Gordon made an excellent post somewhere here yesterday about looking at an object for what it actually is rather than allowing your mind to tell you that it is an 'apple' or a 'golfball' and blowing it off...
It also suggests working with it by choosing an object like a tomato or an apple (red was the theme since the section discussing this topic was focusing on color) and make about 30 or 40 photos of it, focusing on highlighting textures, shapes, colors, lighting, and perspectives.
An apple is an apple, but it is also a shape with textures and colors. Removing the mental picture of the apple and focusing on the physical aspects of the subject can be rewarding sometimes :)
It is a hard thing to do. It takes time and effort but is really worthwhile.
It comes over a lot in the comments here too. Shots that people can't immediately 'label' the content, get voted down. Instead of looking at a picture and saying 'what is it' or 'how was it done' look at it for the shapes and lines, colours and tones that are in it. Ask how they make you feel or what emotion they suggest to you. Maybe eventually you can look at it and say 'apple' but before that try and understand what the shapes and positions and colours say to you.
Another example: consider a fine bone-china tea cup, explore the curve of the lip or the decoration on the handle. Look at the smoothness of the finish or the slight cracking in the glaze.
Compare it to a plain white coffee cup. Round, generic - perhaps with a yellowish coffee stain to its interior. The handle is smooth and undecorated and consists of bold clean lines.
Or would you look at them both and say 'tea cup' and 'coffee cup'
Another example: Take a sheet of paper and draw a house. Did you draw the standard 'child' view with a roof, 4 windows and a door, perhaps a chimney ? Or did you draw something that shows the actual home you live in ? Or did you show your dream house in the country, with the trees and lawn and rolling hills behind ?
The first one is a drawing of the label we use for house, the second would be a drawing of the house that you see if you really look when you go home tonight. The third would be a drawing from your imagination.
These aspects can all contribute to improving your photography.
[with recognition that I'm taking a lot of these ideas from a Freeman Patterson book]
Thanks guys. This articulates the lessons in seeing I was taught from childhood as an art student.
I recommend adding that once you can see any object as mass line texture tone etc. that you begin to study how those elements act together within the four walls of a 2 dimentional plane. This is the essence of controling composition or judging it.
I think this is a very worthwhile area of study... let's play with it some... Let's take some photographs... Maybe we can choose a common object that plenty of people have access to and see what kinds of compositions we can come up with that focus on the shapes, textures, etc, that are the physically defininte elements of the subject.
Even better, maybe everyone choose something different. I suppose in a study like this one, it doesn't really matter WHAT the object is, or if it is readily recognized. After all, the object itself is not the focus of the shot :)
Challenge:
Choose a single subject. Make 25 different photographs of that subject. Use your camera to bring forth the textures... the shapes... elements of lighting...
I'm suggesting that you choose some subject to photograph... make 25 different shots of it to accent the shape, texture, etc... upload them to pbase... then let's talk about them :)
I'd suggest that we do this, but entirely not in the context of the challenge. Lets pick an item and explore it, come up with interesting ways to see it and its form and share and talk about them, but not competatively.
I like the idea ... I think we should have one object, common one, we take out shots ... post them to pbase, and then maybe we could choose some and 'summariwe' in a gallery. So I am in it. John maybe you could schedule a chat in your chatroom for that. I like the idea a lot, not doing it in a 'competitive' state of mind but trying to 'push' a single simple object by playing with lightning textures angles ... would it be kind of the idea ?
Originally posted by lionelm: I like the idea ... I think we should have one object, common one, we take out shots ... post them to pbase, and then maybe we could choose some and 'summariwe' in a gallery. So I am in it. John maybe you could schedule a chat in your chatroom for that. I like the idea a lot, not doing it in a 'competitive' state of mind but trying to 'push' a single simple object by playing with lightning textures angles ... would it be kind of the idea ?
That would be what I would have in mind. Also we don't vote on them afterwards! We just look for the good and bad in them and discuss it. No numbers!
La, I just saw this... I haven't been reading everything here for the past few days, partly because of the new animation course I just started in the evenings.
I'd love to keep up with this. It's great that this subject of discussion has taken off in here :). Only, being a vegan, I'm not going to photograph any eggs...
Bah, I know you guys were just joking, but as a vegan I don't buy any animal products as long as I can help it, it's not just about what I eat. No leather, no wool, no cosmetics with animal products, etc. Definitely no eggs.
Originally posted by jmsetzler: I'm suggesting that you choose some subject to photograph... make 25 different shots of it to accent the shape, texture, etc... upload them to pbase... then let's talk about them :)
this sounds like fun and a great opportunity to learn something... but what is Pbase? (sorry for being a newbie) :o) also, last night I bought Hedgcoes, "Complete Guide to Photography"... is this a good book for a beginner? thanks
* This message has been edited by the author on 10/19/2002 4:25:59 AM.
Should we maybe have a set time that we all show our work instead of being able to look at other's photos as we are still making ours? That way our creativity and originality stays pure and unique and we are not unconsiously influenced by another's work until we have finished exploring all of our own possiblities for the 25 shots.
