A few thoughts before you take or post a picture
Jul 24, 2010 15:51:07 GMT
Post by rikita on Jul 24, 2010 15:51:07 GMT
(This is a very basic topic, and it is mainly just my own thoughts, others might think differently - I am thus not sure if it really belongs in "technique", but then again, I think the thoughts you put in before taking a picture are part of photographing...)
The topics of focus and composition will play a part in this text, though they aren’t the main issue – I might write something about them in more detail later on. But of course, different topics are often related to each other, so I will mention them here too…
When I look at some of the photos I find online, or at my own photos, especially the ones I took just after I got my digital camera, I get the impression that a lot of people (including me) sometimes just walk around going “This is nice *snap*, this is nice *snap*, this is nice *snap* etc.” without thinking much. Since digital photography has become common, and everyone has huge amounts of space on their computers, it has become easy to just increase the volume of what one photographs in the hope of that some of these pictures will be nice. That, however, doesn’t always work out.
Back when I had to pay for developing each film, and each photo (and at the same time I was still in school, and later at university, so constantly short on money), I had to think twice about each picture I took. Is this worth the 20 or 30 or whatever cents it will cost? And this one? I tried to make most out of each picture, and tried to get only one – the best – view of each object or landscape or person I photographed. With a digital camera, this is of course not necessary – but it might be a good idea to set yourself some limits.
Even if you photograph all that walks in front of your lens – do you have the space on your computer to keep all those pictures? And if you upload them to a web album or a site – do people really want to see all of those? Personally, in photo-threads, if someone posts one or one or two pictures of a specific subject, I look at them. If there are ten or twenty, I go through them quickly, without spending much attention. There are exceptions, of course – but usually, especially for those people that haven’t been there, many shots of the same subject just look, well, the same. Of course, if you have a digital camera, you might make the decision which picture is the best only later, when you see them in big – actually, sometimes I have to do that, because the display screen on my camera is not that good, so I can’t always tell if the focus is right, for example. And if I photograph a moving object, I often have to hurry to get pictures – and only later think about if I really wanted those.
Another thing is, though, that even if you limit yourself, you have to keep in mind that the picture of a nice thing is not automatically a nice picture. It’s one thing to take a picture to show how cute your kitten is, how beautiful a sunset was, how impressive a mountain – and another thing to actually take a good picture. In my opinion, taking a picture is creating something, not only documenting something. Before you take the picture, you should think about what you want the result to look like.
When you look at other people’s photos, or your own, think about why you like that photo – and not why you like the subject. Or why you dislike the photo, even though the subject is nice. Maybe there is this annoying little edge of a car in the corner of an otherwise uncluttered landscape? Or the horizon is crooked? Or the important object is tiny and hardly visible? Or the person’s feet are cut off? Is the important thing in focus? And – is this really something the world needs to see? I think looking at photos is a good practice to develop an “eye” for your own photos. And then, when you take yours, try to envision the photo you want to have in the end – and try to put these ideas into practice.
The topics of focus and composition will play a part in this text, though they aren’t the main issue – I might write something about them in more detail later on. But of course, different topics are often related to each other, so I will mention them here too…
When I look at some of the photos I find online, or at my own photos, especially the ones I took just after I got my digital camera, I get the impression that a lot of people (including me) sometimes just walk around going “This is nice *snap*, this is nice *snap*, this is nice *snap* etc.” without thinking much. Since digital photography has become common, and everyone has huge amounts of space on their computers, it has become easy to just increase the volume of what one photographs in the hope of that some of these pictures will be nice. That, however, doesn’t always work out.
Back when I had to pay for developing each film, and each photo (and at the same time I was still in school, and later at university, so constantly short on money), I had to think twice about each picture I took. Is this worth the 20 or 30 or whatever cents it will cost? And this one? I tried to make most out of each picture, and tried to get only one – the best – view of each object or landscape or person I photographed. With a digital camera, this is of course not necessary – but it might be a good idea to set yourself some limits.
Even if you photograph all that walks in front of your lens – do you have the space on your computer to keep all those pictures? And if you upload them to a web album or a site – do people really want to see all of those? Personally, in photo-threads, if someone posts one or one or two pictures of a specific subject, I look at them. If there are ten or twenty, I go through them quickly, without spending much attention. There are exceptions, of course – but usually, especially for those people that haven’t been there, many shots of the same subject just look, well, the same. Of course, if you have a digital camera, you might make the decision which picture is the best only later, when you see them in big – actually, sometimes I have to do that, because the display screen on my camera is not that good, so I can’t always tell if the focus is right, for example. And if I photograph a moving object, I often have to hurry to get pictures – and only later think about if I really wanted those.
Another thing is, though, that even if you limit yourself, you have to keep in mind that the picture of a nice thing is not automatically a nice picture. It’s one thing to take a picture to show how cute your kitten is, how beautiful a sunset was, how impressive a mountain – and another thing to actually take a good picture. In my opinion, taking a picture is creating something, not only documenting something. Before you take the picture, you should think about what you want the result to look like.
When you look at other people’s photos, or your own, think about why you like that photo – and not why you like the subject. Or why you dislike the photo, even though the subject is nice. Maybe there is this annoying little edge of a car in the corner of an otherwise uncluttered landscape? Or the horizon is crooked? Or the important object is tiny and hardly visible? Or the person’s feet are cut off? Is the important thing in focus? And – is this really something the world needs to see? I think looking at photos is a good practice to develop an “eye” for your own photos. And then, when you take yours, try to envision the photo you want to have in the end – and try to put these ideas into practice.