Photography is not like physics, maths, chemistry or languages. All these things have an objective answer, a right, and a wrong. It might not be clear, but it certainly is there.
Creative processes don't have this. There is no objective difference between a good photo, and a bad one. Of course there are technical benchmarks, which are also the main things being taught, but everything else is a matter of choice - a matter of beauty.
I'm not the first one to realise this, nor is it unexpected in any way. But the matter still remains that the artistic quality of my work seems intricately linked to my sense of myself.
Achieving a specific result is not hard if you know exactly what you want. The hard part is getting to know what you want, and implied in that: what is beautiful, and what is not.
Neither is it any news that our opinions are largely shaped by precedent: we have our arche-types, and they evoke emotions at will. The kind of thing that Jung and www.tvtropes.org will be most happy to explain.
The case that bothered me was my first serious attempt at the third assignment of studio photography: an elegant photo.
The basic idea was a woman lying on her side, with as background the folds of a curtain-like textile. This as I'd be working in B/W and wanted to work with textures mainly.
I start, and dislike the pose: it looks too stilted. Somewhere later I have the idea to turn the photo's 90 degrees, to simulate that she's leaning against a corner, but still retain the free flowing of her hair. I work with it for a while, mess around a lot with details, and finally call it a day.
At home I select the photo's, am reasonably happy with them, but can't select the best one. Instead I shortlist five of them, for five different reasons.
Later, at school, I'm told that not only was the pose not quite elegant, but the lighting blew as well, and the model's face is in a half shadow - I'd best redo the shoot.
Not exactly that surprising, as after all I'm studying, and am supposed to learn from my mistakes.
What bothers me however, is that I never saw it myself, but that I did - in hindsight of course - recall the vague sense of unease I had while shortlisting the photo's. The endless modding with the details, the shortlisting, it all felt like that I knew the whole time that it all didn't add up to a good photo, and I ignored it all the way to the classroom.
Not only did I subconsciously go for one of the oldest depictions of female beauty in the book (Venus lying on her side), but I also ignored instinct repeatedly telling me that something was wrong.
In the end I guess it'll just be another of my good resolutions: to question my motives, dig through my subconsciousness, and make myself realise at every step what basic tropes I'm working with, instead of just running on autopilot and hoping I end up at the right place if I face the right direction when starting.
That and actually taking the advice given by the Iranian teacher at art school - but that's a story for another time.
donderdag 10 maart 2011
zaterdag 15 januari 2011
LoL: Winkel van Sinkel
The assignment here was to make two photo's of a small and personal shop: a photo of the front, and a portrait of the owner.
For once deciding on what to shoot was extremely simple, as I frequent a small shop in Eindhoven for exactly the same criteria as the assignment: a small personal shop, not yet part of a chain, probably mainly because it's just catering to a niche.
The Switch. A small, cramped shop, in my mind always a bit like a treasure trove in its mystery and content. The owner, however, presented a minor problem.
She was perfectly ok with me making photo's of the store, but a bit less enthousiastic about appearing herself in one of the photo's. Reason being bad experiences with what photo's are later used for, and a general dislike of being on the wrong end of a camera.
After a bit of asking nicely she did come up with a solution: a friend of hers occasionally minded the shop for her, and he already had posed as model more often. We make an appointment.
About two weeks later I come back for the shoot, and meet said friend. A middle-aged man with shoulderlong black hair, and an air both slightly pompous and rather carefree. Charming.
One thing was clear almost straight away: he liked the sense of attention that modelling brings. It was almost like he was dating my camera.
The shoot itself was not very pre-planned, and mostly involved me trying to get my lighting right with a brand-new flash.
One important lesson remained from this: watch out with dark backgrounds and models wearing dark clothing. My main issue was that his black vest was blending into the background, making everything even darker.
I went back later, and together we picked out a white shirt from the shop for the shoot.
The white helped even more than I anticipated in having him catch the attention in the extremely crowded shop. I left the surroundings rather dark to truthfully represent the store, but next time I'll have to do that a bit more deliberate, as it was commented on at the assessment as being a possible drawback.
For once deciding on what to shoot was extremely simple, as I frequent a small shop in Eindhoven for exactly the same criteria as the assignment: a small personal shop, not yet part of a chain, probably mainly because it's just catering to a niche.
The Switch. A small, cramped shop, in my mind always a bit like a treasure trove in its mystery and content. The owner, however, presented a minor problem.
She was perfectly ok with me making photo's of the store, but a bit less enthousiastic about appearing herself in one of the photo's. Reason being bad experiences with what photo's are later used for, and a general dislike of being on the wrong end of a camera.
