“He’s gotta be good, and he’s gotta be strong…” Sorry, I fell into an 80’s power-ballad for a moment there. Once the earworm stops we can get to the real point of this article.
I’m not talking about whether you’re Team Batman or Spiderman here or even about the person you most admire. Nor even those true heroes among us, emergency service workers who save lives every day. Nope, I’m talking about the hero concept in photography and why you need one in every photo you take.
What is the hero of a photograph?
The ‘Hero’ is the most important element in the image that you wish to be seen as the most prominent feature.
It’s as simple as that! Sure, the term is a little bit cringe. However, it’s an important thing to consider before you even put your camera up to your eye. It will not only make your overall image more powerful and have a stronger message, but it will also impact the composition and many other small decisions you make in the creative process.
Commercial photography
In commercial and advertising photography, it’s actually rather straightforward: the Hero is usually the item that is being sold. But not always. Some advertisements, particularly those by massive international brands, are rather more ambiguous.
In these two shots there’s a pretty girl in a summer dress, in bright sunlight in an interesting location. These things all add to the mix of the photo, but the hero is indisputedly the Nike tick:
Many of them are not just selling a product but an entire lifestyle around what it means to buy that product. So the hero might actually be the huge happy smile on a kid’s face as Grampa takes him out for ice cream (well, the hero would be both the smile and the ice cream!). But you get it right?
Food photography heroes
Similarly, food photography is a little easier to figure out. Oftentimes, a food stylist will refer to ‘the hero’ as the best-looking food item that you have available. For example, if you’re photographing a burger, you will probably use a stand-in while you get every set-up, adjust the lighting and fine-tune the composition. Then, when everything is ready, you will exchange the stand-in for the hero, and get that delicious shot. It’s doubly important to do this with anything that will wilt or melt under hot studio lights.
For these shots I made an extra effort to find the most perfect looking fruit, as I wanted to highlight the beauty of the form, the rich colour, and texture:
How to find your hero
But what happens if you’re just shooting for yourself or for your portfolio?
Let’s say you are photographing a cocktail on a bright summer’s day, in hard light. What could the hero be? Well ultimately, it depends on your goals for the image, what you want to say with it, and how you want the viewer to feel. What is the message you want the viewer to come away with?
You could do this, and make the bright sunlight the hero:
Or you could make the hero any of the following:
The drink itself plus the packaging, i.e. a drink product
The garnish in the cocktail
The glass
The background/set/shadows
The beads of condensation on the glass plus the hot summery feel making the viewer thirsty
Here are three different ways to shoot the same drink. They all have a different focal point, and therefore a different message to the viewer:
You could argue that you want all three of these things, and that is fine. However, I would prioritise one of them to make the message in your photograph all the stronger.
Again, these two images of the same cocktail have entirely different feels, purely down to the choices made about how to present them:
Finding the hero in travel and landscape photography
With travel and landscape photography, it’s a little less straight-forward, because it’s less obvious what you are selling. Because of this, I think it’s even more important to really think hard about what it is you are trying to say before you click the shutter.
It doesn’t have to be that complicated, either. The hero could be a person or animal:
In this image, notice how the fence lines and the tracks in the snow lead the eye up to the hero, the horse, and the rider next to the tree.
Or it could be a building or small town:
In this image, the village is centred, increasing its prominence. It is also lit up by the brightest part in an otherwise quite stormy sky. Again, the lines of the vines draw the eye up towards it.
What do you think is the most important element in the next photo?
Well, it should be fairly obvious! It’s the main part of the waterfall. It’s not only in the centre of the image and is the brightest part, but there’s a lovely S-curve leading line from the bottom right corner that snakes up towards it, leading your eye through the image.
Other times it’s not so obvious however. It could be a general mood or feeling that you want to convey. For example, loneliness or isolation, or serenity. Which part of the photograph best conveys that aspect or mood? How can you use the composition to highlight that?
In the above image I wanted to convey a creepiness and sense of abandonment in the image. And yet, that bright patch of light in the middle catches your eye, drawing you in. But do you dare to enter? (I didn’t FYI, the roof looked way too unstable to go inside and I also didn’t fancy what I might find in there, like these urbex photographers did!).
Next time you’re shooting, take a moment to pause and really consider what you are trying to say with your image. It could merely be the sense of grandeur or beauty laid out in front of you. But even if you only go as far as identifying that, it will be a more successful photograph for having thought about it, I can guarantee that!
