Image Maker or Photographer?
Old Timberland boots (_DSC3706), originally uploaded by Fadzly Mubin.
Taken with a Nikon D50 and Nikon 70-300mm f/4-5.6G lens
When talking about composition, we often hear people say you must follow the golden rule or you must follow the rule of the thirds or the rule of the quadrant or your image must have a foreground - middleground - background and that you cannot use the center of the frame and thats reserved for somebody else other than you and thats a bad composition to bull's eye.
No! If you do that what occur is that you risk of falling into your Einstein theory for definition of lunacy which is doing the same things over and over and expecting results to change. So what winds up happening is you get images that starts to look the same because you have defined "you must do this". So, is it important to understand the rules of composition? Yes, but you have to understand them completely so you could break them correctly. There are great shots where the image is bulls eye but its using pattern. There are more things to a composition than simply those so-called golden rules. Theres light gesture color shape geometry all those things come into play... time for instance.
What I think is most important is to first understand that you are responsible for each millimeter of the frame as you shoot it. And to make the image look cool that it has to move you first. Well, how do you practice that well you practice at "Alright, I'm going to use the rules of thirds but I'm not going to be governed by them. Whats most important is whats most frustrating to people that take pictures is that they see something, they feel something whats more importantly is that they feel it but they cannot manifest that feeling because they are limited by these "rules that they have to follow".
My point is that the more you understand what you're looking at the better-off that you will be when you are taking the picture. Because the better understanding of how light works, how glass works, how focus works becomes the static choices that you can make at the point of capture. And if you did good enough at it you can do them in such a way that you do them without having to stop to think about them. That they are so automatic that you're making these choices as you shoot consciously because you spend so much time practicing up to point the where you break the rules sub-consciously.
Labels: AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G, Night, Nikon D50, Philosophy of Photography, Photography
