This is part six of what was supposed to be a four-part series on composition. Today's episode is for John on Long Island.
After I recorded part five, John and I were talking about some of his work, and I realized I had left out another important element: concept.
In the earlier episodes, I talked a lot about intent. What are you trying to show? What are you trying to say?
There is a lot of overlap between concept and content, but today I want to go a little deeper and talk about how all of these pieces come together.
Over the years, I've noticed that amateur photographers often stumble on three main areas that keep them from creating truly strong images. Those three areas are technical execution, post-processing, and the last one is concept together with intent.
I want to start with technical execution, then move to post-processing, and finish with concept, because the last one is the hardest one and the one I want you to think about most.
Technical Execution
This includes bad lighting, missed focus, focus placed in the wrong area, poor exposure, too much clutter, or other issues that distract from the image. Very often, these are not intentional creative choices or even poor choices.
Most of these technical failures come from not only a lack of knowledge, but a lack of practice. In other words, lack of repetition.
Any serious photographer knows they need accurate focus and proper exposure. But knowing that and consistently achieving it are two different things. Often people miss focus and do not even see that they missed it, sometimes not until much later, and sometimes not at all.
I often compare photography to martial arts training. I used to teach martial arts, and one of the things I taught was how to use pressure points to take down an opponent.
The challenge was that pressure points are really nuanced. You could understand the mechanics of the move, but everything changed depending on the size and the movement of the opponent. If you could not feel those subtle changes and make tiny adjustments, the technique failed.
I'm only 5'4", so most of my students were bigger than me. A lot of times, big guys would assume that they could simply overpower me. Then they would discover that they couldn't move me an inch. That was when they learned size was not a real advantage. Skill was.
Photography works the same way. A lot of people think a larger camera, more expensive gear, or simply memorizing the exposure triangle would solve everything. It simply doesn't.
You may know what aperture does. You may understand shutter speed. You may know how autofocus works. But if you have not practiced enough, you will not execute quickly and consistently when the moment appears, and you will miss the nuances of the scene in front of you.
Another problem is that many photographers do not spend enough time evaluating their own work. They do not ask what went wrong, what could be stronger, or what changes would improve this image.
Because of that, they stay in the stage of taking photos instead of progressing to creating images.
So it is not enough to learn technical skills. You also have to learn how to apply them on the fly in changing environments.
Post-Processing
Next up, post-processing.
In episode 208 on composition, Jim Fried and I talked about the use of color and contrast. Many photographers think they have little control over these things.
But that's not really true. You control these things by where you stand, where you point your camera, the angle you choose, the time of day you're shooting, and now more than ever, how you edit afterward.
With Lightroom and Photoshop, we have a significant amount of control. But I often see amateurs making poor decisions because they are not really seeing the whole frame. They are not stepping back.
And as we said in episode 208, sometimes you need to let the image marinate. Walk away, come back later with fresh eyes. Then you can better see what the image needs.
Sometimes this should happen while you're shooting as well. If you're not finding the shot, just take a minute, shoot something else, and come back to that shot.
Without the pause, edits often get pushed too far. Images are dragged toward the extremes, and the subtle middle ground gets lost.
Concept and Intent
Together, all of these things make up the concept of the shot to help push the intent of the image forward.
So often I'm looking at an image and cannot tell what the photographer was trying to communicate. There was no clear point of view, no sense of purpose, no emotional direction.
A lot of people would define intent as the story. But I do not believe every photograph needs a beginning, middle, and end. That's not what I'm talking about at all.
Sometimes a beautiful picture of a beautiful flower is enough. It doesn't need a narrative. Why can't it simply be beautiful?
If your intent is to photograph beautiful flowers, fine. But then concept enters the conversation.
Because we know it's not enough to simply point the camera at a flower. You still need composition, proper focus, lens choice, lighting, and structure. You need a concept that supports your intent.
And that raises another question. Do all the elements need to work together every time? In other words, do they need to follow a set of rules?
The answer is no.
In the first episode of this series, I talked about breaking the rules, and I want to repeat it here.
I remember judging a couple of competitions where I said, “I think this picture is completely stupid, but I love it.”
And you know what? I meant it.
The composition was weak, the post-processing was overdone, but the thing was it all worked together and it gave me an image that I enjoyed looking at. And that matters.
I love looking at pictures that are funny. I love pictures that are humorous. I love pictures that just give me joy.
And don't get me wrong. I love serious images too. I love that amazing landscape that is just amazingly beautiful. But what about the stuff that's less serious, especially those that are humorous?
I think humor is surprisingly rare in photography. Truly funny images are hard to make. So when I see one that works, I reward it, even if by the books, it's a lousy photo.
And that leads to a bigger point.
Shouldn't part of intent be emotional impact? Joy, sadness, grief, surprise, discomfort, wonder, curiosity? Anything? Something?
By the way, I hesitate to use the word should because art doesn't always obey rules. But I do think images become more memorable when they evoke feeling.
Now, what triggered this whole episode was a photograph someone recently showed me of an everyday object.
The shot was unmistakably phallic. I know that if shot in one way, it would have looked ordinary. But shot the way it was shot, it was totally phallic.
And it was hilarious.
The key is that the shot was technically solid. The lighting was fine. The processing was fine. But compositionally, honestly, it wasn't great. It was kind of centered, but not, so it was a little bit awkward.
But at the end of the day, it really didn't matter because the other things about it worked and because it was really funny.
It made me laugh. That image gave me something. It created an emotional response, and it was memorable.
On the other hand, I recently saw a long exposure shot of a beach that was technically beautiful. It had nice tones, the water was nice and smooth, the exposure was good, the composition was competent, and it was a pretty beach.
But it didn't go anywhere. It didn't do anything.
So yes, you can have all the ingredients of a good photograph and still make a lifeless image.
And you can break several rules and make something wonderful.
And that's the challenge of photography.
We spend so much time asking whether the composition is right, whether the exposure is right, whether or not they had the right f-stop, et cetera, whether or not the focus was in the right place.
And those questions matter a lot of the time, but we should also ask, what are we bringing to the viewer? What did that image bring to us as the viewer?
Because sometimes the picture that technically should not work is the one people remember.
So that's it for today. I hope that was helpful.
In the next episode, I'm going to talk about understanding your audience.
Until next time, keep on shooting.
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