As part of Project BlindSighted on Blind Photographers, I have posted my enty on my photographic process. Hopefully this will prompt a discussion that will help me develop and improve how I shoot. I am re-posting it here:
Project BlindSighted: tim o’brien
I am no where near as organized or experienced as Lodro or Drew, but here goes.
Currently, I have three main modes for shooting images; casual, assignment and planned shots. Since I am still a beginner, my style (if I have one yet) and approaches are still evolving.
By casual photography, I mean those times I throw my camera bag over my shoulder and wait for interesting scenes to happen. Not unlike street photography, but I broaden the idea to any situation I find myself, whether alone, with friends and family or out in public (i.e. on the street). For these times, I try to start with a blank slate and an open mind. Many times, the camera stays in the bag.
When the camera comes out, I face a challenge of what settings to use. I need to change glasses to my low vision reading glasses to change settings on my camera and this is quite awkward. I often lose the moment wsting time or catching others’ attention. I have started to set the camera to either aperture or shutter priority mode and then to a particular f/stop or shutter speed. From there, I know which knobs to turn to adjust settings back and forth between the two modes and adjust the relevant setting. Sometimes, I will be lazy and set the camera to its automatic mode, but not normally.
I am not sure how I find the right moment to press the shutter. When I try to force the moment, the images are almost always boring. I really enjoy the photography of Henri Cartier Bresson, especially his environmental portraits. So I try to follow his idea of the decisive moment when I am shooting:
For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which – in visual terms – questions and decides simultaneously. In order to “give a meaning” to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, a discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by great economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression. One must always take photos with the greatest respect for the subject and for oneself.
I find it difficult to articulate how I put this idea into practice. Part of my mind is always visuallzing how the scenes around me would look in a photo. When I feel a scene would make a good image, I start pressing the shutter.
Unlike HCB, who did little post-processing, I take my photos knowing that I will later fix them in Lightroom. I bought a ten megapixel camera not because I need such large images per se, but knowing I can’t frame images well in the viewfinder. In the viewfinder, I only get a sense of my subject and the space surrounding it, so I need to zoom out or back up a bit to make sure I do not cut off some detail. So many of my images cut off fingers or heads or other important details that I still work on this issue. I also take multiple shots, hoping to improve the odds of having caught that decisive moment. I am lucky if one in ten shots is a reasonable image and one in a hundred is a good one.
Once in Lightroom, I make several passes through the images, deleting the obviously poor ones and tagging the better ones. I keep whittling and tagging photos until I have a reasonable number of reasonable images. Then I start processing the individual photos. First comes straightening and cropping. Then comes color correction, usually darkening the image and bringing out shadows. I am not sure why I need to do this, probably it helps me see the details in the image. Once I have have processed the images, I review them and select my favorites. These get exported and uploaded to Flickr. Later on, I will print one or two on my R1800 for my collection. If I can, I will take breaks during this process, often taking days to complete it. Looking through my shots is an emotional roller coaster, with frustration from missed shots to excitement over unexpected gems. Much of the frustration is exacerbated due to my sight as many images are lost due to my inability to see through the viewfinder the image I have in my head.
When I take photos for an assignment, usually for my local paper, the process is ver similar. The main difference is the constant need to have good images to submit that nags at me while shooting. I become impatient for the decisive moment and have difficulty relaxing into the moment. An editor critiqued the results from a recent shoot, mentioning that I do not inject myself into the scene sufficiently.
There are a few other differences as well. I often bring more equipment, tripods and an off-camera flash. I also do more preparation. Besides contacting relevant parties to make sure I can get to and around the assignment, I also need to think through and plan for possible images. Anticipating the decisive moment becomes paramount and this is a skill I am still working on. Once the shoot is over, the rest of the process is the same except for the final destination of the best images.
I do not take planned images, still life or portrait, very often, but I am actively working to improve my process here. I have been following the strobist blog and its lighting guides as well as reading a few photography books, including Light: Science & Magic and some of Bryan Peterson’s books. But I am struggling to adapt what I am learning to my circumstances.
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