The Process of Capturing an Image

What is your thought Process (Originally Posted at DP Challenge)

Before doing a shoot, what are the processes you go through before making the decision to press the shutter? Have you ever thought about it? I ask this question, as I have come to realize that after over 25 years, I forget that I am holding a camera when shooting and only become cognizant of the fact when I put it down...

When I started in 1980, I didn't have discernment a vocabulary or even a notion of which questions to ask, as these concepts didn't exist in my paradigm. As time went on, I learned how to be discerning and with this capacity I could make statements with more finesse and elegance, elegance being in the scientific domain i.e. "(of a scientific theory or solution to a problem) pleasingly ingenious and simple : the grand unified theory is compact and elegant in mathematical terms."

I specifically remember the day or the epiphany when after putting down the camera to take a break that I realized that I was not aware of holding the camera throughout the whole process and that vehicle was meaningless to the intended outcome other than it being an interface. That is all it is really. A physical interface able to capture a limited amount of information on a two dimensional plain.

With this notion well ensconced in my mind set, I felt empowered to do anything I so desired without having to be encumbered by the "Technique"..I would often freak out my assistants when popping the flash and squinting my eyes to increase the contrast or augment the perceptible differences between the shadows and highlights, I would say for example f11 at 100 iso...I would generally be right on or within a third of a stop. Why? After over a million shutter releases and flash pops, you can get the results easily with such a small variation of about seven to eight stops. Once the technique is mastered, you can really fly and be intuitive. Thinking about the shot renders a different result than intuiting an image. Both can be striking, but I believe the one that will become a classic will be the one that captured a universal truth.

Ben

Hi Ben

So many people just stand there and take a 'recording' type shot.

One of the main advantages of a camera is you can shoot even the mundane from angles we don't normally see the world from, low angles are obviously the easiest and a shot of the local High Street is a very different place when photographed from 6" above the ground (the dog's eye view), amazingly people often don't recognise it!! High angles are more difficult, but when an opportunity arises.... So that's often the first thing that springs to mind - angles.

The next thing is what lens - extreem wide angle to exagerate perspective or the flattening of a telephoto? - or both. Basically anything that can give a unusual view on things.

In portraiture you can do one thing with a camera that's a big no-no in society and that is you can stare. When I was a lad I worked for a short time in a Photographic Studio in Sheffield here in the UK, and was taught to get in close - then closer still - till you can't see their ears! That was my banker shot, people just don't look at other people that closely, very bad manners, but with a photograph you can, instant impact.

When photgraphing children get down to their eye level, at least for starters. How many pictures do you see of children (or dogs, cats, hamsters) from an adults viewpoint, normally you don't want to see any part of the top of the head, get down to their level and enter the childs world.

I always keep an eye open for detail, sometimes the rusty door-hinge is a better subject than the whole house - or, at least, another subject, in other words parts of things can be more photogenic than the whole. Harbours, Town centres even your own Home and Garden are full of detail that you walk past every day, viewed close up is a world within your world.

These tend to be my starting points. Sometimes it's more long term such as returning to a subject when the leaves have fallen, or a different time of day when the light is on a differnt side of the building.

Regarding the last part of your post, You were lucky enough not to have to think about processing costs, I'm competition secretary for a small group of photographers in our town and I can instantly recognise the film from the digital entries. The film entries are 'safe' as they have in the back of their minds the processing costs, the digital entries, after a short time with digital, are much more expressive and even daring, as they take 50 shots of a subject to the film guy's 4.

I'll shoot a couple of thousand shots over a year and may 100 - 150 of them will ever be printed. The other shots are not wasted, as you mentioned, you get to be able to operate your camera 'autonamously', without thinking. It's like learning to drive a car at first you have to think about changing gear, finding the right line etc. but with practice you just do it without any thinking being needed. It's the same with a camera, you have to have some practice before you can use it effectively
with practice anybody can have their eureka moment.

Nobody would think that they could sit down at a piano and play a Beethoven or Scott Joplin tune without years of practice - but everybody thinks they can pick up a camera and instantly become an Ansell Adams or Bresson - go figure.

Chris