During a private lesson, the photographer, interested in street photography,
mentioned they had difficulty figuring out what to photograph because of the enormous amount of information we take in with our eyes, and it's constantly changing.
I agreed and pointed out that although that's true, and I could understand
the difficulty in figuring out what to photograph, the other side of the coin is because of the enormous amount of constantly changing information we take in with our eyes, we'll never be at a loss of stuff to photograph.
It's our
indecision that causes the difficulty in settling on something to photograph.
So, why decide?
Instead, we can investigate something and determine how to make the best picture possible when something interests us.
If it gets our attention, it's worth photographing.
We just need to figure out how to do it.
And figuring out how to do it is simple or more complex, depending on our camera.
Because we can do the basics, like
framing and content, focusing, and tonality control with the cameras on our phones, anyone can do those basic things regardless of their experience.
But if we've got a complex camera like a DSLR or mirrorless, in that case, we can
deepen our composition by working in manual exposure mode because we have a variety of focusing modes and areas, and we can control tonality with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO, which also controls the depth of field, blur, and noise.
The compositions we can create with a complex camera allow us to have a depth of composition that's not available to us on a phone camera.
Even if we work in fully automatic exposure mode, the file size alone gives us a
better-quality image.
Still, we don't have control over any aspect of composition other than framing and content.
The priority exposure modes are a step up, but nothing offers us the compositional control of manual exposure mode.
If we want to make unique, thoughtful, intentionally composed images, manual exposure mode is the exposure mode to use.
Although it can be overwhelming to "take it all in," it's something that we can't avoid, and it
serves as a way to help us develop our visual sensibility and composition skills by noticing what gets our attention and how we want to photograph the things that get our attention.
The Introduction To
Photography class starts soon.
More ways to study and practice photography with me are below.
Call me if you need help determining the best course for you.
I'll help you be a better photographer—study and practice photography with me.
Currently scheduled classes are below.
Smaller classes mean better learning, so class sizes are limited to 5 participants plus me.
But smaller classes also mean spots fill up quicker, so sign up soon.
And what if the timing doesn't work for you in any of my scheduled group
classes? Private in-person lessons suited to your schedule are always an option.
And remember,
we learn and improve by doing, so practice making at least one picture daily.