After a bit of asking nicely she did come up with a solution: a friend of hers occasionally minded the shop for her, and he already had posed as model more often. We make an appointment.
About two weeks later I come back for the shoot, and meet said friend. A middle-aged man with shoulderlong black hair, and an air both slightly pompous and rather carefree. Charming.
One thing was clear almost straight away: he liked the sense of attention that modelling brings. It was almost like he was dating my camera.
The shoot itself was not very pre-planned, and mostly involved me trying to get my lighting right with a brand-new flash.
One important lesson remained from this: watch out with dark backgrounds and models wearing dark clothing. My main issue was that his black vest was blending into the background, making everything even darker.
I went back later, and together we picked out a white shirt from the shop for the shoot.
The white helped even more than I anticipated in having him catch the attention in the extremely crowded shop. I left the surroundings rather dark to truthfully represent the store, but next time I'll have to do that a bit more deliberate, as it was commented on at the assessment as being a possible drawback.
Light on Location: Building in Twilight
A rather straightforward and simple assignment: a building in twilight. No background stories, research, or themes.
The choice of building was influenced mostly not by how the actual building looked like, but where it stood, and whether it'd have enough free space around it to catch the light well in twilight.
The final choice was an apartment complex close to where I live, mainly for abovementioned reasons.
After that came the process of details: where to stand, what angle, what proportion of air / building in the photo, etc. etc.
I did a dry run during daylight, walking around the building to see what angle it looked best from.
Come twilight it proved that something as simple as the lights of the building can easily throw off all your plans: the most interesting thing became mysterious effect created by the yellow lighting of the walkways shining through the facade.
In the end it proved to be an accident that the photo turned out well: I was shooting next to very high, grass-like plants, and their silhouette waves at the bottom of the photo. This breaks an otherwise extremely dull composition, and adds a bit of subtlety.
And once again I am reminded that a low-key photo needs to look brighter than it should be on a monitor, in order to turn out well as print.
The choice of building was influenced mostly not by how the actual building looked like, but where it stood, and whether it'd have enough free space around it to catch the light well in twilight.
The final choice was an apartment complex close to where I live, mainly for abovementioned reasons.
After that came the process of details: where to stand, what angle, what proportion of air / building in the photo, etc. etc.
I did a dry run during daylight, walking around the building to see what angle it looked best from.
Come twilight it proved that something as simple as the lights of the building can easily throw off all your plans: the most interesting thing became mysterious effect created by the yellow lighting of the walkways shining through the facade.
In the end it proved to be an accident that the photo turned out well: I was shooting next to very high, grass-like plants, and their silhouette waves at the bottom of the photo. This breaks an otherwise extremely dull composition, and adds a bit of subtlety.
And once again I am reminded that a low-key photo needs to look brighter than it should be on a monitor, in order to turn out well as print.
Retrospect: First period - The Basics
This first period did teach me a couple of extremely important things, but arguably the most important ones don't concern actual photography.
It confirmed what I knew already, that I am too stubborn for my own good, and should step off it a little, and occasionally admit I am wrong.
It further showed the need for more careful planning, and the dire need to carry things through 100%, and not take it 90% of the way, lose focus, and hurry the last 10%, which lets the final product looks messy and shabby.
At the time of writing this is something that I still heavily struggle with, and which still showed in the assessments of period 2 and 3.
Photographically the main point was that it is not art, and one first needs to learn the rules before he breaks them. Quality is a first, artistry comes after.
Another realisation is that the hardest part for me is not to get the actual adjustments done, but to know what I need / want to change in the first place. Getting to know your camera, computer, and other assorted material inside out is relatively simple. Getting to know which way to start to solve a problem is something that'll end up being the main thing to learn.
And I fucking should stop worrying if I don't know exactly how to go about something ><
It confirmed what I knew already, that I am too stubborn for my own good, and should step off it a little, and occasionally admit I am wrong.
It further showed the need for more careful planning, and the dire need to carry things through 100%, and not take it 90% of the way, lose focus, and hurry the last 10%, which lets the final product looks messy and shabby.
At the time of writing this is something that I still heavily struggle with, and which still showed in the assessments of period 2 and 3.
Photographically the main point was that it is not art, and one first needs to learn the rules before he breaks them. Quality is a first, artistry comes after.
Another realisation is that the hardest part for me is not to get the actual adjustments done, but to know what I need / want to change in the first place. Getting to know your camera, computer, and other assorted material inside out is relatively simple. Getting to know which way to start to solve a problem is something that'll end up being the main thing to learn.
And I fucking should stop worrying if I don't know exactly how to go about something ><
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