003 Offsetting Your Subject

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Here is an idea that is used all the time and is very effective design. Offset your subject and reserve a large area of non-busy background to place your secondary information. I like this photo above although the cropped out foot does bother me. The dog looking straight ahead grabs your attention, but the direction of the body and tail push your eye to the right. This is exactly where you want to direct the viewer's eye.

This layout works well for placing more descriptive photographs of the dog. I was able to flop (face the other direction) a couple of the smaller photos so the dog is facing left. This holds the eye in the smaller photographs and up through the headline. Notice also that the ear of the dog overlaps the upper left-small photo. This gives the same effect as the last discussion regarding extending a photo outside the frame.

This layout also works well for placing descriptive text. The background was a little too dark so I screened back the photograph in the area of the body text. You could easily accomplish the same effect with a piece of velum over your photograph.

Here are photographs that would work well using an offset. In the left photo, the secondary information would go below the photo. Look for these types of photos when your scrapbooking. And create these types of photographs the next time you pick up your camera. But remember, background is key here – make sure it is not too busy.

Tips for Offsetting

• Take a lot of photos with this technique in mind
• Look for photos that lend themselves to this technique
• Outline a subject and place it on your own background to create this effect
• Allow the subject to determine where the eye should move
• Be very conscious of the background and keep it clean and un-obstructed

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Next week "A New Perspective!"