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How do you take a good photograph?

weltweit said:
Oh, and if shooting children or animals, get down low, level with their eyes, makes much more compelling images.
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Not just for the eyes. For confounding expectations, yours as the photographer as well as for the final image.

Getting down low works for trees, buildings, supper tables too.
 
Edie said:
Would you say Killik’s photographs were beautiful? Not a trick question, I was wondering that myself.
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Yes. To me they capture a moment in time that is worth documenting. They communicate bleakness as well as joy, they portray politics and fashion. He knows how to implement and play with technical skill, but also gives an insight into his thinking and emotions.
I can relate to his subjects as they are ordinary people whose lives couldn't be more different yet share a common path.
I learn a lot from looking at his work, from history to artistic expression to mastering one's craft.
 
Some of the best photos I’ve taken are of mundane things, like a random collection of half empty glasses on a pub table or shoes left by the front door. Something about the story they tell grabs me and then I’ll move around to find the most interesting angle, light, composition.

I think I’m saying that your own eye, your own curiosity and imagination, is the thing you’re trying to communicate. Not the thing itself but you’re own feeling about the thing.
 
In the studio (music) it took me years to finish projects to a satisfactory (for myself) level. A lot of it entails instinct, following what feels right, and other things I can't quite rationalise or put my finger on.
But experience and technical skill play a big part too, in my case at least.
 
Edie said:
The common theme here is sun, when Leeds ain’t blessed. But you have to work with what you have! And I liked dessiato ’s suggestion about watching how the light changes at the same spot.
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Well yes the sun, but it's light really so that's only one source of light. There's always some light. At night, no sun but sometimes plenty of light.
 
Edie , why do you want to get into photography? Is it because you want to tell a story or document what's around you? Do you want to take photos to decorate walls or do you want to give people something to think about? Do you want people to question something or do you want to entertain? Do you want to offend or portray beauty? Do you want to create art or do you want to document on a more technical level? Do you look at other people's work and would like a pop at it yourself? Or is it something completely different, or everything? Or are you looking for something to do, to entertain yourself. keep yourself busy?
 
Thanks for your contributions SheilaNaGig I didn’t know you were a photographer.

And this whole discussion is very interesting to me.


littleseb said:
Yes. To me they capture a moment in time that is worth documenting. They communicate bleakness as well as joy, they portray politics and fashion. He knows how to implement and play with technical skill, but also gives an insight into his thinking and emotions.
I can relate to his subjects as they are ordinary people whose lives couldn't be more different yet share a common path.
I learn a lot from looking at his work, from history to artistic expression to mastering one's craft.
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Thats an interesting perspective.

Ive been thinking about the submit a picture to the critics thread. That is one way of learning for sure. Another way is to ask people to post one of the favourite images they have taken and to say a bit about why they love it.

So far this thread has made me think about the composition (and the rule of thirds, and what to put in the frame), the angle of the photo, the light in the photo, and how you might communicate something- love, bleakness, joy, whatever you feel I guess.

It’s interesting to think what it is that turns a photograph from just capturing an image or a scene into art. But I probably sound like the worst sixth form photography student ever. Hope you don’t mind :D
 
littleseb said:
Edie , why do you want to get into photography? Is it because you want to tell a story or document what's around you? Do you want to take photos to decorate walls or do you want to give people something to think about? Do you want people to question something or do you want to entertain? Do you want to offend or portray beauty? Do you want to create art or do you want to document on a more technical level? Do you look at other people's work and would like a pop at it yourself? Or is it something completely different, or everything? Or are you looking for something to do, to entertain yourself. keep yourself busy?
Click to expand...
Because when I walk round Leeds I see the mix of people and stuff that just makes it Leeds, the mosques and terraces and barber shops and buggies and shalwar kameez and pigeons and washing lines. And I think there’s something about it that’s the same but changing all the time, and I want to hold it still so that in the future I can look back at the picture and it will show me how it felt there, for that second, when the bird took flight, the woman laughed, and the shutter got pulled down. Does that make sense?
 
Edie said:
Because when I walk round Leeds I see the mix of people and stuff that just makes it Leeds, the mosques and terraces and barber shops and buggies and shalwar kameez and pigeons and washing lines. And I think there’s something about it that’s the same but changing all the time, and I want to hold it still so that in the future I can look back at the picture and it will show me how it felt there, for that second, when the bird took flight, the woman laughed, and the shutter got pulled down. Does that make sense?
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Totally. Your OP is a lot clearer now.
I'm not a photographer and know next to nothing about it, but your desire to create and document will set you on the right path. Go for it, look, watch, ask and learn, and don't be afraid of failure. :thumbs:
 
littleseb said:
Totally. Your OP is a lot clearer now.
I'm not a photographer and know next to nothing about it, but your desire to create and document will set you on the right path. Go for it, look, watch, ask and learn, and don't be afraid of failure. :thumbs:
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Haha there’ll be lots of failure I’ve not done anything artistic before. Just thought with a lonely lockdown ahead why not learn something? Then I saw Killiks pictures and thought man they are cool. Ideas above my station I know but on my own level, a small project.
 
