Hunter deals out some tips on building photographic style
With the sheer photographic overload that Tokyo provides it is all too easy to just end up walking about, shooting and shooting, with little reason or concept behind our photographs.Simply walking and shooting is of course a great way to practice your photography and in a city like Tokyo, can often produce some awesome results. However for those of you really interested in pushing yourself as a photographer, setting limits, creating projects and giving your photography a ‘reason’ is often all it takes to make your shots truly great.
Perhaps the best way to think about it is if you were to have an exhibition of your prints; you wouldn’t simply call it ‘Japan’ or ‘Tokyo’. The exhibition would need to have a reason to exist or some sort of point to make. It would also need to convey your own photographic style, perhaps one of the hardest things to develop if you simply walk around and shoot. So give yourself some limits, restrict yourself in order to take your photography further.
I went through a major photographic crisis last month and found myself unhappy with nearly all I produced. Then I decided to switch to nothing but black and white and a 35mm for a while, see what happened. The shots I created were probably some of my favourite of this entire year, a lot of my friends back home said they could tell it was ‘me’ who shot them. This little black and white project helped me build on my visual style as well as improve my composition and technical ability. I tended to rely on photoshop and blasting my pictures with colour to cover up and mistakes or problems with composition. With the black and white it made it impossible for me to do it. I rejected a lot of shots that first week but then by the end of week three I was producing solid, composed and sharp pictures that I was happy with.
I had a recent lesson with a student in Shibuya who wanted to recap everything we had done so far. I decided that we would spend the whole day walking round and round the little shibuya crossing square until we had produced photos that fulfilled the criteria of what I had taught her; close up street work, wide angle, 85mm bokeh stuff, playing around with bokeh in general, tripod and HDR. It sounds like a lot but after about 30 mins we had gotten used to which backgrounds looked best, where the most interesting people were crossing, what to wait for and what to look out for.
I did this in Shibuya but you could do it anywhere. For those of you who went on Alfie’s photowwalk on saturday, it is similar to his colours or letters idea. Perhaps best would be to draw yourself a square on google maps near your house, only shoot within that square and use only the lens your most uncomfortable with. Trust me it will push you right out of your photographic comfort-zone but after a few days the work you will produce will be far better. Plus you will discover uses for that lens you were starting to think was a mis-investment.
Here are a couple more to get you thinking:
- Small memory card syndrome: buy a 1gig or less memory card for nothing and only take that out with you. It will stop you over-shooting in no time and really get you thinking about your photography
- Black and White only: Take all the colour out of your photography, it will really help your grasp of tonality and the importance of contrast
- No more favourite lens: Some of us candid photographers tend to hide behind the safety of a long lens. Don’t, getting up close can produce some really awesome stuff, just don’t annoy anyone!
Any more ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Just to give you an idea of what I got up to in Shibuya I have created a little google map with pictures of what I got and where.
There is also a link to everything up on flickr here
Why not give it a go yourself and I will put your projects up on Japanorama for everyone else to follow!
December 15th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Interesting and well written article. I think everyone (incl. myself about once a week) has some kind of photographic crisis from time to time. But I think having a style is somewhat overrated. Why is it a good thing for someone to be able to tell that a certain photo is yours? That for me is a more interesting discussion. Anyhow – I think that style comes to most people eventually. I can pretty much tell one of Alfie’s shots before seeing his name attached to it. Same with Irwin, Mark Fielding and Jonno. Whether that is a good thing or not is up for debate.
If your students do want a style, as you say, projects are a good idea as is geographical limitation. I heard a saying once that you should suit the same thing in many different ways, or different things in the same way. BW is also a good idea as it forces you to focus on comp a bit more, but BW can still be played around with in post – vignettes, clarity, dodging and burning all possible so the urge to rely on photoshop to create a style in BW is something that needs to be fought against. And BW itself is not a style per se (which is obvious).
On the issue of taking better pictures (which you allude to), I found that moving to film helped me. Film slows you down in the same way as a small memory card. But it slows you down even more as each shots costs money. Maybe my best work has actually come on my most expensive film…
Would be interested to hear what other peopls think about this.
BTW – are you guys gonna create a Japanorama Flickr Group? Would be nice to see the work of the other students you have and would be a good forum to constructively criticize each others shots…
happy Xmas.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
There are many ways to slice this. I think everyone should shoot film to learn but that’s just not practical for everyone now that digital is a reality. Plus, there are things about digitial that make learning better, easier, cheaper. Yes, the cost of each shot keeps your shooting to a minimum which can be great for people who want to slow their shooting down. But, if I am trying to teach someone panning on a fast moving target? That might be one time it’s easier to use digital to learn. Same with shooting with flash. Digital makes it a damn site easier.
Shot selection, framing, composition: these things can all benefit from a slowed-down approach, one that film can give.
The magic of developing and printing: essential to anyone wanting to seriously learn photography.
But, film, paper, developing, printing….. expensive as you know. Three years of full-time photographic study in the UK practically bankrupted me. I got an 85Pound ‘materials grant’ each year from the government, which – shooting 5×4inch plate, medium format etc etc – was usually gone in a fortnight.
Style is not everything, either. And in fact shooting and learning on film for years made me technically competent, then proficient long before style even entered into the equation. Style for me happened by accident, as a by-product of techniques and processes I was messing with in the darkroom and in-camera.
One learns to work with many things as a painter, sculptor, musician before getting too bogged-down in style. In fact, people make a damn good career in the arts just copying other people.
I do limit students when I shoot with them; geographically, time, amount of shots I let them shoot, b+w only. All these and more projects and focus give people a framework to learn. That’s what Hunter was driving at, I guess. The old ’shoot, shoot, shoot’ addage, as I hear lots of people suggest as a way of ‘learning’ has some truth to it… in that practice does make perfect. But, structured, focused practice. Not just going out every day and ’shooting’.
Yes, Flickr group definitely on the cards. Meant to get around to it ages ago. Too many things on the go…… will sort it out asap.
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Yes, Second the Flickr group for your students!
December 26th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
hey h, and a,
good tips. i too have been shooting b/w with a point a shoot for the last month or so and it does make you ’sone in’ a bit more, becuase of limitations, and good things do transpire within limited parameters, mostly more ‘thiinking’ must be done, rather than machine gun-like spraying.
on another note, if you are doing the flickr thing, you should also think about an exhibition of japanoramers, and we could do it at the DF gallery. i am trying to initiate more photo-centric exhibitions since the space is there for the taking.
hit me back on this at: slebovits@gmail.com
later!
s