5) Keep on shooting
Before the days of digital, one of the biggest differences between amateur and professional photographers was the amount of film they would shoot. A photographer will often shoot lots of frames of what looks to be exactly the same shot. While doing this people sometimes say to me “you must get one good one out of that lot”. The reality is that nearly all the shots will be ‘good’ ones - but some will be slightly better than others; and that can make the difference between a good and a great shot.
The human face is extremely expressive and these expressions can be very fleeting. I can fire off a dozen shots of what looks like an identical portrait, but when I come to choose from the proofs the best shot usually jumps right out of the pack. That is the one that I hope will elicit the response: “you have captured my child exactly”, from a proud parent.
Now that we are in the digital age, there is no cost to shooting lots of pictures, and that is exactly what you should do. This doesn’t mean that you can go crazy - you have to remember that you are photographing a person, and children especially become bored very quickly. Taking a few shots in quick succession means you not only cut down the risk of the dreaded closed eyes, but you may just catch that transitory expression that really sums up your subject’s personality.
In the next post I will explain how and why you should narrow down your selection of images. Happy snapping!
These pics of Evie are pretty similar but only one has the feeling I was after.
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- Jan 20, 2009: Ken Sharp’s Blog » Blog Archive » 6) Show your best
hi…i just posted as comment on ‘Catriona’ in the wrong bit….sorry. I agree about the not going crazy bit….it can eventually degrade your skills and, in a way, the whole point and joy of photography. whenever i go on holiday a take an fm2 and a dozen rolls of 3200, either pulling or pushing it as i see fit. Funny how the whole discpline of shooting fully manual on film stops you in your tracks and makes you really pay attention, in the most engaging, enjoyable way, to ‘raw’ photography….(I shant be so pompous as to say ‘real’, but you get what I mean). When I was in Luxembourg, wandering around the deserted, vaguely ecclesiastical Family of Man expo, in raptures - naturally - I had to keep reminding myself that these images were produced on tiny machines with no auto-focus, no exposure compensation, in fact, not much of anything at all except the creative vision and technical mastery of the medium. Looking at your images, while we both know they are captured in a different way, recall, visually at least, something of that purity and excellence of vision. Well, i shall stop before i get too sycophantic. Suffice to say, I really like your work….and I see a LOT of work. All the best. Jason.
By jason williams at 2:21 pm on Aug 16, 2009
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the kind comments, especially nice coming from a fellow photographer. I bought the Family of Man book soon after I took up photography (36 years ago!). It was a great inspiration for me and I still look through it every few years. Another of my favourite books from that time was Robert Frank’s The Americans.
As you realise, I use digital now but the method of capture isn’t nearly as important as seeing the picture. When photographing people I try to be as direct as possible and to keep things simple, to allow the character of the subject to show through.
Best wishes
Ken
By Ken at 11:00 am on Aug 27, 2009