Learning how to take exciting photographs challenges us to discover our surroundings, giving us a tool for exploring our world in more detail. And letting your self get burdened down by technique, just gets in the way. It’s secondary. If you enjoy taking pictures, then you can learn the technical aspects necessary to produce even better images. But first and foremost learning “how to see,” retrains the eye, speaks with pictures and draws with light. It’s like painting, instead of holding brushes you hold a box with a hole that admits light when you press a button, which, by the way, is also within your control. Important to only snap a picture that you would want to look at and enjoy yourself.

A photograph can reveal something extraordinary from the ordinary simply by the way it was visualized by the photographer, a way of portraying your personal reality. The camera is a kind of “voyeur,” separating the “hidden” observer from the subject. As you experiment, you might be surprised. This could reclaim your childlike vision hidden for years, and ease that part of our self into one of less thinking and less caring of feeling foolish, by simply re-viewing life as a child. We’ve become used to seeing the world from our comfortable vantage point, our personal perspective. Try the bizarre, change your perspective and angle of the camera, lowering or raising your vantage point, etc. Be open to the challenge of trial and error. If the results are less than you might expect, remember, there will always be another photographic situation. Photography, after all, is not just merely a means of reproduction, for it is also “art.”

Great Photographers

Learning “how to see” can be better explained by viewing great photographer’s work. Studying photography is also studying past photographer’s influences. Here are some of my favorites:

Edward Steichen, with early photos influenced by his training as a painter. He studied every possible effect of changing light and shadow by photographing a cup and saucer against a grey background several thousand times with a large-format camera. "The experiment was to a photographer what a series of finger exercises is to a pianist. It had nothing directly to do with the conception or the art of photography." He also photographed a tree by his home in all weather conditions, all hours of the day.

Andre Kertesz originally from Hungary, used a small box camera and kept a diary, wandering around Paris taking photographs of people who were unaware of his camera. “Technique is not important, go on and make mistakes. I’ve been making mistakes since 1912, and I am still learning from them.” And he added, “It’s important to think, but it is better to look. It’s even better to look without thinking.”

Man Ray an American painter and photographer, made pictures without the use of a camera. In his darkroom, he arranged objects on light sensitive paper under a photographic light. He called these “Rayographs.” Photography for him was a tool for working with light.

Edward Weston used a large format camera to photograph close ups of nature, rocks, seaweed, birds, trees, etc. In viewing his work, you appreciate the minute subtle tones of black and white photography. "The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh."

Ansel Adams created extraordinary black and white photographs of valleys, mountains and vistas, and was admired as an environmental folk hero. He created the “zone system” (or gray scale), showing 10 stages of brightness from the darkest black to the whitest white. He was not only able to visualize the final image but also an accomplished technician in understanding the length of time the image needed to remain in the chemicals in the darkroom, all before even releasing the shutter. I was fortunate to meet Ansel Adams in a workshop in 1977 along with photographer, Yousuf Karsh. Ansel Adams stated, “In my mind's eye, I visualize how a particular sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.” Listen to Ansel Adams speak, in his own words, about some of his images.

Paul Strand created sensitive portraits capturing an inner strength of its subjects. He used a large format 8x10 camera. “An artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.”

Henri Cartier-Bresson helped to develop the "street photography" style that influenced generations of photographers. He only released the shutter when that moment of the shot felt perfect. He called this “the decisive moment,” an important key aspect to keep in mind when photographing. “There is nothing in the world that does not have a decisive moment. Photography was a matter of putting your brain, your eye, and your heart in the same line of sight.” Bresson was intuitive in knowing what moments were significant.

Dorothea Lange used the camera to show powerful images of the Depression era when farmers were driven off their land. Her sensitive black and white photos recorded this emotion of doom on the faces of the families. Her images motivated agencies and individuals to take action to improve the situation. Dorothea Lange could look at anything: old clothes, weathered hands, crowded buses, and find beauty in it. Her eye was a camera lens and her camera as she said was an "appendage of the body."

What these photographers all have in common is their unique vision, with images that separate the snap shot photograph into a “work of art.”

Photographing a Subject

When photographing a subject the first thing is TAKE YOUR TIME, HAVE PATIENCE! Do not rush or you could end up with a mere snapshot! Try and explore all possibilities. Taking your time, allows for more options. Decide if the subject will be alone, or include additions, such as architecture, etc. Visualize the final outcome of an image. I’ve asked my young students on their first day to take their index finger and their thumb and put them together to create a circle. Look closely through that circle, because it now becomes your personal lens, separating the world from your subject. Everything within your homemade “lens” should be perfect. See that subject from different angles, zoom in or out, notice the light, the background, the time of day, the weather, the mood. If the subject’s a small child or animal, shoot from their level, but experiment with all levels. Avoid cutting the subject off at awkward places, such as the hips or the knee unless it is a strong part of capturing your mood. The subject can be facing the camera, or to add more drama, looking away to either side, or even looking down.

You can have the subject looking either left or right, but leave some space in that direction, giving them “thinking” room, thereby, allowing the viewer to “imagine” what the subject is doing or thinking. Also, placing the subject “off center” adds an artistic edge to the final image and more visually appealing. Placing a subject dead center tends to be less interesting, unless again it adds further strength to the image.

Backgrounds

Looking through the viewfinder, observe the background and the space around the subject before snapping the shutter. Decide which is most important, the subject or the background or both. Separate the background from the subject and the subject from the background. Understanding this can make or break a great photo. The key is simplicity, with the viewer’s eye knowing where to go. Notice how the background changes as you move. If it’s too busy, the background will make it’s own statement. You might choose to blur that, if it takes away from the main focal point.  If you have a camera you can manually adjust, use a lower aperture number (f-stop number) such as f4 or f8 to blur out the background. If the background is important to the final image, using a higher f-stop such as f11 or f16+ will keep it sharp. Sometimes backgrounds, which repeat a pattern, can even be soothing to the eye. The eye likes to follow lines, which can add a sense of depth or illustrate a mood. Be aware of the obvious distractions or obstructions behind a subject such as tree branches, poles, unnecessary subjects in the viewfinder, bright sun, etc, before you click the shutter.

Lighting

When using natural light, understand the time of day, where the sun is and the shadows. Shooting just after sunrise and just before sunset is most pleasing when the sun creates the warmed toned light. By keeping the sun somewhere to your left or right shoulder creates a beautiful cast on the subject. A beautiful indoor light setting is window light. Having the subject lit by a one directional light source coming in through a window creates a natural drama or mood.

Shooting at high noon, when the sun is directly overhead casts the harshest shadows on the subject and creates a contrasty image. If it is necessary to photograph at this time of day with the sun directly overhead, move the subject into a shadowed space or sheltered area away from the harsh light. Be aware of open shaded areas. Mottled contrasty light on a subject is distracting, as that which is created from the sun shining through trees.

Movement

When creating movement in an image, change to a lower shutter speed. If you want to keep the subject sharp while moving, then pan the camera along together with the subject moving, thus blurring the background and keeping the subject sharp. You can also shoot movement at a still moment if you wait for the subject to peak or change direction.