Help me. My Finger Is Getting Sore.
You’ll all be pleased to hear that I’ve been merrily snapping away on my camera during my week off (sorry I can’t bring myself to call it “photography” – I’m really bad.) In fact I’m snapping so much that I’m filling up the memory card at a frightening speed. However I’m beginning to suspect that this clicking-diarrhoea is just plain wrong. It’s so fundamentally different from the way Rich shoots that I just know it’s not the right way to photograph. Quantity seems to be inversely proportional to quality.
As I’ve blogged before, Rich shoots very carefully and precisely. He never ever uses burst mode and sets each shot up in excruciating detail, Westonesque-style, making sure everything is correct down to the last detail before he presses the shutter. He’ll shoot precious few images in a three hour shoot, but practically every one is pretty darn good, in my opinion. This is largely helped by the fact that when the model moves, he makes sure she moves very slowly, so he captures minute changes and subtle nuances in her expression.
Unfortunately ordinary mortals like me simply can’t work that way. Over-excited four year old kids don’t exactly respond to “please can you kindly lift your head, sit up straight, point your toes, and put your right hand on your leg, now hold it, hold it…” Instead they hurl themselves around yelling “I’m a pretty pink flying angel-cat-lady!” and unless you’re heavy on the continuous shooting, there's no way that you'll ever get that split-second melt-in-your-mouth expression that you’re looking for.
I think part of the problem is style. Studio nudes are more stage managed (I won’t call them contrived otherwise I’ll be heading for a marital rift rather sharpish) whereas the “stuff of life” is more of a recording of an event that is already happening, a sort of photographic reportage. To my mind, when you’re shooting a moving subject, you’re trying to capture a story that is unfolding, and most of all you’re trying to capture an expression, a single moment that is the high point of the scene and will sum up the entire story in a single frame, what Cartier-Bresson called “the decisive moment.”
But how can you be sure you’re not going to miss it? What happens if you get distracted for an instant? Surely you have to keep compulsively pressing that shutter as quickly as you can, because how else are you going to be sure you’re not going to overlook that moment? After all, it’s not as if you’re going to be able to wind the scene backwards and photograph it all over again. Once it’s gone, it’s too late. How can you be sure you’re not going to hesitate at the wrong moment, blink or simply think you’re recorded everything you need, only to stop shooting and seconds later miss the very picture you were looking for?
Of all the art-forms, it is only the photographer who has to capture his entire message in a split second. As Cartier-Bresson observed, photographers are dealing with things that are constantly vanishing. They have to intuitively perceive and record an exact moment in time, and only if the shutter is released at the decisive moment, will they get that indefinable “something” that they were instinctively looking for.
I’m not sure if this decisive moment is discovered through skill, judgement, chance or sheer bloody-minded perseverance. Is it better to shoot slowly and carefully like Rich, or err on the side of caution and shoot thousands of shots, microseconds apart, in the hope that one of them will turn out the way I want it?
If anyone has any guidance, please do let me know, before I turn into a compulsive, trigger-happy shooter with an aching finger permanently welded to the shutter button.
Images are of Lou-Lou searching for her own decisive moment (and if you think I'm showing my truly terrible snapshots here, "you've got another think coming" as my mother used to say.)
posted by Lin at 1:41 PM
7 Comments:
In my opinion you’re comparing apples and oranges, Rich’s skill and talent are a result of years of practice and though. You are still considering your plan and charting your course. First and foremost get your exposers down and learn how to think on the fly camera wise. Then you start to refine your look as you develop the knowledge of what statement you are trying to achieve. And then you can really define your craft as you get more ideas of what you want to accomplish, and it doesn’t happen after only a week of shooting. You learn patience and to stalk your images; I’ve always’s thought of it as hunting. Find the place where the game lies and the pick out the best subjects and shoot them in their natural settings. Enjoy your quest and enjoy the learning.
Michael
O.K. Let's clarify something here.
