So I was thinking about Composition…

Most of us spend a lot of time obsessing about the technical aspects of gear. Discussion groups, forums and communities attract a majority of people who are tech obsessed about resolution, high ISO noise,  dynamic range, sensor size, bokeh, autofocus efficacy and the most important thing in life, the big sensor. These often translate into modern tech which translates into new gear that you can buy. And we believe that somehow, all these technical details will make the great shot.

Of course, it is also easy to provide evidence that a more expensive, higher performing piece of gear, immediately gives you a sharper picture in more successful shot. Buy a new lens and/or a new camera, and voila, here is the picture to prove the success.

There’s precious little discussion about how Composition, which is an artistic concept, makes an image impressive. Because Composition is springs from the human behind the camera and (currently) not so much the camera. Since Composition is subjective and personal, discussing or critiquing that aspect of an image is felt as an intrusion, an invasion of personal space. It’s easier to say that so and so a lens has discernible purple fringing. That provokes a response as well, but imagine if the critique had been of the artistic content of the photographer.

So why was I thinking about Composition?

There was this cone on a fir tree. I thought I had a good Rule of Thirds on it.

But then I consulted Camera51 and it said to do this:

I think Camera51 made a good choice. The subject is central and more in-your-face – it is a big bigger but the importance of location in the image makes it dominant.

Should I say the images are technically not that evenly lit or nor specifically detailed in depth of field so that we can discuss the composition?

Food for thought.

Zooming vs Walking

Preamble

I love prime lenses for the "normal" field of view, wide and ultra wide in most of my photos. I use zooms for telephoto (or if I can't afford a bright telephoto, I use tele primes). 

I've had medium zoom kit lenses and they're not what I prefer except when I need the immediacy of changing angle of view, standing on the spot, in an event like a parade. I find zoom lenses in the wide-normal range induce me to stand in one place and frame the subject - the lack of diversity in perspective stifles my composition. Yes, certainly I can walk nearer or further but illogically, my brain says "hey, you've framed the shot, no need to move".

The mechanics and rationale behind changing focal length (zooming) vs changing distance are well discussed in this video by This Place and highlighted by DIY Photography

Recommended.

I've long described the tyranny of Aspect Ratio

And now, two well known Youtubers have made interesting videos on the topic.

Tony Northrup gets dangerous with his scissors

And Craig shows some magnificent crops

By the way, my Olympus cameras tend to offer 4:3 (no crop), 3:2, 16:9, 1:1

My Sony A7 only offers 3:2 (no crop) and 16:9 even though it is mirrorless and the LCD / EVF could easily cope with showing different crops

Sacred Cows

Getting in touch with my artistic side

It's been a long time from my last post. As usual for the past 2 years, I've been spending way too much time having fun on Google+ This social network brings engagement, friendship and learning. And you can see it in my photos.

I sometimes look at what I shoot and how I shoot, then ask myself - how was it like when I used photo only galleries like Flickr or Picasa. And I reckon I think differently, look for different things. The gear might be the same. Or Improved. The software might be the same. or Improved. But the things that bring me the stopping of the heart? Way different.

Better Posed Portraits

Peter Hurley has been in the news - he has a video to sell (via fstoppers) But, lots of experienced and good advice for Headshots and Portraits in the New York Times article

Advice to newbies asking “is this photo good”?

Some random thoughts that occur to me when I look at photos that newbies show:

• When anyone shows a photo, we look at the photo in its entirety. It's very difficult to look at a photo for "exposure" alone and not assess composition. It's like one bangs the keys on a piano and then one asks, was that a good piano? Without playing a recognisable tune, the banging of the piano overcomes any aesthetic appreciation of the quality of the piano.
  
• Aesthetic appreciation varies with the person and with his mood.
  
• Some people are more direct, some less. Sometimes you learn more from a direct remark, sometimes an ego gets hurt. That's life.
  
• Just because someone buys a camera does not mean that someone is an artist or wants to be an artist. Cameras are no longer expensive now and everyone can choose to get one. People buy cameras to fulfil a need and that need may not be artistic. They may simply want to record and event, a memory. They may indeed want to “show” or “show off” to family and friends where they were, what they saw and they did not plan or did not have the opportunity to take more than a second to point and shoot. Or they may want an artistic shot but decades of mind numbing mundanity has grimed its patina onto their consciousness.
  