Edie said:
Because when I walk round Leeds I see the mix of people and stuff that just makes it Leeds, the mosques and terraces and barber shops and buggies and shalwar kameez and pigeons and washing lines. And I think there’s something about it that’s the same but changing all the time, and I want to hold it still so that in the future I can look back at the picture and it will show me how it felt there, for that second, when the bird took flight, the woman laughed, and the shutter got pulled down. Does that make sense?
Click to expand...
btw you paint a beautiful picture there. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your photos!
 
Edie said:
Because when I walk round Leeds I see the mix of people and stuff that just makes it Leeds, the mosques and terraces and barber shops and buggies and shalwar kameez and pigeons and washing lines. And I think there’s something about it that’s the same but changing all the time, and I want to hold it still so that in the future I can look back at the picture and it will show me how it felt there, for that second, when the bird took flight, the woman laughed, and the shutter got pulled down. Does that make sense?
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Totally makes sense - it's similar to what I do so I can see how the city has changed over the years.
 
Edie said:
Haha there’ll be lots of failure I’ve not done anything artistic before. Just thought with a lonely lockdown ahead why not learn something? Then I saw Killiks pictures and thought man they are cool. Ideas above my station I know but on my own level, a small project.
Click to expand...
Some people on here advised to take lots of pictures of your subject and pick the one you like most. That's one approach. Another approach would be to work with a disposable film camera and to take one or two pix of your subject and to live with and learn from the results, to minimise randomness if you like.
When I started off in audio I took a similar approach. I recorded on a four track, no going back, no digi fiddling. I wanted to learn how to get it right on the first pop.
No rights or wrongs, just different learning styles I guess.
Again, I'm not a photographer, so feel free to ignore any bollocks I'm talking.
 
littleseb said:
Some people on here advised to take lots of pictures of your subject and pick the one you like most. That's one approach. Another approach would be to work with a disposable film camera and to take one or two pix of your subject and to live with and learn from the results, to minimise randomness if you like.
Click to expand...
Somewhere between the two is probably best for street style photography. Digital is probably better so you can see the results straight away and learn from them. Give a bit of though to composition, etc. but not too much that you miss the decisive moment.

Photographic Psychology: The Decisive Moment

What exactly is this elusive concept in photography called the Decisive Moment? This article explores 10 features of this idea originally propoosed by Cartier-Bresson.
truecenterpublishing.com
 
littleseb said:
Some people on here advised to take lots of pictures of your subject and pick the one you like most. That's one approach. Another approach would be to work with a disposable film camera and to take one or two pix of your subject and to live with and learn from the results, to minimise randomness if you like.
When I started off in audio I took a similar approach. I recorded on a four track, no going back, no digi fiddling. I wanted to learn how to get it right on the first pop.
No rights or wrongs, just different learning styles I guess.
Again, I'm not a photographer, so feel free to ignore any bollocks I'm talking.
Click to expand...
Purely out of interest and a side tangent, but how do you go about creating a track?
 
Really interesting thread on a topic I know nothing of. Wishing you all the best Edie. And mark me down as another one who loved the tupperware box simile.
But can I just point out it's Chris Killip. It's somehow morphed into Killik halfway through the thread.
 
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Edie said:
Purely out of interest and a side tangent, but how do you go about creating a track?
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It's always a bit different tbh...
I'm not a song writer but I produce. I knock people's demos and ideas into shape a try to realise their vision. When people come to me we sit down and look at their demos. We work on the arrangements and the chord structures, we identify hooks and problems.
I then think about the instrumentation and sounds, consider recording techniques, microphones, etc etc.
The main thing I guess is to make the musicians around me feel at ease, yet a little bit uncomfortable. It can be a very good thing when musicians are pushed and slightly out of their comfort zone. I like to work towards their best possible performance without losing the momentum.
I later mix the track, chop it up and make sure I won't be bored of it, even after listening to it for the 500th time.
When working on film scores I follow the brief, listen to reference tracks, watch the scenes a few times and hope for the best.
How to produce a track depends very much on genre, skill, personality of the musicians, time of the day, desired outcome, and a whole bunch of different stuff, there def isn't a one-size-fits-all.
I try not to get stuck in habits and my trusted ways and I'm always happy to tear up the book of rules.
 