I've been taking photographs a lot longer than a week. I've been doing it regularly since I first had a camera at about the age of fourteen, from my first box brownie upwards. I’ve taken many thousands of photos in my time (haven’t we all?) but I’m trying to move out of the “snapping a photo with minimal thought and everything set to auto” to real photography. There’s a difference. I’ve no idea if I’d qualify as a “newbie.” Rich would say yes because I don’t know my f-stops from my apertures. I’d say yes because although my photographs bring me a lot of pleasure, technically (compared to Rich’s) they’re crap. Rich takes a great deal of time to set up and work out a particular shot in detail, I just shoot in bulk, with minimal thought for the mechanics of the process. Sometimes I get a humdinger of a shot (by chance presumably) but most of the time I don’t. So the evidence would thus point to slow and careful yields results. On the other hand, I know of a great many photographers who shoot many hundreds of photographs per shoot, in the belief (usually correct) that they will get a few sweet ones from the bulk.
Which is the right way, if any?
They both are to a certain degree but I think that the photographer that has the vision will win out over the one who’s hoping that the odds are with him/her. That’s what I mean by learning your craft, it still doesn’t happen over night for forever for that matter. You’ve obviously reached a stage in knowledge that you’re making judgement based on that knowledge, i.e..., you know what you don’t want or are not happy with. Don't get me wrong I make no judgements on your photos in the past but now you know a different set of values to use in judging your images. With all the thing you have on your plate you’ve add another layer and that’s good. From here refine you vision based on that knowledge you’ve acquired and I think you will find your own vision. It doesn’t matter what Rich thinks or what I think this game is all up to you to decide. And don’t be so hard on yourself your approach is fine because getting there is half the fun.
Michael V.
In the book I'm working on with Irakly Shanidze, he says a photographer must master all the technical issues before she tries to create art. When the technical becomes second nature, you will be better able to swiftly respond and capture the moment.
I am really just trying to parrot what he said, so I hope this makes sense. If it doesn't, it's my fault, not Irakly's. Of course, he's gone off to Russia, so just don't tell him!
editing is as important as shooting. if you're willing to edit through thousands of images to find the best, sometimes, that one, killer best, ok, i guess that works for you. if not, you might want to consider limiting the number of exposures you capture. there no right way and wrong way to shoot, leastwise, in terms of how many pics you capture. I've had models in front of me where I captured fifty to a hundred snaps and i turn to her and say, "ok. I've got it. I'm done." other times, it takes three or four-hundred before I feel I'm done, i.e., I have what i need. Often, as long as I have "the shot" amongst my captures, clients don't care if I shot fifty or three-hundred.
It's said that the more you shoot the better your eye will get. If rapid fire works for you go with it. Just be sure to use another finger for the delete button. That way you won't over tax your shutter one.
I think this line really sums it up.
"...my photographs bring me a lot of pleasure,..."
As I see it as you develop more skill you'll just get more pleasure. Don't worry about the tech stuff, it will slowly work it's way into the process. I think if you just take a second before the delete to look at why your deleting that image it will soon sink into your brain not to make that mistake again. When you look into the camera you will start to see that it's going to be too dark, the pole sticks out of his head, the wall is crooked, the horizon is not level, it's too bright, their moving, I'm moving, you will start to make the adjustment you need to get a better image. If ya think about it all the time, by the time you get the tech stuff going you missed the shot that will make ya happy.
Snap,Snap,Snap,Snap,Snap,Snap,Snap.
Delete,Delete,Delete,Delete,Delete.
WOW...Hey Rich look at this great shot of her laughing...priceless.
Of course this is coming from a guy whose last image was of some plumbing so I got it back together right. So I'd throw a little salt over your shoulder before I'd take my advice to heart. :-)
D.L. Wood
Just keep shooting! You'll find your niche, style, and workflow as you go. For now...shoot, shoot, and shoot some more.
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