One photo in fifty rolls
"I am a tough editor of my work and usually when looking at my contacts I find I can go as many as 50 rolls without getting a good photo."
Bruce Gilden
Thredbo River during last years White on White Workshop in Jindabyne. Copyright © Len Metcalf 2017
Giving your work time to mature
Len muses of his latest photographic discovery when looking back through his work from a year ago. He then discusses how he uses time to help decide which are the masterpieces.
Mist in the Tarkine Wilderness - The Donaldson River, Corrina, The Tarkine. Copyright © Len Metcalf 2017
I have just found this photograph. Well a couple of days ago I rediscovered it, and today I realised how much I really loved it. That was looking at it on the phone. On the full screen of my computer, I am not so sure. So today I will print it out and pin it up on the wall to stare at for a while, to see if it really passes the test of time.
Time seems to answer many questions and solves a lot of problems. Yes, it is true that it doesn't solve all of the worlds and humanities problems, otherwise we would be happily living in utopia. But it does seem to solve creativity problems, it does help decide on if an artwork is resolved. It allows your minds to mature on an idea and on your photographs.
I have read recently that giving your images time to breathe, to mature and grow is bullshit. They cited reasons and talked about Garry Winogrand. How terrible it was that he didn't see all of his work. It seemed to play down on his obvious genius. Criticised his demeanour. It was actually very disappointing to read. I am surprised how dogmatic some photographers and writers on photography can be. I suppose they think it brings them clicks, or perhaps they are just like that as people. Who are you to tell someone what is right or wrong? Isn't better to just describe what you do and express your opinions as opinions. Nothing more. To urge people to experiment visually and with their thinking is to be celebrated.
To tell others what to do should be condoned. Is much like the photoshop argument, which I hate, we argue where the line of post-processing ends and manipulation begins. For me, it starts when I start to imagine the photograph. The manipulation grows as I use my camera, actively changing how the photograph is going to look. I stop with burning and dodging, and a bit of spot removal. That is because I love the taking photographs. I dislike (hate and despise even) my time at the computer. I don't think I have used Photoshop for the past ten years. I stop the post-production manipulation at a point that suits me. Who am I to tell you when to stop using photoshop. You should stop at the point where you find yourself with a resolved photograph or one you feel you need to abandon. Process as much as you love to do.
When I write that time is the answer to many questions, that is just my opinion. You don't have to follow my advice. I am actually just suggesting that you go back and revisit your work, and spend time with it. So with this in mind lets revisit the included image.
On first viewing, I would have discounted it because the branch in the upper right-hand corner is disappointingly soft. I tell people, sharpness is an illusion, and that sharpness like many things photographic depends on size. So I won't really know if it is sharp enough until I print it out at my favourite size. My eye scans the edges of the photograph. I am looking for distractions. There are some, but the question is are they too much or not. I could darken the vignette, but that would change the natural one. I could clone it out, but I don't like doing that. I could burn it down a bit. But I intuitively think it doesn't need it. Again, on my computer where the photograph is larger than the printed size, I can't really tell. So yet again I come back to the same answer. Print it out Len, have a look at it. And see how you feel about it over time.
So I print it out. Look. I stare. I analyse with my logic. I listen to my feelings. I judge.
It looks good, the branch is marginally soft, but not obviously so at normal viewing distance. The tree in the lower corner isn't the distraction I imagined. So as an act of finishing it, I number it #1. I title it, "The Donaldson River, The Tarkine". I sign it. I emboss it with my studio's stamp and the business logo.
I take it to my bedroom and blue tac it to my grandfather's wardrobe. Yes, that is also special to me, for he made it well before I was born. Now I can really live with it. Actually, if all of my picture frames weren't in an exhibition I think this one is worthy of a frame.
But the frame needs to wait. The next few months of looking at it will seal its fate. Will it get ripped up. Will it get thrown in the box of old prints? Will it get a frame? Will it get exhibited? Right now I don't know. But one day the answer will just arrive.
The real moral of this article, the one that I started with in my mind, is the same one I have been telling people for ages. Give your work time.
So here are some things I do:
I only have one rating system. Five stars for outstanding work. That is it. I don't use four stars or any less. It is the flagging system that is built into Lightroom. But I don't like to give a photography a flag, I prefer to give it five stars. A little bit of positive psychology just for myself. When I go through my lifelong digital catalogue on Lightroom there is just over 9,000 five star photographs. The reality is that most of them probably don't deserve that rating. But by doing so I get to revisit ones that I thought had merit sometime in the past.
I often let my photographs sit on my camera for some time before I download them. So last week I did a shoot with a model in lingerie, the first one in what seemed like years. I waited a few days before looking at them. So I could forget what I was trying to achieve when I took them. Forget the look I was going for. This is because I didn't want to judge them on striving for that look. If it I don't succeed I will often discount the photograph rather than judge it purely on its artistic merit.
I regularly revisit shoots from a year ago, and even longer. I pick a full trip. Say, all of my Tarkine photographs. I then go through all of the images again. I take my time, I savour them. I assess and judge them again, without the memory of taking them. Well, usually I can't remember. Some photographs are just so memorable I can't let them go. Do you know that every time I do this I usually find a better photograph than all of the ones I have previously given five stars too? That is what I am doing I am looking for the hidden gems. The ones I glossed over. The ones I judged as failures. My taste may have changed, my memory might have faded, my emotions will have shifted. Search for the gems, and the masterpieces. They are there hidden amongst your previous work.
I live with my work that I think is going to be amazing. I show people these photographs. I will put them on the web, present them in camera club talks, I will put them into my workshops. This is so I keep seeing them. It gives me time to live with them. Slowly my feelings change, either they grow or slowly they fade.
