To Shoot Or Not To Shoot?

Too many people think that just because they can take a photograph of something, they should take a photograph. As a result, we often see online photo streams that are clogged with several photos of the same thing, or photographs that don’t really show anything. The more that you consider the photographs you take, the better you will become as a photographer.

Taking photographs has become very easy due to the innovations in camera technology, and as a result there are a lot of occasions where people take a photograph just because they can. By doing this, they never really learn how to capture a moment in the right way. Of course, it is no big deal if people are just taking photographs for their own enjoyment. But when you receive an email which has 25 photographs of the same thing, it gets annoying.

The advantage of shooting only when you have to is that you consider the photograph a lot more closely. If you want to get the best depiction of your chosen scene, you need to take into account the way that subjects are positioned, the way that you are positioned, and the light as well as a number of other factors.

If you want to seriously take up photography, you may have noted the fact that professionals will often have fifty or more shots to get the one that “really works”. However, they are working to an exceptionally high standard and often with motion and human models. They still need to be on the mark for all fifty shots, as the right picture does not happen just through luck.

A Bad Workman Always Blames His Tools

Camera equipment can be extremely expensive, particularly if you begin to take photography seriously as a career option. Therefore it is important to make sure that you get the right equipment for the job. However, be careful of placing too much importance on the quality of the equipment, as you can end up spending hundreds on equipment that is not going to make much difference.

One of the harshest, but truest sayings there is, goes as follows: A bad workman always blames his tools. Now, it may well not be the case that you are a bad photographer – in any case, there is a world between good and bad – but the important thing to remember is that blaming the equipment you use, and replacing it, can sometimes hold back your improvement.

When you take a photograph and it comes out looking bad, it is important to bear in mind that there could be countless reasons for this. It could be the light, it could be the positioning of the shot, it could be any number of things. It could, indeed, be the camera, and if this is the case then replacing the apparatus may be the only way to go. Regardless, you have to know the difference between a bad photo and a bad camera.

Some of the best photographers around started with cheap cameras that had defects, and became such good photographers by learning to work with what they had. Rather than spending money trying to find the best camera, it is advisable to spend time trying to become the best photographer you can be.

A Sense Of Occasion

Even in the light of all the changes that have taken place over the years, allowing us to take more photographs in a shorter space of time and to publish them within seconds, the fact is that sometimes less is more. You will not become a good photographer by taking a lot of photographs. You will never win the Tour de France on a bicycle with training wheels.

What this means for amateur photographers is that, just because it is easier to take a photograph these days, it does not mean that you can replace quality with quantity. It is better to critically survey your photographs, delete the ones that don’t pass muster, and keep in mind what you got wrong initially and how you can get it right next time.

You see, if you just snap away in the hope of getting the right shot, you are as likely to get twenty shots of which maybe five will be good enough to be considered “decent”. If, on the other hand, you take the time to get it right, you can get five photos of which all are impressive. Making the effort to get the shot right gives the shot a sense of occasion.

Photography is not easy, and anyone who attempts to claim otherwise is being either naïve or ignorant. Getting the right shot makes demands of a photographer, and the sooner you learn to meet those demands, the easier you will find it as time goes on.

Should I Get A Photographic Qualification?

There are many people who want to become professional photographers, and there is plenty of reason why they would. If you are a highly sought-after photographer, then you can get paid a lot of money to travel the world taking photographs of stunning locations, beautiful people and remarkable occasions. So is it worth getting a qualification in photography?

The answer to this question, frustratingly, is “it might be”. When you get down to it, there are not so many companies or agencies who will demand that you have a certificate to prove you can take photographs. The best way to document a talent for photography is by showing the photographs that you have taken. That said, doing a photography course may help in other ways.

It cannot be denied that, if you take a course in photography that is taught by a professional who has worked worldwide, you should learn a lot from them and may also be able to make contacts in the business. There is a major difference between being able to take impressive photographs, and being able to get the perfect shot when you are on the clock and conditions are being unkind.

It is not so much the certificate that will be given to you on graduation that will be important, but the things that you learn during the course. There are all sorts of tricks that can make a photograph look better, and make a good photograph great. Informing yourself about these is worth the effort.

Seeing It Through The Right Filter

There will always be divided opinion on the merits of “artistic” photography. For some people, a photograph which depicts an everyday face or item in a different way is worth looking at because it is interesting. For others, it will be considered the hight of pretentious idiocy. The view that you take on this conundrum will probably depend on how interested you are in photography.

There is a difference, one which needs to be noted, between taking such a photograph for artistic reasons, and doing it because you have seen it done elsewhere. The photograph may make the item look like something else, or it may show people a side of the subject that had not been seen before. If it is done because “it looks a bit arty” then it will usually be fairly obvious.

Many of the photographs taken to depict a subject in an unfamiliar way do so by making use of filters. Filters can be purchased and fitted to the lens of a more old-fashioned camera to provide soft-focus looks, a sepia tone or some other form of tinting. They may, alternatively, be added at a later stage to digital photographs using Photoshop. Some cameras, indeed, have specific filtered settings.

If you want to take a photograph that has an interesting look, give some thought to photographs you have seen. Are you bringing something new to the table, or experimenting with what you yourself are capable of doing? Or are you, alternatively, taking a photograph of a table through a sepia filter because you think it is what you are supposed to do?

