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HOW–TO |
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Digital Horizons: (Connecting) With The Subject
The digital camera helps us in making exciting, evocative images
By Rob Sheppard |
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How do you explain
what makes one photograph jump out at you, grab you by the lapels
and demand to be experienced? I’ve been helping a young
student photographer take his images to the next level, to use
today’s sports mantra. He has a passion for photography
and nature, and wants to better express that in his images.
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Explaining what
makes photographs successful, even to an eager student like
mine, can be difficult. So much of it is dependent on a specific
shot, so any generalizations can be tricky. Yet photographers
like Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting and David Muench consistently
create photographs that grab our attention and make us see the
world in a new light. Describing how they do it is simple on
a superficial level, but difficult at any deeper level. If it
was easy, photographers would match these top pros all the time.
Explaining how to create an image that connects you, the viewer,
and the subject in some strong way always is a challenge. Even
the best photographers can’t do this with every shot. However,
I think there’s an answer because I’ve seen something
special happen with many photographers today—the digital
camera has the potential to help any photographer get a higher
percentage of dramatic and effective photos.
Before I delve into the digital relationship, I want to explain
this connection with your subject in a photograph. The late
Galen Rowell used to talk about creating evocative images that
had some emotion in them, some passion about the subject. He
did this so well that his images still affect us, years after
his death.
This contrasts with a lot of the work we see coming to us at
the magazine. Don’t get me wrong—we receive many wonderful
photo submissions. However, there’s a type of submission
that we consistently receive: The images are competently done,
with excellent quality that any photographer at any level would
be pleased to have. Technique is great. The photographer shows
a good eye for what’s pleasing. The problem with these
images is that they look similar—I could change the photographers’
names on the images and no one would know the difference.
The market is filled with such photos, which is why the nature
photography business is so competitive. These photos are sold,
to be sure, but since there are so many images like them available,
sales become more like a lottery than a real sales situation.
One reason for this type of imagery is that modern cameras and
plentiful how-to instruction allow lots of people to take good
photographs of pretty, natural subjects. The difficult thing
to do is go beyond this “stand back and take a picture
of a subject” mentality. These images only accomplish the
noting of a beautiful, well-photographed location because the
photographer hasn’t looked for ways to use photography
to engage the viewer. If you haven’t read any of Galen
Rowell’s books, I’d recommend any of them; he frequently
discusses how to grab the viewer’s attention with an evocative
image.
How do you make a better connection with your subject in your
photographs? It isn’t easy and it won’t happen all
the time, but you must make it happen enough of the time to
distinguish your photos from other people’s. This isn’t
about making a photo arbitrarily “better” or with
“higher quality”; rather, it’s working the scene
to find something that speaks to you in a unique way about your
experience of the scene. OP columnist Dewitt Jones refers to
this as finding your first photo (the thing that first attracted
you to the scene), then searching to find the next photo from
the same scene, then the next, until you drill down to its essence.
You can do this with any camera, of course, but digital makes
it much easier. Jim Brandenburg says that digital makes the
connection with the subject more “organic,” more fluid,
and that we’ll see future photographers with new and exciting
work because of it.
This is a result of the LCD monitor, a tremendous resource for
the photographer. On a technical level, it works like a Polaroid
print, only better, since you can see everything faster, from
exposure to color, and the image is the real thing, not a test.
On a creative level, you can see how the subject translates
into a photograph right there while the subject is still in
front of you. You don’t have to wait until you get photos
back from the processor to decide if the image works for you.
You can experiment with different angles, exposures, white balance
and more, and see what any choice looks like, then take that
information and immediately apply it to the subject. The learning
and application is instant. This is what Brandenburg means when
he says the digital process is a more organic way of connecting
with the subject.
I like Dewitt Jones’ approach of “Where’s the
next photo?” too, where you find new approaches to your
subject beyond the first way you saw it. This is ideal for the
digital world, as you can compare shots as you go with the LCD
monitor. What did that first shot look like again? Is my second
really that different? Am I getting an image that shows how
special I think the subject is? Or am I relying too much on
modern technology to capture an impressive scene in a way that
anyone could do?
This approach can be unnerving at times. At some point, you’ll
see an image on the LCD that you know is unique to you, that’s
so tightly connected to your personality and your experience
of the scene that it makes you uneasy. That’s because you
realize that you’re sticking your neck out—not everyone
will like that photo; some people may even dislike it. It’s
always safe to take competent photos of pretty scenes; it isn’t
so safe to take images that provide a fresh point of view on
the world—yours.
At this point, we may want to pull back, be cautious about such
new photos. Do you want to show them to others? And, if you
do, there’s a tendency to want to qualify them—“I
was trying to make this image moody, but I don’t know if
it works.” When presenting photos to others, you should
never qualify or apologize for anything in them, although there’s
a tendency in all of us to do this. When I look for a photo
to illustrate this column, I think about how many people will
harshly criticize my choice, whatever it is. We have to let
our special images stand on their own and accept that not everyone
will like all of them, or even any of them, and that’s
just the way people are.
If this process of looking for better, more evocative photos
of your subjects can be unnerving, why do it? Why not play it
safe with the technically perfect, good image of a scene? I
believe that such an image can be satisfying to a photographer
for many reasons. If that’s what a photographer wants to
do and it makes him or her happy, then he or she should keep
doing it. We all deserve to enjoy our experience with photography.
For me, and I know a lot of OP readers feel the same way, photography
goes deeper than that. We search and strive for images that
connect us with the world in highly personal ways. But even
that’s not the whole story. I’ve seen an interesting
phenomenon again and again: Photographers who use the digital
camera’s LCD to explore their subjects have more fun! That’s
right. It’s exciting to see that photograph develop and
evolve right in front of you while you’re still there with
the subject.
Your journey as a photographer isn’t the same as mine or
anyone else’s. Your explorations of the subjects that matter
to you can take any course that gives you joy (at least, that’s
my hope). The LCD on a digital camera will make those explorations
more productive. |
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