The Art of Seeing

The human eye is the perfect camera, it can adapt to instant shifts in light and can focus near and far almost instantly. It can even see in the dark as long as it gets the time to adjust, and can grab minute gradients in color.

The camera is nowhere near that, even the most expensive and advanced ones. It does have the camera body as the brain, where all the processing takes place, and the lens which serves as its eyes to the world. But even with all its processing power, it is still the human brain who will have to teach it how to see. The camera makes decisions based on levels of light. It does not know that you are shooting a sunset, but it knows that there is a light source in there with gradients of light mixed in.

So let's teach the camera how to see then, by understanding exposure, as it is the main building block of photography. I will not get into too much detail on it, because there are hundreds of articles written on them and books as well. Just Look at it as a guide that you can study in more detail later on.

Tip: A lot of people would ask me what camera to buy. my answer is I would rather invest in a decent cheap body and put the money towards a nice lens that you can afford. Because no matter how intelligent the brain is, if the eyes vision is blurred then it will only record a blurred image. A good lens is sharp, has great color and contrast and focuses fast.

The building blocks of correct exposure

Aperture:

Think of aperture as the pupil of your eye. It grows bigger or smaller depending on the light that it gets. That is why doctors shine a light on our eye to see if it reacts to light. So in the camera this applies to the opening of the lens. If you want more light to get to your film or sensor then you want it to grow bigger, a larger aperture and if you want less light to shine through then use a smaller aperture. Notice that when you look at the sun directly you squint because the light is too bright.

Aperture can be confusing because of the numbering system that they use. For example if you want a larger opening or aperture you generally set it to a smaller number like say F1.8 - f2.8. If you want to squint and need a smaller aperture, the number becomes bigger say f11 - f-22.

Tip: This can be confusing at first, so grab your camera set it to manual mode, pick a shutter speed of say 1/100 of a sec and take a picture of an object with different apertures. Observe how it affects your photo. Make sure that the flash is off when you are testing this out.

Aperture has a unique effect on the photo also not just control of light; it also creates Depth of Field .


Shutter Speed:

Shutter speed to put it simply controls the amount of time the shutter closes for the sensor to absorb light or it could also stop motion. For example if you want to control motion, you could slow a waterfall to a nice silky veil using a slow shutter speed or stop a racing car in a fraction of a second say 1/2000th. You could use a slow shutter speed too, to get beautiful night shots using lights from buildings, lampposts or even candlelight because a slower shutter speed will let the sensor absorb more light.

Tip: To practice set your camera to manual mode, select an aperture say f4 and adjust the shutter speed and take a photo. Observe how it affects the light on the image. Practice this on a moving object too and observe the results. Make sure that the flash is off when you are testing this out.

Exposure:

Exposure is the combination of both the aperture and the shutter speed. This is where you almost have total control of the light. Mix and match aperture and shutter speed and observe the results. Again exposure is an extensive topic, read more on it and practice, practice, practice.

Here is a good article on exposure if you want to get deep into it.
Exposure Basics

The Photographer's Mind

I have been asked a question once. What makes a good photographer? I am sure there are a lot of varied answers out there, but here is my take on it.

By studying other photographers out there and from my own humble experience. I noticed that before I even look at the viewfinder of the camera, I have a sense of what the photo would look like already. I would study the scene first, check my subject, foreground and background then take the picture. Or I would place myself in a place such that if a scene happens I will be in a best position for a shot.

A lot of new photographers would look at a scene and take a snapshot and hope they do get a good shot and delete it if they don’t and take another one. They did not have a sense of purpose in their shots. They just hope they get lucky and tell themselves "That's good enough".

Ansel Adams would look at the mountain on a dull gray day and say to himself "this would be better if there are a bit of clouds in the sky and an orange sunset would illuminate it from the side". He would wait for that moment, kept on coming back to that same spot when all the conditions are right, then take the picture.

Adams advocated the idea of visualization (which he often called ‘previsualization’, though he later acknowledged that term to be a redundancy) whereby the final image is “seen” in the mind’s eye before taking the photo - Wikipedia

But how about if its photojournalism where everything is happening so fast and you do not have time to study your subject or location. Well there is something that is faster than thought, and that is intuition. That is the secret of the Photographers Mind.

What is intuition? To me, it is a fraction of a second where mind and body become one. As Bruce Lee stated it "If a punch comes at you, you don’t have time to think what block you will use, by the time you decide the punch would hit you already, instead don't think just react".

There is a photographer who took a picture of a man jumping a puddle. At first there was no man, just the puddle. How did he take that picture? He waited until a man passed over the puddle and in a moment he took the picture. He called that the "Decisive moment". That photographer was the great Henri Cartier-Bresson the father of modern photojournalism. Take note he used the term "Decisive" it means that there is some sort of thought process involved not just luck but visualizing a scene and reacting to the moment.

Here is a quote from him

"There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

Tip: Take time to study the subject and the scene before you shoot. Like a great painter visualize how the photo would look like in your minds eye before you take the picture. Once you master that then your instincts will be honed and you can take the next step. Let go of your thought and grab the "Decisive Moment".

Master the Rules, before you break it.

Fall

Hello and Welcome,

This is my first time writing a blog and I am not sure yet where or how it will evolve. I do love to write, though the question of whether I am a good writer remains to be seen. I guess we all have to start somewhere. So let's start now... in fall when the leaves are at their apex.


I do love photography, it is a passion, a profession at times, a vision, a different glimpse of the world. Fall is also my favorite season to photograph. It is a time when each leaf becomes a flower and mountains a carpet of rainbows.

It is also for me a time to ponder impermanence. Like "Sakura" the cherry blossom. Fall comes fast, colors radiant in their beauty, then in a moment, a downpour of rain and the sting of winter air, it's all gone and replaced by black... and white.

But is it really gone?