Exercise: A single small figure

This will be an interesting and very specific exercise. I need to photograph a figure as a small part of a scene.  Ideas I have at the moment include a subway or the stairwell in a multistory car park.  I will probably take someone with me to do this as its easier than waiting for someone to appear.  The main focus of this exercise is the position of the figure within the photograph, they need to be visible but not the main focus, the viewers eye needs to be drawn to them. It will be all about getting the balance right, so that the view doesn't miss them either.

I have recently been reading the kindle book 'On being a Photographer' and one thing that I have been  interested in is the mention of contact sheet. Although these hold their roots in dark rooms I did use a version of these when i started my first photography course. My way of using them at that point was as a record to refer to, I would print a contact sheet with the photographs on also the data relating to the photographs was also printed giving me something to look back at to see how I took a particular photograph.   I know it can be argued that this can be done by looking at the computer screen, but I think it could be useful in this exercise.


Well time is ticking on  I have not had chance to pick my camera up much recently, rather than get further and further behind on my dates I have been looking back through some of the work I have done since I started this course to see if I could make use of anything in this exercise.


I found this photograph of someone just walking into the picture which I took in Whitstable, although in some ways the figure is larger than I would have liked, I understand the principle which I think is the main idea.

I like the position of the person is this one as there is still room for them to move into.