Pinnacles,Pinnacles National Monument

Becoming a better photographer — The Mind’s Eye – The Photographer’s Eye

/ 05/09/2014 / Comments Off on Becoming a better photographer — The Mind’s Eye – The Photographer’s Eye / Art, Photography
“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”- Ansel Adams
People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.- Anton Chekhov
In my mind’s eye, I visualize how a particular… sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.- Ansel Adams
Pinnacles,Pinnacles National Monument

Pinnacles,Pinnacles National Monument

What is the difference between a snapshot and a picture?  There lots of answers.  For me the difference is do I like looking at it, or do I relegate it to the shoebox history of photos.  There must of have been a reason that you wanted to take that snapshot/picture.  What was it? Does the picture capture what it was that you were trying to capture?

The Mind’s eye is the skill of recognizing what it is that you want and why you want it, and then figuring out how that is expressed as a photo.   Persons with an art background tend to do this more easily from all of their practice, but anyone can learn or improve this skill.

Ask yourself these questions for each picture you take:

  • What is it out there that I want to capture as a photo?
  • What makes this picture interesting?
  • How would this look in a rectangle (or square)?

From these question you can figure out what is it that you want to be important in the picture, where you want the focus to be, and all of the other technical components of the photo.

For the opening picture it was a sense of scale, you judge does the photo do that?

 

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