Visualize the results

blog 11/17/08

You must be able to visualize the final photograph before you take it. Are you a “shooter” or a photographer? A “shooter” will take 20-25 or more shots of a scene in hopes that one of them will be a good one. Before the advent of digital photography where you can shoot a 100 views of one scene and hope for the best, there were film cameras which allowed you to take only one or two shots before changing the film….press cameras with flmholders which held two pieces of film…or later they had one which would hold six sheets of film..so you had to spend some time studying your subject before actually taking the photo.

Now I know that most of that information is before your time, as unbelievable as it may seem, it has great merit in improving your “seeing” ability.

Give yourself an assignment: go into your neighbor to take a creative outdoor scene, be it a waterscape or some other scene. Walk around it as much as you can to get the best view or what you consider the best view. Maybe the lighting is not just right but move around so that the light will work for you. I always believe that side lighting or back lighting helps improve your end results.

May people will say that shooting photos at high noon is not good…but even then, if you can move around your subject, you might be able to find a creative view.  If you believe the lighting is not the best, still take two or three shots of your best view and then come back later in the day to take another view with different light…and again take the same views as you took earlier in the day.  Compare your results.  Do not be anxious to overshoot, but be patient and take the best view you think is possible.

Coming in the next blog: things to help you “visualize” your photo.