I print my work. I pin it to the walls. I blue-tac them to the cupboards. I use a magnet and put them on the fridge. I try to do this at the finished size, but I often do small little prints. I own a little Canon Zelphie printer, it only does 4 x 6 inch prints. It gives me a working proof that is great. If it is going to be an exhibition print, I print it off at A3 and live with it at that size too. Sometimes I even frame them and put them on the wall. There have been times when I have taken the frame down, removed the print and ripped it up.
Really look at your photographs. I mean stare at them. Not for a minute or two. But for much longer. Ten minutes. Twenty? An hour! Over a month. A year. Allow your mind to drift. Notice your feelings. Analise your work. Really get to know it. Work out what works for you.
Play to Learn
The Tarkine, Tasmania, Australia Copyright © Len Metcalf 2016
Advice on how to PLAY with your Camera and Photography
“Play is how we learn. It Is research, it is experimentation, it is getting away from what you
expect. As children, we play to learn, but as adults, we are at risk at losing this ability to
play, due to our adult thoughts and expectations. The best way to learn how to take
photographs is to take them. Playing with what is possible. It is how we discover new
techniques, new ways of seeing and it is how we discover our own photographic style and
signature. To learn and understand we must play more. Through play we incrementally
improve.
Let go the final outcome. Rather than setting out to achieve a photographic masterpiece, set
out to see what you can find visually and what you can create. Explore photographic
variations by creating multiple visual answers, rather than creating just one definitive visual
answer.”
By Len Metcalf – from Issue 84 (winter 2016) of Better Photography, page 66
I shoot with my heart
" My photography is not ‘brain photography’. I put my brain under the pillow when I shoot. I shoot with my heart and with my stomach." Anders Petersen
Leura Cascades, PhotographCopyright © Len Metcalf 2016
“ My photography is not ‘brain photography’. I put my brain under the pillow when I shoot. I shoot with my heart and with my stomach.”
getting to know your camera
The original post about camera cuddle. This has also been written up as a weekly exercise.
Learning about your camera until it becomes second nature is one of the keys to becoming a better photographer. There are two tried and true methods of doing this; study and practice. You should do a lot of both. It also helps if you can learn to love your camera. I have written about this before (you can read this here). Reading the manual is an unfortunate place to start as we would love to just pick the camera up and start. Putting the camera in auto mode and going for it, is a legitimate way to progress. Unfortunately you will still need the manual to even work out which mode this is. Many manuals are now included only as pdf files. I put mine on my phone, pad and in a folder in my computer / laptop so that I can reference it wherever I am. Years past and for those that have been lucky enough to get a a printed manual with your camera I recommend packing it into your camera bag and having it handy. It can take years to delve into the full capabilities of modern cameras. You may never even get there.
Some of my students have found the language of these so called manuals to be quiet difficult to understand, which in turn confuses flow charts and settings. This probably is an end product of translating them from their native tongue. Students have reported that third party manuals can overcome this problem. The third party authors task is to write a manual that helps the photographer understand what is going on with their camera and how to use it. I know that a few of my students have found a deeper understanding from these manuals. For some cameras online tutorials / workshops / courses are available for some common specific models of camera. Make sure you purchase the right one for your camera.
Here is a list of things I think you need to be able to do to take your photography to the next level:
Change the aperture or shutter speed when the camera is in various modes
Select aperture priority or shutter priority & change the aperture or shutter speed when the camera is in both of these modes
Set & change ISO
Set auto ISO upper limit
Change exposure compensation
Change & move the focus point /s
Change the metering mode
Change and understand each mode
Do all of these things without removing your eye from the viewfinder
Now if you don't know how to do these things, go and figure them out and practice, practice and practice.
How to practice?
Camera cuddle (adapted from original exercise by Bruce Barnum)
Go and sit or lay down in your favourite couch / lounge / chair or bed even. And hold your camera and play with it. For the first hour don't take a photograph. Just practice changing settings, over and over and over. Change them with your eyes closed. Change them while your looking through the viewfinder. Change them with the camera under a sheet or towel. Changing the aperture / shutter speed combination, exposure compensation and focus points needs to become second nature.
Take some time to really concentrate on each of your adjustment wheels, knobs, etc. Really feel them, can you tell the difference between them by just feeling or by their location. Get to know which way they turn. The more in touch you are with your camera the better.
Bruce describes this process with a large format camera, and this exercise is extended to having it in its bag, putting up the tripod, assembling the camera and adjusting all movements., inserting the film and taking picture with an empty double dark slide. Then putting it all away again and starting again. He recommends figuring out a system and sticking to that system.
Continue to practice until you can change things without thinking or looking.
After photographing most of my life if I don't use a camera for a few months or years I find I have forgotten all of the little nuances of operating the camera. It is amazing how many times I have forgotten to lock down my camera before shooting because it has been a few months since I last used that particular camera. I still practice, practice and practice. Now days the easiest way to practice is to go and take more photographs, regularly.
Lounge lizard
Now you know your way around a little it is time to start practicing taking photographs. The easiest way is to limit yourself with your subject so you can concentrate on your camera and the picture taking process.
For an hour take photographs from your lounge. Take some with wide open apertures, closed apertures, fast shutter speeds and slow shutter speeds. Use exposure compensation to get your exposure just right. Now go and have a look through your images and find a few good ones.. What settings did you have them on. Which images are blurry - check the shutter speed and the focal length of your lens. Make some notes / make generalisations / rules even (ie I can hand hold my 50mm lens at 1/30 second and still get sharp pictures)
Repeat this exercise on another day.. and even another one
If you must try a different chair in a different room in the house and repeat.
Len Metcalf with his Techinica III circa 1950