Tag Archives: photography

Notes and musings on photography taken during a recent workshop…

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Everything communicates something

Start with what you want to say, start with the story.
Know where you are going. (what’s your destination)

You are answering the question WHY. Why is the photo important. How am I going to use it. What am I trying to say.

Knowing how you’ll use it is important, partially because the end product may introduce constraints such as aspect ratio, resolution, etc…

When thinking about the why, ask yourself, what compositional elements do I need to tell that story.

Consider not just your own perspective, but consider the perspective of your intended audience. Consider the cultural context you will be communicating in.

Powerful images eliminate distractions.

Re: portraiture, know your subjects personality. Find ways to draw that personality out to say what you want to say.

Emphasize what is.

Art is about drawing attention to specific elements in life and the world around us. We use all sorts of techniques to warp what is seen to add emphasis to the parts we think are important. Boring photos emphasize nothing.

All images are relational, by which we mean, we relate the subject matter of the image. You, as the artist, define that relationship and manipulate it, in order to create in the audience an emotion.

Elements of composition

Dimension
– Texture
– DOF
– Foreground/Background
– Shadow (directionality of light)
– Rim lighting
– Size of subject

Perspective
– Shooting down,
– Shooting up, Shooting at subjects level,
– Profile,
– Mug shot, etc…

Balance (deliberate use or disuse)
– rule of thirds
– symmetry

Time/Timing
– Progression (DOF, repetition with slight changes)
– Freeze frames
– Repetition
– Blur

Leading Lines

Contrast
– light/dark (more contrast adds impact. The faster you go from light to dark in a gradient the more rich a photo will appear.) (see the concept of compression as it relates to dynamic range, similar to the way an audio engineer will use compression)
– anachronism (using two objects that don’t fit together – wrong time periods, opposing ideas [short/tall, thin/fat]- to emphasize the differences between the two.)

Know when to edit. Not all photos should be kept.
– Is the photo deceptive, unflattering?
– Quantity doesn’t mean quality.

Be familiar with moods/emotions. Be able to recognize them quickly, know how to work with each emotion.

Basic compositions for portraits:
– face
– head/shoulders
– waist up
– full profile

almost anything else is awkward.

 

Goings On, eek, ack, uck, and urk.

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Its been a dizzying few weeks. All sorts of emotionally stretching activities. Being an entrepreneur is emotionally hard. ;) at least, at first.

So. the ads at theknot.com have been up since last Friday. it has been almost a week, and I have received two email inquiries (from the knot i believe), one which i met with yesterday. And one call from a bridesmaid of a couple whose wedding i shot 3 years ago. Three contacts in a week. not bad. :)

This should make me excited, and it does. Very. :) but unexpectedly, I found myself up against feelings of doubt and personal ego. I found myself feeling that they might not like me. and feeling the pressure to perform up to expectations, expectations i had less a firm grasp upon than I liked.

This all, I think, will pass. I’m new to this kind of situation. I want so badly for things to go really well (and honestly, I believe they will. don’t mistake this for a pity party.) that I feel more pressure than normal.

It has revealed to me a side of myself I wasn’t fully aware of though. I’m a worrier. ;) I come from a long line of worriers. I don’t worry in the traditional sense, but I do tend to dwell on things much longer than is profitable, wondering how it will turn out, and feeling unsettled by the prospects of it going a direction I don’t like.

This is something I think has had its subtle fingers in my life for a long time, and frankly, I welcome the opportunity to dig it out. I can’t sleep when I travel because I’m afraid I’ll miss something. I tend to meddle in places too long when I shouldn’t because I don’t like not being in control of my own destiny. I don’t like to trust God, or other people, until I know where they are heading, because I want to be in control, and when I’m not, I worry.

My natural tendency, when confronted with this problem is to stop caring. Thats a clever way of avoiding the problem I think. It doesn’t build anything, doesn’t strengthen anything. No risk, no reward.

So heres to practice. practicing trusting God, not by giving up, but by accepting that what God is going to do is going to be good, and whatever the circumstances, those i can simply enjoy as experiences, no more, no less.