Before I was schooled in photography I’d grab shots willy-nilly and hoped for the best. Didn’t we all. The results were predictable; I’d get lucky now and then but couldn’t create images as I saw them on command. Worse yet I couldn’t duplicate any of those jaw-dropping photos I saw in cocktail table books. Not being satisfied with accepting mediocrity I read voraciously trying to absorb the secrets of great photographers in hopes one day I too could copy them. Little did I know they weren’t secrets.
As I began a more formal manner of training with leading photographers at the Perfect Picture School of Photography I relearned a lesson that I had learned so many times before. It all starts with the basics and frankly from what I’ve seen no matter how many fancy cameras, lenses, filters, or software you buy, it ends there too.
Yes I’m talking about the basic rules of composition and lighting like Fill-The-Frame, Rule-Of-Thirds, Lines, Texture, Color, Pattern, Shapes, 18% Gray, aperture, shutter speed and so on. Boring stuff? I don’t think so, but bare with me a moment.
I have been an active person throughout my life. I’ve followed many pursuits: Business, competitive swimming, long distance running, skiing, Japanese and Chinese martial arts, fly fishing and tying and as an extension entomology, tennis, and of course photography, and at one time or another went to “school” in all of them to improve in each. In those formal gatherings I was forced to begin with the fundamentals and the result was my skills improved rapidly. If I signed up for advanced classes before the entry-level courses, my progress suffered setbacks.
Reading has also been a great resource, like a classroom without walls allowing me to work at my own pace, but in my own experiences I find reading isn’t as powerful as formal training. In classroom and workshop settings I find two things add value to the learning experience; one is there are more “ah ha” moments (“So that’s how they do it!”) and that is enhanced by number two which is the collegiality of other students whose own perspectives enrich the lessons playing off of one another and the instructor. However, reading is a very powerful instrument in the process of learning, it just lacks the tutorship of an instructor looking over your shoulder as you apply what you’ve learned making appropriate corrections when necessary.
What’s my point? My point is I succeeded at nothing that I didn’t first learn the basics and when I excelled it was because I practiced those basics over and over and over again until I did them without having to think. Never take the basics for granted because they will serve you in most all photography situations. Sure there will be exceptions to rules, but I believe you can’t succeed with those rule breakers until you understand the basic platform from which they depart. So until our proficiency in the basics becomes second nature don’t stray.
Also basics are basic for a reason. They work in almost all situations. When applied with intelligence they rarely let us down. Why would I want to put a subject smack dab in the middle of a horizontal orientation when I know the Greeks taught us more than 3,000 years ago that the mind’s eye will balance what it sees better if the main focal point is off to one side of the composition (Rule of Thirds)? Otherwise the poor subject hangs in suspended animation and the viewer’s hopes suffer from static anticipation. If it was good enough for DaVinci, Rembrandt, Monet, Renoir, Picasso, and even Jackson Pollack I figure it’s good enough for me.
Notice how centered the eye of the horse is
The Rule of Thirds grid makes it obvious
Moving the head off-center gives the horse more space to look into, a pleasing balance, and knocks out the distracting background to the right
Not too long ago I went to an evening showing of Stephen Wilkes recent works on Ellis Island, NY. They were stunning! These photos can be found in a book, “Ellis Island: Ghosts of Freedom,” published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., copyright 2006. For five years Mr. Wilkes had free access to Ellis Island’s south side where a hospital and mental institution housed newly arrived but ailing immigrants. If I continued my practice in photography for the next 20 years, I’d be more than happy if I could reach half his genius. He’s taken a relatively mundane subject in horrible disrepair and brought it to life, and for those of us who are second or third generation immigrant children touched our souls. If you get the chance examine these images and ask yourself what universal principles of composition and lighting he used. They are there and they are more than obvious, like sentinels of all that’s true in art. Even those subjects he centers are drawn to the perimeter of his frame with strong lines and complimented tones so that the composition remains in strong balance. Just magnificent!
Are there ever times that the rules can be broken? Of course, but by definition exceptions are rare and should be used with judicious caution. However I submit that the exceptions that work require you to master the basics first so the so-called rule breakers become a mere extension of your strong skill set applied creatively. Otherwise it will have been the outcome of a random accident, and should you want to duplicate it again someday won’t know what it was that you did right.
Earlier I asked if the basics are boring stuff and challenged that I didn’t think so, but why? How many remember the first sport you ever tried or craft skill you ever attempted? The first stage of your development was stilted and awkward and you wondered why it was that you couldn’t quite duplicate the ease with which your instructor did it. You couldn’t make your limbs move like advanced athletes or your fingers fly in set patterns that your craft instructor did so easily. Time went by, you stuck with it, practice and drills became tedious and it was about then you wished you were doing something else. Then one day the muscle memory that you had been strengthening all this time and the eye hand coordination that was hard wiring your brain did something that made you proud and garnered the praise of your peers and teacher. Your self-esteem was so intoxicated with the triumph you couldn’t wait to go out and do it again. I’ll bet that by then you had forgotten “the basics” but they were now a part of you, ingrained in your neuro-electrochemical being. You couldn’t get them out now even if you tried. Something that staid with you forever, like the age-old metaphor of riding a bike. You had the basics to thank for it and they had ceased to be boring.
So learn those basics. Apply them consistently. Be your own worst critic when you’ve strayed, take a deep breath and go back out there and do it again. Go back to your greatest captures and ask yourself once again, “Why does this work? What did I do right that made this such a beautiful image? Create a coterie of photographers and artists whose opinion you value and rely on them to be painfully honest, exchange low-res images and go at each other with respectful constructive analysis. Agree with your friends to buy a book or DVD of a noted instructor on photography fundamentals, and then organize a field trip around each chapter’s subject. Then exchange your works with each other so that your colleague’s fresh perspective can evaluate how well you complied with those lessons. Join a photography club and if there isn’t one in your area, start one. Enter contests to see what others think of your work and listen carefully to the judges’ assessments. Tolerate the judges who review with insensitivity and only listen to the substance of what they say. Despite their callousness there might be a gem in there. Sign up for photography courses, workshops and schools, but, please, research their credentials before you make an expensive commitment.
Finally once all of those basics start sinking in then do the most important other thing you can do to improve your photography…practice, practice, practice and then practice more. Do your “visual push-ups” as much as possible and your photography skills will take shape.
Ron Landis