What Exactly Is Photography...say Hello to a New Way of Taking Pictures...
An Introductory PostPhotography is the art, application and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. (a Wikipedia definition as an example).
Stop...Stop...Stop...stop it right there...
I am not going to psych you with all such lengthy and technical definitions. These definitions though are all correct, but encompass only the technical or scientific aspects of Photography medium. I will try my level best to refrain from such explanations and present a much lighter and enjoyable understanding of taking pictures.
In my 37 years of shooting variety of subjects and commercial
assignments, I have always seen images through the camera viewfinder as how
they appear naturally in their surroundings. Before we understand what is
Photography…let's understand what a Photograph, an Image or a Picture is… let's
see a real example here…
Image #01
The moment you see above picture, your eyes not only see things
but your mind also starts describing things you see in it. So you don't see a
picture, you Read it.
A photograph always says something or shows something about the
things inside the picture. You don’t merely see it, you subconsciously read the
details in it. The effect is so great that it brings back a lot more than what
is there in a photograph. Pictures of our loved ones are one such example. At
times a single photograph can tell you the whole story. Be it about
people/animals, place or the objects in it. Often in certain situations the
target object or the idea of the picture is referred to as the "Subject"
of the picture.
A photograph may not always necessarily be a beautiful scenery or
a pretty face. It can be anything that you can see in visible light. Even ugly
is beautiful as a subject in a photograph. When you see the above photograph
you read or notice few things in it…
> Person & Place – that a man is doing something
sitting on a scaffolding.
> Action – that he is working – drawing a car on a
billboard.
> Time – that its twilight (its sunset, obviously I
did not find him halfway through his work at the break of dawn).
> Light source – that the billboard light is lighting
up his person and other things around him.
> Mood or Moment – that he is engrossed in his task.
> Perspective – that he is placed on a HIGH platform.
(we will cover it in later topics of Perspective and Horizon)
You certainly must have noticed few other tiny details as well,
such as…
> that he is observing safety standards by wearing a helmet.
> that he has donned a business suit.
> that there are some trees covered in darkness.
> that there are few dimly lit houses in the background etc.
Quiet a story … isn't it! They don't say it for no reason that a
picture is worth a thousand words.
In my above video I am showing you the place where I took some
pictures, given the limitation of surrounding and the fact that due to the
current global pandemic and the government imposed lock down and social
distancing I could not go to a much desirable place to find better subject. I
shot some pictures there and will present you the result in this blog post to
explain the whys and hows of the technique so that you get a complete idea of
what to do to make your pictures better.
All my videos will be similar, meaning...I go out and hunt for
picture opportunities on a particular topic of photography, explain few things
on the spot and then show you the results in my post and describe and explain
things further in detail. So the blog posts are your notes with pictures and
diagrams wherever required….hold on to them…these notes will be the ABCDs of
Photography for you.
I have used my mobile camera to shoot following 2 pictures in 4:3
format which is more close to a 35 mm film and digital sensor aspect ratio of
3:2 than the full 16:9 that the mobile cameras can cover.
As this is just an introductory post on Photography, I will not
explain much about these pictures. That I will do henceforth all my future
posts, picking one or two important aspects at a time.
Here are the 2 sample shots…
Image #02
Image #03
The perspective of
Image #03 is slightly different than Image #02 and that's what helps in showing
or enhancing something and also helps in hiding some of the distractions. It's
a small adjustment of height of camera view point, but a significant matter when
choosing what to shoot. As I mentioned earlier I will delve into it and many
more similar points in my future posts. Now let's look at 3 more comparative
shots.
Image #06
Above 3 images – Image 04, 05 & 06 show you the progression of
selective framing and composition. They reveal the importance of Framing and
Composition to highlight what you are trying to show in your photograph and how
it can heighten the intensity and impact of your Subject or Idea.
3 more images to hammer the point home…
…Thanks for going through the entire post (it might have been
lengthy for some). I tried my level best to use bare minimum words to convey
the idea.
Seeing the ongoing global health crisis and the essential
restrictions on movement, I guess it will not be very soon that I publish my
next post. The reason being, I don't want to show you my stock images and
explain things through them. But to take you with me in my videos to a new
photo opportunity hunt every time, picking one or two particular topics of
photography and find our shots. And then in my posts, make you understand in
detail the whys & hows of what we have shot.
Let me know how you feel about the whole thing and please
express it in comments under this post.
Warm Regards
Zubair Shaikh
Photographer
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