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Composition: How do we proceed?

Alain Briot

pro member
"Actually, the problem with being my toughest critic is that I'm unable to spot which of my images are the best."

I had the same problem. We are our worst critics, both in the sense of being driven to perfectionism,(which as you say is self defeating) and in the sense that we are unable to help ourselves through our own critique. It just doesn't work in my view.
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
One lens

One of the best exercises that I did in a workshop (Carlan Tapp - Finding Your Photographic Voice at the Santa Fe Workshops) was to take your camera and set your lens to one focal length for the entire workshop. We learned to see in the workshop so we would know what we wanted from our voice. We also read Art and Fear. We spent a week learning to see....the camera and lens are tools. We must develop the eye.
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Time to go back

Asher,

I don't remember what I got from reading it. Probably means I should go back and see what it means to me now. That workshop was over 10 years ago. With film. My whole viewpoint of my own work is far different now.
 
Wedding Photography as practice

Depending on your own proclivities, standing out or being different by having a camera and snapping shots may be an uncomfortable or self-conscious act.

For me, wedding photography provides a unique opportunity for two things:

1. Because people are counting on me, I have an "excuse" to put all my self-conscious tendencies aside. This allows me to practice being un-self-conscious.

2. Wedding photography is very similar to photojournalism (or can be) except it takes place in a staged environment with more than usual opportunities for creating excellent images.

Although it had not occurred to me until writing this, I can see how this challenging and opportune environment helps to re-enforce my skills and confidence as a candid photographer. I get to review lots of images with a higher than normal success rate, therefore accelerating my skills development and helps me discover a personal style.

I guess I say all this only to say that I think workshops and model sessions are a good way to improve rapidly too. Weddings are great because it is income rather than expense, but everyone reacts differently to that pressure. I have found I react positively to it and get into a zone where I don't even hear but only see.

Should anyone think I take weddings lightly and recommend taking on a wedding simply for practice, I don't. I prepare intensely for every wedding by looking at photos other photographers have taken and watching videos of other professionals doing weddings and visualizing myself and the wedding. My entire week before the wedding is consumed with the event at hand.

Great thread. I want to come back and comment more on other sub-threads another day.

If you're interested, here is a sampling from my last wedding: http://goo.gl/GJd5e (public facebook page)
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
" Is it gestalt, "born-with" characteristic of naturally "talented" people, or are there sets of rules we can harvest from their work? "

It is my belief that there are fields of work ( Arts and photography is one of them ) where:

1. You are born with an innate ability in that certain field. The maximum benefit of the environment and learning opportunity shows the most positive results within this category of the few.

2. You are not, but can aspire to a level of mediocre success within a field given a nurturing environment and learning. No amount of ' copying ' the masters or pseudo-intellectual visits to seminars, workshops, discussion forums and practice is going to take one from this level to level number 1.

3. Commercial success is more dependent on marketing, network, social and financial status and yes, luck. Luck has a lot to do with it, as is the accident of birth in life.

Most of the human population falls within the 2nd category of a certain field. Composition and Spatial visualization in the Arts and or Photography is no exception.

2A: Most of us, luckily not only the gifted few , can however enjoy the pursuit of photography nowadays. There might exist a significant amount of people with the gift but neither the opportunity nor the means to realize their talent.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I have an "excuse" to put all my self-conscious tendencies aside

Depending on your own proclivities, standing out or being different by having a camera and snapping shots may be an uncomfortable or self-conscious act.

For me, wedding photography provides a unique opportunity for two things:

1. Because people are counting on me, I have an "excuse" to put all my self-conscious tendencies aside. This allows me to practice being un-self-conscious.

2. Wedding photography is very similar to photojournalism (or can be) except it takes place in a staged environment with more than usual opportunities for creating excellent images.

This, Ed, is such an important point you add to this discussion. You can "only see but not hear" and work without self-consicousness. This works because of devotion, insight and focus. As I said before it's iterative. A wedding gives you license to be immersed in picture-making without a barrier. Then you review and learn, sharpening your abilities for the next street or wedding opportunity.

This gives us further insight into this kind of self-training process and development of composing style.

Asher
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Having a "genre" such as Fahim Photojournalistic wedding approach, also helps frame one's composition style. There's things that can be done with this approach that can't be done with other approaches.
 

fahim mohammed

Well-known member
Asher, Mr. Gogh did not make one but many ' starry nights ' . hedging his bets, maybe.

I am surprised that even though he lived in times of great artists, he was unrecognized!! In modern times
the price of his paintings goes up. Insider trading if you ask me. Or maybe in the years since he died a pauper, the homo sapiens developed an appreciation of art.

Van Gogh did have visions. That's why he took refuge in a mental rehab where he painted this amongst the other paintings we all know.

Guess one has to be in a mental asylum to be a visionary!!
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Guess one has to be in a mental asylum to be a visionary!!

Or as Ed reveals, freed from self-consciousness by dedication to purpose and exclusion of the rest of the universe! The same with Weston who pushed his family to despair with his obsession and manic isolation as he arranged, balanced, composed and waited nervously for the right light......... day after day!

Asher
 

Bob Rogers

New member
What do we mean when we say a picture is well composed/

There is a physiological aspect to composition. The eye is drawn to areas of high contrast. The eye is drawn to brightness, and the eye follows paths. These facts of composition may be based on survival behavior.

Good composition takes these facts of biology and incorporates artistic taste and sometimes cultural values. In Mr. Frank's Tuba example, the reason for the second image seems to be that a breeze has caught the banner over the musician's head, causing it to fold a little and more closely resemble the flag -- perhaps also why he stepped back.

There are natural abilities and advantages that some people have, but hard work and dedication will take you further than biology on it's own. Ask any music teacher -- any student who works hard will make good progress, and any number of students who have "talent" never do anything.

I agree about gear overload. Today I just have a 50mm lens on my camera.
 

Alain Briot

pro member
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