The Digital Age And How It Has Changed Things

The process of photography is one that has changed immensely in all of our lifetimes – even those of us who are not yet old enough to read this. But for those of us who have a few decades on the clock, the changes are most noticeable. We all remember a time when taking a photograph meant a wait of at least a day or two before seeing the finished result. These days, it is a matter of seconds.

Digital photography is the cause for much of the change that has taken place. It used to be the case that we would take a photograph and think “I hope I haven’t messed that up”, in the full knowledge that you would have to wait until a couple of days after you got back from holiday to see whether or not you had. As almost all digital cameras now come fitted with a preview screen, that’s not an issue anymore.

There is some debate over whether this has led to any real improvement in the quality of photographs most people take. You can have five, ten or even twenty goes at truly capturing the majesty of the Eiffel Tower, but if you are unfamiliar with how to position yourself it will not matter whether or not there are people walking through the shot.

Camera phones have taken things on a level. It is now possible to take a photo on your cell phone and post it to a site such as Flickr or to your Twitter account within seconds. This has its good points – you can make your friends jealous and keep them posted – and its bad points too. It only takes one ill-advised drunken photograph to disgust a lot of friends.

When Everything Was Black And White

Color photography was actually invented a lot longer ago than most people believe – indeed, there were experimental color shots taken as long ago as the 19th century. However, the use of color photography was hugely uncommon until the 1960s, and it was another few decades after that before newspapers printed color shots with any kind of regularity.

This – combined with the presence of old-fashioned black and white movies – gives an impression of age and for some people an impression of depth to photographs taken these days using black and white film or filters. Many of the iconic photographs of all time, taken as they were in the early half of the 20th century, are known to us in black and white.

One of the most famous images – the assassination of President John F Kennedy, an incident that took place in 1963 – happened after color photography was introduced, but before it was widespread and before color photographs could be widely reproduced. Hence, it is an incident we “remember” in black and white.

Photographs of the first Moon Landing do exist in color, but the most iconic – of Neil Armstrong descending the ladder onto the Moon’s surface – is also in black and white. Whether it is for reasons of historic grandeur, or because of the questions left unasked, many people even in this age of color photography still like to use black and white for more artistic shots.

Photoshop – Cheating Or Necessity?

Unless you have been hiding in a cave somewhere, you are probably familiar with Photoshop to at least some extent. Even if you have not used it, you will have seen photos that have been manipulated using this program, which has become a feature of many websites in recent years. The basic idea of Photoshop is that it can be used to enhance or add to a real photo.

For example, if a picture has been taken which, on closer inspection, carries traces of something that the viewer “should not see” – for example, blotches on the face of someone in the photo, or a stain on the carpet – the use of Photoshop can remove that undesired intruder. Similarly, Photoshop can be used to add things such as color or light.

A more esoteric use of Photoshop can be seen on countless sites around the Internet where photographs are deliberately and obviously manipulated for (usually) comedic effect. Whether it is putting someone else’s head on the body of an animal (or another person), placing a person against a background with comic potential or creating the impression that someone is a hundred feet tall, this is a popular pastime.

You may love or hate Photoshop. Some people will use it to enhance their own photographs before putting them on social networking sites, and create the impression that they are more attractive than they really are. This may not have been the initial purpose of the program, but people will use it how they wish.

Being Part Of The Action

Taking a good photograph is about so many things, far more than just pointing the camera when you see a scene worth preserving. If you want to get an image that will be looked at and remarked upon by all who look at it, you really have to create an impression of “being there”. This is all the more difficult if you are taking photographs of live action rather than still life.

If you go to a sports match, for example, it is perfectly understandable that you will want to capture some images of it to look at later on and to show to your friends. However, you are competing with a lot of different factors to get a really good picture of the occasion. There is the fact that a moving target is harder to catch, there is the problem of a crowd which is unlikely to be keeping still, and often there is an issue of lighting.

Without a doubt, someone wanting to get good action shots will need the right shutter speed – faster action will require a faster shutter speed in order to avoid becoming too blurred. On the other hand, some blurring can be beneficial in conveying the action that is taking place. How you position the camera, and even how you move it, will play an important part.

Timing is of course the central issue when it comes to capturing action shots. If, for example, you are watching a basketball match, you can get a good feel for motion by taking a photograph of something that cannot happen without motion. Snapping a photo of someone hitting a slam dunk – an image that can only happen while the person is in motion – is one good way of doing this.

Camera Phones – So Much To Answer For?

If you are a social networker, then the chances are that you have seen more bad photographs than you would ever care to remember. People are more prone these days to take a photograph than they used to be, and the reason for this – or at least, the primary reason – is that they can take photographs and see them instantly without having to pay for them.

The invention of the camera phone was a pivotal moment for cell phone companies, who have been able to sell loads of phones on the strength of their multiple usability. It has also resulted in people being willing to take a lot more photographs than they used to be. Time was that you needed a camera, plenty of film and a lot of patience to take photographs.

You see, once you had used a frame of film, you couldn’t delete it and you were stuck with it. And when you had used the whole film you needed to carefully remove it from the camera so that it didn’t get light on it, and take it to be developed (either at a dedicated outlet or in your own dark room, if you had the facilities). The whole process would cost money.

Now, if the photo you take is bad, you can delete it – but many people don’t. A lot of online photo streams now have lots of blurry images of someone’s right knee because the photographer was drunk and using a phone to take the pictures. With progress, sometimes, you have to accept the bad with the good.

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