Street Musicians – © John Neel
To be or not to be like everyone else? That is a question that you may want to ask yourself about your photography, your photographic technique and the subject matter that draws you to photography. There are thousands of imaging websites that give you the skinny on how to make images their way. There are few that offer the means to develop your own vision.
For the most part, “their way” is not necessarily the way you should approach image making. Photography is about expression. Expression is usually about ideas. Ideas are about thought.
While there may be valuable learning’s for increasing your camera skills, there is also a danger of getting caught up in the – “my images are not really about anything besides looking like every other image out there” syndrome.
You might want to ask yourself a few questions about what photography means to you before you go barreling down the wrong path. That cool looking technique you saw on that website is probably not appropriate for your way of seeing, the subject you are shooting, or the meaning you are trying to express. In all likelihood, it is very different from the image you could be making using the skills you decide are right for your statement.
Photography is not about technique so much as it is about seeing. Technique is more about capture and processing. It is the choice between many possible ways you could enhance your image. It is a skill that you use to capture the image, produce a desired result and enhance its message.
What you see and how you see it is what makes your work unique. It is what makes the difference between a run of the mill image, and one that has the potential to make others see what you see in a meaningful way.
Technique is a choice based on vision, which includes many factors that allow you to define the subject at hand. It has to do with the choices you make in regard to creating the image you see before you. It is choosing the appropriate tools required for a particular result and your ability to make inventive use of your creative talents. You pull from all your skills and all of your creative tools. There is no single set of rules that should govern the outcome. It is something you need to define for yourself based on what you know about your subjects and your relationship with them. Technique is a way to underscore the creative process in order to make a unique statement. Technique is the process that enhances the subject of your vision.
Before any of the above considerations, it is important that you look carefully at your subjects. What is it that is important about the subject and how do you bring that idea into being? The subject should determine how you go about shooting it. To make a statement that is your own, it is important to stay true to your own vision. By that, I mean to develop a way of expression that is unique to your way of seeing the world.
It is also important to understand how techniques can be used or abused in creating intended or unintentional meaning in an image. (subject for another post)
Used properly, technique is a decision process based on your overall understanding of your subject matter. There are many ways to create an image. The best methods are the ones that make sense to the subject matter and to the desired message.
Photography is a wide-open creative process. It has the potential to be as wide as the number of image-makers making images. To develop into a distinctively creative photographer, you are the one who must make the creative decisions in order for your images to become your unique vision of the world.
Yes, it is important to learn different skills. It is important to understand the rules of composition and other creative practices in order to successfully utilize them and/or break them. It is vital that you look at the world and understand your subject so that you can make the right choices. It is important that they fit your vision. It is your vision that we want to see. Not the barrage of sameness we’ve seen a thousand times before on thousands of websites across the globe.
In order to have your work stand out from the rest you need to have something to say, as well as the ability to see. Technique without vision is of little use to anyone. Vision is what photography is about. More importantly, photography is about what we have to say. It is the expression of how we see our world.
Please have a look at some of my other posts here.
NOTICE of Copyright: THIS POSTING AS WELL AS ALL PHOTOGRAPHS, GALLERY IMAGES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS ARE COPYRIGHT © JOHN NEEL AND ARE NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY PURPOSE WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT FROM THE WRITER, THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND/OR lensgarden.com. THE IDEAS EXPRESSED ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE AUTHOR.
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