It's been several years since I grabbed my first camera and starting venturing out and taking pictures. When I first started, I was online all the time watching videos, reading articles, gear reviews, really anything I could get my hands on. It was last week, when Facebook reminded me of a photo I posted a while back where I really felt everything had come together for me and I had really created a photograph. In the paragraphs below, I'm going to touch very briefly on the two major components of what makes a great photography and share the one shot where it came together for me.
At is core photography is all about exposure. When you take a picture you are making an exposure of the light coming into the lens. Thus, exposure is governed by light so photography is all about light. This is nothing new or earth shattering. Making an exposure is drastically different than creating a great photograph, but I'll get to that in a minute. Exposure is governed by three things, the aperture, or hole in the lens, the time the shutter stays open, and the ISO, or sensitivity of the sensor or film to that light. The best book I've encountered on exposure is 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. Bryan does a masterful job of explaining what I've mentioned above.
Here is my first exposure tip; Set and forget your ISO. You need to train yourself to read the light of a scene. If its bright and sunny set it to the lowest ISO you can, for me thats 100. Overcast days is probably ISO of 400, and indoors or near dusk it can go to 800 or 1600. ISO is very important part of the exposure but it is also the most damaging to the quality of the photos you can take as it introduces noise or grain. This is especially important if you have a cropped sensor camera like a Canon T5i or a Nikon D3200. The smaller sensors get noisier and grainy at lower ISOs than a full frame sensor like that in a Canon 6D.
Now we made an exposure but guess what, our pictures are still uninspiring and not very good. Remember, I said that making an exposure was not going to ensure a great photograph.
Now we move on to the 64,000 pound gorilla in the room and that is composition. One of the greatest photographers in history, Henri Cartier-Bresson said "Composition is the strongest way of seeing." I am 3000% convinced that you could leave your camera in Auto mode, please don't email me about how auto mode is bad, and you are correct, I seldom shoot in auto mode anymore. I'm highlighting how many get caught up in the technical aspects of photography, I did too, and never really ask themselves what am I trying to say with this photo, what is important here. Again, I refer to Bryan Peterson's book 'Understand Composition'.
Oh, and before someone asks. No, I am not getting a kickback from Bryan Peterson for promoting his books. But if he should happen to come across this post and feature it on his site, or offer me a free pass to one of his workshops I wouldn't say no.
Composition Tip:
The more stuff you have in your photograph the less compelling it will be. In other words, keep it simple. Our brains are amazing, and they immediately cull out what isn't important. However, when they are looking at a photograph they see everything. Our goal as photographers is to place items in the frame that keep the viewers eyes on what we felt was important.
As I mentioned above what really got me thinking about this was Facebook reminding me about a photo I posted a while back. It was the first photo where I really felt it had all come together. The location was great, the timing was perfect, the exposure was spot on and the composition strong.
As I look at that shot again it still for me is where I felt it really all came together. Of course, I think I could have made it better perhaps by shooting a bit lower to the ground thus getting more foreground in the image.
I recently read a quote that applies well to photography.
"The Master has failed more times then the beginner has even tried."
Stephen McCraine
Our society has become so afraid of failure, we protect ourselves from it at all costs, we shelter our children from it, we don't keep score so someone doesn't feel bad when their team lost. In photography, and probably in most anything, it's our failures that teach us the most. I failed so many times before getting the 'money' shots. Guess what, I still fail and still will. That's what makes the hits so sweet 'cause you earned it.
One final quote to leave to leave you with.
"Your first 10,000 photographs will be your worst."
Henri Cartier-Bresson
I don't know exactly but I pretty sure I am over that 10,000 mark so I'm hoping for many more hits as I work towards 20,000.