By Wayne Cosshall
When you are shooting, no matter what your subject, it is important to make the most of what you have. You should strive to get as many different types of images as possible while you have the time and opportunity to work in a given location or with a particular subject.
Whatever your type of photography, you will have a subject. That subject could be:
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a person or a group of people if you’re a portrait or wedding photographer
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an object or set of objects if you’re a food, still life or commercial photographer
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a building or interior if you’re an architectural photographer,
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a location if you’re a landscape or travel photographer
And whether you’re a full-time photographer, semi-pro, or amateur, there are always limits on your time. So it makes sense, purely from a time perspective, to make the most of any shooting that you do. Beyond your time, there is also the time of your subject or client to consider.
Plus, you must take into account all of the possible ways the images you shoot today might be used in the future. It can be very frustrating to discover, long after a shoot, that you do not have the right image.A big difference between amateur and professional photographers is the number of images they shoot. Typically, a pro will take many more images of a given subject. No matter what your subject, do you take as many images as you could?
Let’s look at some ways to vary what you are doing so you have more images to work with. Use more than one lens.
Different focal lengths provide different perspectives and allow you to get closer to or further away from the subject. They also give you other things, such as close focusing with a macro or tilt and shift with a TS lens or a Lensbaby. But do you always make use of all the possibilities? This is where several camera bodies come in handy. You can switch lenses quickly just by grabbing a different body. This is particularly true in situations in which there is changing light or a lot of movement.
Vary the lighting.
When possible, do you vary the lighting? This could be shooting with and without reflectors, fill light, changing the angle of the light, modifying its qualities with scrim or such. Or, you can move around the subject so that you explore not only how the subject itself looks from different angles, but how the subject responds to light from different angles. In some cases you can return at different times of day or even times of the year. Don’t forget shooting at night.
Use your camera controls.
You can vary the depth of field, choice of focus point, or shutter speed to remove, reduce or enhance motion effects and much more. How does the subject respond to different amounts of image noise by varying the sensitivity? Would bracketing be useful? Are there any special capabilities of your cameras that you could try?
Go multi-spectral.
Digital cameras, and film cameras with the right film, can do more than just capture the visible spectrum. You can shoot ultra-violet and infrared. You can use filters or later processing to remove or modify parts of the visible spectrum. Some subjects respond extremely well to such treatment. I shoot most of my landscapes in infrared.
Vary the point of view.
The point of view is where you shoot from. You can shoot from ground level, up high, above, below (with some ingenuity) or anywhere in between. Often we just shoot the world from eye level, but this is so limiting. Force yourself to try different positions and see what the result is.
Expand the subject.
Even if you have a definite idea of what the subject is, shoot around it. Expand the scene by shooting what is going on further afield. For example, instead of just shooting an interior, shoot the view out the windows. Shoot the environment of a portrait subject especially if you’re shooting outside of the studio and in the subject’s office or home. Look for reflections of the subject in other surfaces.
All the above are just some examples of different ways of working the subject. The reality is that there are an infinite number of images that could be shot, so you will never get them all. The goal is to get more than you do now.
But why is having more better? Here are some reasons:
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Future uses, especially collages and montages, may need a particular type of shot;
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Changing ideas may mean you need a different image than you thought, even now;
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Your creativity will improve the more you work a scene, leading you to see new possibilities;
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A client will really feel they are getting their money’s worth;
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It is better to do it now rather than reshoot later.
It is far better to have more images from which to choose than later wishing you had shot something you did not. This is especially true in the digital age when the cost of capturing an image is so low and the range of possible uses so high.
Shoot more.
Posted
04-07-2009 6:28 PM
by
Eileen Fritsch