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Learning "vision"

Bob Rogers

New member
Does anyone have exercises or photographic assignments that can help someone develop vision?

My technique is solid. I get some good photos sometimes, but I'd like to do better. I know I'll never have the abilities of some of the people here (because they have devoted major portions of their lives and I can't do that), but I know I can improve. I know it will take effort.
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Define your idea of "vision", Bob. Perhaps point towards a body of work that exemplifies "vision" to you.

There's a whole book/workshop cottage industry devoted to selling "vision". But it's like selling "taste".
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Bob,

Vision starts with personal taste. It starts with a conscious awareness of what you like and don't like. One of the first exercises you can do is make a list of what you like and don't like in photography and which photographers you like and dislike.

Vision is about your personal taste, as well as your personal opinions, expressed visually. it's about taking a stance and expressing it through a 2 dimmentional visual medium.

We all have opinions. We all have taste. The first issue here is knowing what our opinions and taste are in regards to photography. The second issue is learning how to express our taste and opinions in a visual language.

The visual language of photography is really what has to be learned. This knowledge is not innate, and unless we grew up among artists or went to art school, we are not familiar with it. It is like learning a foreign language in a way. The challenge for many is accepting that while we may intuitively know what a fine art photograph is of, because we are familiar with the subject matter, we do not know intuitively how it was made.

Learning this is one of the very first steps, and definitely one of the most important ones as well.

Art is one of the very few endeavors where your opinions can help you create great work!
 

Randy Rebolos

New member
Does anyone have exercises or photographic assignments that can help someone develop vision?

My technique is solid. I get some good photos sometimes, but I'd like to do better. I know I'll never have the abilities of some of the people here (because they have devoted major portions of their lives and I can't do that), but I know I can improve. I know it will take effort.


Hi Bob,

Try doing projects. It could be about anything but something specific. Cars, old cars, bridges, signs, lighthouse or old mills. This will allow you to narrow your shots to specific things. Do this for a year or six months but enough time for you to come up a substantial body of work on a particular subject.

You can then study how it came out. Improvements. What to do and to avoid next time a similar situation comes up.

I'm a bit of in between myself. If I'm lucky I'll see the print in my head looking at the scene but most of the time, I have to work it before I get my POV.

Hope this helps,

Randy
 

Jean Henderson

New member
Hi Bob,

I'm just a little guy when it comes to photography. So much that I came to this post to see what I could learn. But my 2 cents would include a couple of things. David duChemin has a series of 3 books on vision. I've only read 2 of them because I'm not interested in being a business and one is dedicated to that. He is a "world and humanitarian" photographer of international stature, at least at the moment. His site is:

www.pixelatedimage.com

Also, I would suggest that, when you are not shooting, you learn about basic design. Many books exist on that subject but even a town adult ed department might offer a hands on opportunity to explore the basic principles and to "get your feet wet". I could be wrong because I am mostly self taught, but any book on photographic composition that you read is going to be based on the 2 dimensional aspect so there is a lot of cross over between design and composition. IMHO, your vision will grow from the combination of being intimately familiar with design, composition, and what Alain describes as your opinion -- as well as mastering techinique and learning the ways it can serve your opinion and taste.

Jean
 

Ed Rizk

New member
This is one of the eternal questions

Bob,

Great question. I liked the other responses. As the new guy, I would humbly add that I find it useful to look at the main lines and shapes in a photo as elements of an abstract. We focus so much on what we are shooting that we forget the basic elements that attract the eye.

Ed
 
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