Hats off to pro photographers

I now look at photography and other photographers with a new level of respect.  Yesterday, with the aid of a friend posing as my model, I learned how much work goes into and how much knowledge is required to take a good photograph.  It seemed so simple in my mind but when it came to putting things into action my world was rocked.

I should clarify a bit.  What I am talking about is not landscape photography.  I am talking about model photography and studio shoots, the situation where you have control of all the elements and the buck stops with you.

With landscape photography you can always shrug off a bad shoot with reasons like the weather didn’t cooperate, or the light just wasn’t right, or something along those lines.  Even the best of pros have bad days but can write them off to some uncontrollable variable.

With studio photography the list of uncontrollable variables is very, very short, at least in my limited experience.  If the model isn’t showing what you want them too, it’s most likely because you didn’t explain things clear enough.  If the lighting is wrong it’s because you didn’t set it up right.  If you didn’t get the shot you were looking for, it was because you didn’t try hard enough.

You have to plan what you want, think about the angles of the shots, understand how light works, and be able to manipulate the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture (how big the whole that lets the light in is, which affects how deep or shallow your picture looks) in an orchestrated symphony of clicks that dance in time with your subject.  (I’m not even going to touch the post processing angle which can make or break a picture.)

The level of stress and responsibility is enormous and I’m glad that I had a friend who was patient enough to endure my fumbling.

Understandably the shots I was trying to evoke were character rather then beauty shots (my current project is to develop a story using photography) which I think makes things a bit more difficult.  It wasn’t just making someone look good, it was also like trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat, one person out of another, a fun and intriguing idea but difficult to execute.

Looking through my shots at the end of the night after my friend had left I let out a big sigh.  There was definitely a lot more that I didn’t like than what I did.  It was a tough moment for me, looking at those photographs spread out on my monitor in front of me.

It was also an inspirational moment.  I looked at my failures and thought of all the photographs that I admired and enjoyed looking at.  I though about how, with enough hard work and dedication I could produce works like that as well.  Though, I have to admit, that inspiration didn’t come until a few days later after a lot of contemplation.

Photography has changed the way I look at the world.  Now, my goal is to show people what I see.

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