GeorgeFenwick wrote:
I was recently lamenting to a friend that many of my photos are adequate, but failed to capture what I thought I saw. He replied that good photos result from what the camera sees, and not what the photographer sees. Interesting thought, but if true, then how does one learn how to see what the camera sees? All thoughts welcome except “practice” since I already know I need to do a lot of that!
> Long view (establish the scene)
> Medium view (frame the situation)
> Close-up (emphasize the key elements of the story)
> Bird’s eye view (look down on the scene)
> Worm’s eye view (look up at the subject)
> High key (predominantly light tones)
> Low key (predominantly dark tones)
> Watercolor look (desaturated or pastel hues)
> Saturated look (bold, “heavy” colors)
I learned from my mentors to look at a scene or situation as a story. All you have is a frame to compose that story. So the challenge is to include things that tell, or support the story, and exclude things that are irrelevant or distracting (unless the distraction is an important juxtapositional side story).
Timing is very important. Did you catch peak action? Peak expression?
Composition is very important. Rule of Thirds? Rule of Fifths? Lazy Rule of Thirds? Layer Cake of color or contrast? Pinwheel? Skyscraper? Mondrian?
Aspect ratio — 1:1, or 4:3, or 3:2, or 7:5, or 5:4, or 16:9, or...?
LOOKING at thousands of great photos primes your subconscious mind to MAKE them. PRACTICE builds the skills, habits, and instincts needed to make them more consistently, or at least more often.
Notice that I didn’t say “take” or “shoot” once, until this sentence? That is a conscious decision and part of a conscious mindset. Photographs are made.