Ian Badley tells us why pre visualising the image before lifting the camera to your eye is a good idea.
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Ian runs Photographic Workshops around the UK and Europe including the New Forest, Dorset, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Italy, ‘One to One’ sessions together with PhotoTreks for beginners and improvers in the New Forest and surrounding areas. To find out more visit his website at www.IanBadley.com. Here's his tip:
"One of the first questions I ask of guests attending a PhotoTrek workshop is “Tell me what you would take a picture of?” Now, invariably, we are in the New Forest looking onto a heath with trees, perhaps a stream, a few ponies maybe, and usually the replies come back trying to include all the elements in front of us. The guests then add more and more facets into their description of the picture they wish to take, to the extent that the impact of the beautiful scene in front of them is lost. Most people have followed this same practice at some point, collected their prints or viewed the images on the computer later, and then been bitterly disappointed.
My advice is to pre visualise the image before lifting the camera to your eye. Think about what you want to include. It may be that your picture will tell the story better, if you take a number of different images. In the example given above, this may mean perhaps a picture of a portion of the heath, its changing textures, the grasses growing through the heather; perhaps just the trees, a lone tree maybe, the late evening light catching the leaves of a big pine; the tumbling stream by itself burbling over a few large stones or the verdant green leaves around; the ponies in situ, taken close up as a portrait. Maybe this would portray the essence of the scene far better than trying to include everything in just the one shot. What you leave out of your image can be just as important as what you put in. Remember, less can be more!"
My advice is to pre visualise the image before lifting the camera to your eye. Think about what you want to include. It may be that your picture will tell the story better, if you take a number of different images. In the example given above, this may mean perhaps a picture of a portion of the heath, its changing textures, the grasses growing through the heather; perhaps just the trees, a lone tree maybe, the late evening light catching the leaves of a big pine; the tumbling stream by itself burbling over a few large stones or the verdant green leaves around; the ponies in situ, taken close up as a portrait. Maybe this would portray the essence of the scene far better than trying to include everything in just the one shot. What you leave out of your image can be just as important as what you put in. Remember, less can be more!"
Keep practising – I am.
Ian Badley.
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| Photo by Ian Badley. |
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16 May 2010 9:52PMHow the weather effects your mood can also be reflected in the picture too....
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25 Jan 2012 6:32PMGood advice, I call it "dry shooting" I've been practicing it for 40 years and it really helps my final out- put as well as what goes on in clearing my mind and soul.....One last suggestion, to process film or digital images as soon as they were created and stick to your vision during the post processing. This way you stay true, you don't want to get into the trap of " after thought " then its the proverbial problem of to many choices....and always keep it K.I.S.S.
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