How did you do it?

As my photography slowly inches in the direction of being ’somewhat better’ (or so I like to think) I get the questions that I mentioned in my last posting of “How did you do it?” So I’ll break it down in more detail about a walk down Michigan Ave that a few of us took for the Light Fest for a number of shots…

1

So what drew my eye here. As we walked passed this alley, simply noticing the darkness of the fire escape vs the light on the bright bricks drew my eye. So the first thing that usually goes through my mind is “This looks neat!” After that I try to get what I see in my brain to appear on the back of the camera after pressing that shutter button. This does not always happen on the first attempt, so capturing more than one shot and angle is key.

2

One of the things about shooting people is the framing and/or choice of backgrounds that you use. And most of us know that, it’s why you see sometimes small groups of people lined up at some scenic spot to get that same shot. But don’t forget to think outside of the box. While we were right along the river, we came across these huge windows that I thought might make for a neat image. It’s something different to try and see where it goes. The window is nice and big, but it needed something more, a more exciting pose. So I suggested this and a more or less ‘fun’ shot came out of it. I’m not sure that this will be inducted into the photographic hall of fame, but it’s just a different type of shot to me, nothing more and nothing less.

3

Here I went for combining two subjects into one. The big problem for me is to make it interesting. There are a few things to think about here. Do I shoot the sign and just get the building in the background without the sky or do I try to make it one big shot building and all. There really is no right answer. Sometimes you need to put that camera up to your eye and move around a bit to see if you can capture the shot that’s in your mind. You don’t always have to push that shutter button, it’s ok to wait a bit longer to compose your shot rather than simply ’spray and pray’ that you get the right image just by clicking that button.

4

Wait………for it. This idea ties in to what I mentioned above. Michigan Ave was packed. Hundreds of people near the intersection at each light. But as with traffic out on the road having a break every once in a while, the same holds true for people. Every once in a while you have a second or two of an area that’s empty. I composed the shot, which was me down on one knee…and then simply waited. I waited until a girl standing next to the guy moved out of the way and when the last couple pedestrians left the frame and THEN pushed the button. The bonus being that the speaker had an expressive face and pose. I didn’t make the shot, I simply waited for it. Again this is not the absolute way to compose this image. Maybe you want to have the speaker with a sea of people walking passed him with a blur effect which might require a different angle. The beauty of it is that there are lot’s of choices, this is simply what I saw in my mind, then the job became to accomplish it and not sacrifice because the group I was with continued walking…I can always catch up

5

6

Look around, look around. In almost any location you can pick from thousands of different images to capture. And sometimes when you see something like two people hugging or a reflection in the wall then you don’t have to automatically point and click just to capture the moment. But instead, pause and let your creative side flow. The first image I noticed as I walked along that as Snezhana was waiting for me (from a previous shot I’d held the group up for ), that she had an interesting expression in the reflection of the wall. So we took a few minutes while I tried a number of different settings to eventually came up with a pose and exposure that I liked. And the same goes for the mirror. It’s just a slightly different flavor on an image. On image #2 I changed the background, and on this image I changed the foreground. Put your head on a swivel and just keep looking around for new ideas.

7

In this image the girl caught my eye as I walked by her and then I headed back to see if I could capture an image of her with maybe a car or two whizzing by. It took about 3 quick attempts to get this image with a bonus on the Disney Store being there which I like being in the frame. So it’s also ok to go back and capture that image that came to your mind. I could have kept walking, but instead decided to make my way back through the swarm of people just for this image. Again, it’s not a masterpiece, but a fun little shot that I liked.

8

You never know what might come out of a shot. Every so often as we walked through the crowd I would set my camera settings and simply pop my hand up and snap an image of the people around me. Why? Well no specific reason really. I had two things in mind. One being just to document the number of people around me and the other to simply see if anything interesting would happen. So in this shot as I loaded the images on my PC (I’m a PC and Windows 7 was my idea lol)…I noticed the girl looking in the direction of my camera and decided to play that up in post process by darkening the scene except for her.

So that’s a brief look at how and why I compose some of my shots. One key element I picked up from my mentor BRYAN ALLEN was that you need to feed your brain. Look at lots of images and study shot after shot. When you find one you like…see if you can go out there and create it yourself with your own flavor on it! To see the rest of our walk around Michigan Ave, go here: http://public.fotki.com/biggy/michigan-ave-light-/

~ by novophotography on November 23, 2009.