Photography and Digital Art Tips

Shoot Extras and With Variety

2008-08-09 07:22:07

They say variety is the spice of life and when it comes to photography, this is certainly true.

With film there is a financial advantage (superficially) to being frugal in our shooting. Film and processing costs money we may not want to spend. But with digital photography there are no such financial benefits from being frugal. Memory cards are fairly cheap and can be reused over again. Portable disk units that will download your pictures in the field are available which minimize the need for extra memory cards. And sometimes having a laptop with you in the field is a great idea.

You can never predict in advance exactly how you will use an image. Your images can be a resource well into the future and what will you be using your images for in 20 years time? Can any of us know?

It thus pays to shoot a great variety of shots of each subject you find. Verticals, horizontals, wider shots as well as details are all great to take. In basic photography courses we were taught to crop in camera, but this was in the days of film, and especially transparency film, where there was little opportunity to work on an image later. But with digital, working on an image is natural, so having a wide variety of shots is hugely useful.

Let me give you one practical example. When I was editing Digital Photography & Design magazine we were always looking for cover images. Readers would send in great cover images that were cropped tight in camera with the subject filling the frame. However magazine covers typically need space for the magazine title and for the all so important cover lines that promote what is in the issue and attract potential readers. It was sad how many times we would find a great image sent in but with too much of the scene busy with the main subject. We would contact the photographer and ask for a wider shot and guess what, they would not have it. They had cropped in camera and only taken that single shot. Or they had send in a landscape shot (a horizontal) and we naturally needed a vertical, yet because of the shot could not adequately crop one from the supplied (and usually only) image.

So if you view your photographs as a resource that you may use over an extended period and in many ways, you will benefit from shooting a variety.

View Your Camera and Computer as Part of One System

2008-07-12 03:15:35

Once images are in the digital domain there is an infinite field of possibility open to you that can move your photography to new levels. It is time to stop thinking of your camera gear and computer gear as separate things.

Digital photography is as massive a paradigm shift in photography as the invention of photography was in the first place. The paradigm shift is one in the thinking of the photographer, and many of us haven’t yet caught up with this. Let me explain.
Let us create a hypothetical ‘normal’ photographer and a ‘new paradigm’ photographer for comparison.

The normal photographer shoots pretty much the same way they did with film, though they may shoot more. They have their camera gear and they have their computer gear. The computer gear replaces their old darkroom equipment and the trips off to drop off and pickup film and prints that they were not equipped to handle in their darkroom. Their thinking is inherently two-stage in nature. They go out and shoot with their gear, then later they get into their images on the computer. When they shoot they take some heed of what they may do on the computer, just as in their darkroom days they exposed so they could get a decent print without too much prestidigitation in the darkroom. A hangover from this thinking is an effort to handle as much with the camera as possible.

The new paradigm photographer has an inherently one-stage thinking. Everything is their photography and everything is their camera gear, even the computer. They think in terms of what is the best way, within their present means, to address a particular issue. They understand fully the effect of every decision on their workflow and structure things to get the maximum quality they can out of what they have, and have the most fun doing it. So they may have a workflow that uses the best camera and lenses they can afford and use appropriate software to reduce image noise, correct lens aberrations and achieve image modifications that allow them to do the photography they want to do in a way that suits them.

On the discussion lists too often you see photographers who are struggling with the camera gear they have and limiting what they shoot because of it. Yet computational photography, as it is becoming called, opens up so many possibilities. Rather than not doing night photography because they have a fairly noisy camera and cannot afford an update, a cheap software purchase may do the trick. Likewise a cheap lens with aberrations that make architectural photography difficult can be addressed with software. Panorama stitching does not need a special camera. Likewise using HDR techniques can extend a low dynamic range camera. Software can extend depth of field in macro work and even allow you to choose the focal point and depth of field after the shoot. And the list goes on.

Beyond technological solutions there are also solutions of perception. Not every image has to be sharp and perfect. Blur can be highly effective, a soft image can add atmosphere and burned out highlights and blocked shadows can be used in creative ways.

I sometimes think we like to be limited so we have something to complain about or have an excuse for not testing our creativity. Perhaps it is an avoidance mechanism so we do not have to risk failure. Whatever it is, it is worth blocking it away and taking the risk of changing your thinking. You just might like it.