Edie given how well you write have you thought of developing this art? You often paint beautiful pics with your words.
 
littleseb said:
It's always a bit different tbh...
I'm not a song writer but I produce. I knock people's demos and ideas into shape a try to realise their vision. When people come to me we sit down and look at their demos. We work on the arrangements and the chord structures, we identify hooks and problems.
I then think about the instrumentation and sounds, consider recording techniques, microphones, etc etc.
The main thing I guess is to make the musicians around me feel at ease, yet a little bit uncomfortable. It can be a very good thing when musicians are pushed and slightly out of their comfort zone. I like to work towards their best possible performance without losing the momentum.
I later mix the track, chop it up and make sure I won't be bored of it, even after listening to it for the 500th time.
When working on film scores I follow the brief, listen to reference tracks, watch the scenes a few times and hope for the best.
How to produce a track depends very much on genre, skill, personality of the musicians, time of the day, desired outcome, and a whole bunch of different stuff, there def isn't a one-size-fits-all.
I try not to get stuck in habits and my trusted ways and I'm always happy to tear up the book of rules.
Click to expand...
That’s interesting. Maybe a silly question but do you put your own ideas in? Also, do you write your own music?
 
Edie said:
That’s interesting. Maybe a silly question but do you put your own ideas in? Also, do you write your own music?
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Of course my ideas are always in there, that's why people come to work with me. I might change a bass line or come up with words for the chorus. Or I might try a keyboard sound which then will lead to a melody line which could in the end be the main hook of the song. How much I get involved depends on the band, the song, how finished it is, my mood, et etc.
Often the 'consumer' will not know what the producers' input was. That's one of my aims anyway, to produce in a way that nobody thinks about the production anymore.
I have written my own music and will no doubt do so again, but right now I prefer to co-write and to work on other people's ideas. I play in bands and co-write the music for them, but I've realised that writing-from-scratch is not one of my strengths.
 
I guess what I'm trying to say is that photography and music production are similar in the sense that the majority of 'consumers' won't care too much about technical know-how and the skills applied behind a picture or track but will take it for what it is. The reason they might find it a great picture or track is often (unknowingly to them) the techniques applied and production behind it. To the untrained eye / ear contrasts and light and bass drum sound and snare reverb don't matter (on the surface), but the production is still in there and makes the product great or boring.
 
littleseb said:
I guess what I'm trying to say is that photography and music production are similar in the sense that the majority of 'consumers' won't care too much about technical know-how and the skills applied behind a picture or track but will take it for what it is. The reason they might find it a great picture or track is often (unknowingly to them) the techniques applied and production behind it. To the untrained eye / ear contrasts and light and bass drum sound and snare reverb don't matter (on the surface), but the production is still in there and makes the product great or boring.
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Yes, and it’s that level of skill that I’m too ignorant to even see rn. Thanks for talking about your work anyway, really fascinating :cool:
 
Edie said:
I dunno how. I’m not creative in the sense I can imagine plot lines.
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From memory you are a great story teller and use language really well. Perhaps your strength is writing the way you do without worrying about how you are writing.
 
Edie said:
I dunno how. I’m not creative in the sense I can imagine plot lines.
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Don’t worry about the narrative or plot. Or at least, don’t get hung up on it.

You’re an excellent writer Edie . I still recall posts you made years ago, in detail, because by they were so vivid and arresting. The story, the plot, is in the detail of what you write, it comes from your mind. Same with photographs really.

Don’t try to emulate someone else. Get to know your own style and strengths and work from that point outwards. Same with photos and your writing.

That Decisive Moment thing, the instant when your heart says “This!”, you can get that with other creative endeavours for sure and I reckon you already know the feeling. Work on recognising it, believing it, trusting it.

dessiato ’s suggestion of sitting and watching the world, the way the light changes, you could do that in a wide open way and just wait for the “Yes,This” instant to happen and then pay attention to what triggered it. Did the light change? Did a figure walk into view and change the balance of things somehow?

I reckon you could maybe sit and write what you’re seeing/feeling and the photo bit might suddenly reveal itself to you. You’re already looking and seeing, really Looking and really Seeing, aren’t you. So maybe you can sneak up on the photo bit by trusting yourself to know it.

Then you’ll feel frustrated by the bits that don’t work (format, set up, light, equipment) and that can then drive your development.

You don’t really need a lot of kit though.

Great Photographers Who Use Crappy Cameras

A few days ago, an ill-worded update on Nikon camera maker’s official Facebook page enraged hundreds. It read: “A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses, and a good lens is essential to taking good pictures! Do any of our Facebook…
www.flavorwire.com www.flavorwire.com


ETA
There’s loads more about that, do a search for “great photo crappy camera”
 
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