• I've also noticed that cultural environment / economic environment / geographical environment / opportunity means that people point the camera at something quite different with quite different sense of aesthetic. Some of the photos look downright ugly to me but it may well be that I do not view them in the context that the shooter views them.

On the other hand, you want standard, good old fashioned classic advice and criteria, then have a look at this Kodak Tutorial.

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What’s my motivation?

Unlike professional photographers, amateur photographers don’t have the simple expedient of picking income as the reason behind their photos. And, unlike the non-photographers – those who consciously identify themselves as “I’m not a photographer”, the keen amateur photographer must be guided by some motivation or go rudderless snapping at anything and everything with equal abandon. Newbies with an expensive camera keep asking “Am I ok? Is this ok?” – funny, they don’t ask this when they have a cheaper camera – they just go ahead and shoot.

Looking at the Vivian Maier collection, I’m awed. Impressed with why she shot, what she shot. Then I look at my own work and I ask myself, why. Would I come back and look at my own photos? Do they satisfy some inner urge in me?

Telling A Story

Image by Ananda Sim 88 via Flickr

It’s been on my mind to write about the aspects that I appreciate in photos – both my own and other peoples’. At first pass, one would think that the Technical Image Quality Aspects of a photo dominate appreciation of photos, but no, not really. There are quite a few photos that I have seen, and maybe you have to, that are iconic, stand out keepers despite of the fact that they may rate poorly in the Image Quality aspects of exposure, sharpness, colour and so on.

So what is it that we subconsciously search for in a photo when we look at it? It’s that the photo needs to tell us a story. A story about the scene, about the subject, about the object, about the air and feeling, the mood, the time of day, that location on earth. The essence.

To convey some essence of the subject or scene then, the photographer needs to convey some adjective or adverb about the object or about the environs, about that time of life.

On the other hand, what makes a photo just discardable floatsam and debris, regardless of the technical superiority? It’s when we don’t connect to it. The photo could be beautifully posed, shot and post processed but if it says nothing to me, it’s a “next please”. Have you heard of the phrase “ill fitting clothes?” That doesn’t mean the clothes are cheap or dowdy – that just means that the clothes don’t fit the person – and when there have been times in the past (and will be times in the future) when we effect a look, just for sheer trying, that doesn’t match the topic that we are trying to convey. So there. In a nutshell.

del.icio.us Tags: composition,photography,postprocessing,imagequality,storytelling

Autumn in Melbourne 2010

I haven’t blogged much since I got back to Melbourne. The pressures of living and life imposed their tax.

Last week, it was a cold and tempestuous Melbourne, replete with hailstones. The past few days, it’s been the relaxed, autumnal Melbourne, – lazy comfortable shirtsleeves temperatures, bright but not harsh sun, lovely golden light washing over scenes most of the daylight hours.

I was over at Werribee for some work and chanced by the Werribee Mansion. Disappointingly, I was either too early before work or too late after work, to make a photographic visit. The eucalypts along the way were scenic though – ordinary scenes painted gold by the sun.

There’s something calming about this scene, the P880 with my help of EV-0.7 renders it well. The sky’s blue is unassisted by ND or polariser.

I must confess to warming up this shot and the one below. Auto WB is a relaxed choice but absorbs colour nuances when you want emphasis.

And a tight crop brings the companionship of these two trees better to mind.

APR – AnandaSim’s Photo Rating System

Ananda's Photo Rating System Edition 1.1

Note: Updated 22nd April 2013
See also Edition 2: Ananda’s 10

With increasing awareness brought by the accelerated learning that digital photography and the internet brings, I’ve sometimes thought of a rating system to assess my own as well as other photos I see.

Subject Choice	Max 2 out of 10 aggregate points
Wow Factor (includes Story Telling)	Max 2 out of 10 aggregate points
Visualisation – Covers Scene Lighting, Composition, Specific and explicit choice of exposure and other elements of rendering, presentational aspects	Max 3 out of 10 aggregate points
Execution – the Technical Image Quality – Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness/Sharpening incorporating in-camera processing as well as post processing	Max 3 out of 10 aggregate points

Observations:

1. The maximum possible score in each category is largely subjective. That’s intended. You preference for a Subject may be quite different from mine.
2. The subjective parameters outweigh the technical parameters. That’s intended. Glorify art and life not gear.

S:2 W:2 V:3 E:2 Agg:9

del.icio.us Tags: photography,assessment,rating,appreciation,imagequality

When you have trouble visualising a scene.....

Bring a frame to help you. And if the frame is not big enough, bring a bigger one.....