Composition First With Subtle Edits

[JanJan]

As a new and aspiring photographer, this has been my approach. I make sure to compose my shots correctly, so when I’m editing in Lightroom or Photoshop, I only do subtle edits or color corrections. Is that the right approach? It seems like these fauxtographers, especially the ones featured on this site, seem to not grasp that concept.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about using film to improve on my composition. I’ve also started collecting fully-functional vintage cameras with older film formats as a fun hobby, but also as another way to improve my composition because these cameras don’t give you any room for error. For example, I recently just purchased a 1950-1960’s Kodak Brownie Bullet. It requires 127 film, which is selling for $11.99 on B&H Photo, but it only gives you 8 exposures! On top of that, there is a darkroom service online (http://www.thedarkroom.com/) that develops this for $12. So that’s about $24 for 8 pictures! Talk about expensive! I also have an old 35mm on the way…a Yashica Minister D

I’ve been a “spray and pray” photographer, where I take close to 200 shots or more in a single hour and hope at least one comes out good. Usually my start is shaky, but it gets better later on. I don’t know what’s anyone’s thoughts on this, but for me, it’s something I want to avoid, especially for shoots that are 30 minutes or less.

[cameraclicker]

The better your camera work is, the less you have to do in Photoshop, and generally “less is more” is a good philosophy.  Joel Grimes is into shooting the model in a studio and adding a background shot on location.  He desaturates a lot and adds lights in Photoshop.  It is a very distinctive look.  He has done it a lot so he is pretty fast.  Joe McNally gets it all done in camera and gives it to a retoucher who does very little to get the final image.  Both famous photographers, totally different styles, totally different looks.

200 shots an hour is just over 3 shots a minute, or a shot every 20 seconds.  That’s a lot.  That said, this “portrait” was shot over 6 minutes and 69 photos or just under 12 a minute…  Of course my “model” does not take direction very well and is inclined to get up and leave without notice.

This is the first frame

This is the 47th frame, creeping closer for each frame.  These are all hand held macro with a 100 mm lens.

By frame 59, I had a new angle but I was further away again…  Further away is backing up 6 or 7 inches.

That frame, straightened and cropped looks like this

After 6 minutes, 2 seconds, and 69 frames my “model” left.  My next “model” was a wasp that appeared a couple of minutes later, followed by a bumble bee a few minutes after that…

OK, seriously, it depends on what you are shooting.  If you are shooting sports, everyone around you is using high speed drive and when something is happening you can’t hear yourself think for the sound of mirrors and shutters moving.  If you are in a studio with a single model, you probably have drive set to single shot because most studio lamps won’t have recovered in time to take a second shot even on low speed drive.  And, you can shoot at a leisurely rate because your model is probably not going to jump up and run out the door in the middle of your shoot.  You get your model into the pose you want, say something to get the reaction you desire and release the shutter.  Then you set up for the next shot by repeating those steps.  A frame every minute or two is probably more than adequate and still pretty fast.  I went back and looked at one of my shoots.  Two couples with clothing changes and background changes and a group shot of the four of them took an hour and thirty-five minutes, which resulted in 32 frames.  If your models don’t blink at the wrong moment, you can get by with very few shots and no repeats.  If they are blinkers, you might need a few more shots.  At the start of this, I mentioned Joe McNally.  He shot James Brown in a hotel lobby in (I think it was) Atlanta, shortly before James Brown died.  McNally cleared out the furniture from the area he was going to shoot in before James Brown arrived.  When he arrived they had a friendly discussion and McNally started shooting.  He only got a dozen frames or so before James Brown had had enough and called it a day.   So get the shot as soon as you can in case you have to move on.

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