prepare. For example, If you are taking the kids to the park to shoot a holiday card photo, you can take a little bit of time and coordinate their outfits. In group shots, everyone doesn't need to match. How many times do you all leave the house wearing the same outfit? Never! I like to tell people to coordinate instead. Imagine that everyone's outfits are one outfit. Pick one color palette and stay there. I believe, in a portrait, your clothes should either say something about who you are (funky, trendy, crazy, conservative, dressy, etc.) OR take a backseat (simple, classic, not distracting). It's the middle ground, where it looks without purpose, that can make an image suffer.

When you look at the shot above, it has a very limited color palette. If her scarf was red and her pants were another color, it would distract you from her belly. In this example, her clothing is not the subject but merely a frame. For an image like this, you want the picture to have a feeling of color harmony. The skin, the background, the wrap and her pants all go together.

This brings me to your assignment. Take a photograph (of anything or anyone) that has a limited color palette or shows color harmony. That's it! Post your Flickr links in the comments section here or post images to The Monday Lesson Flickr group. Don't be shy!