How do you see?

[sustento]

I've been looking at MIng Thein's website and see that he does a series of training videos where he walks around and explains how he 'sees' things as an opportunity to take a photograph.

I just wondered how the folks here see photographic opportunities as they move around? Is it something you can learn? Something you're born with? Something that comes naturally to some but not to others?

[MJP]

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

[NeverSure]

A photograph is light captured. We used to say "light captured on film."

Look for striking lighting. Light coming through clouds is a large light source which will make everything "smooth" and not contrasty. Great for people shots.

Things lit directly by the sun (a small light source) will be contrasty, create shadows, and may lend itself to shooting into the sun to make the subject into a silhouette with normal but contrasty lighting in the background. Look for shapes, shadows, colors.

Carry a small frame or a piece of card stock with a rectangular hole cut in it. Hold that at arm's length and look through it to see what a picture would look like. Look at everything you see as a photo.

If you don't know "how to manage depth of field" google it. Here are examples of that. Some things are in focus clear to the horizon and others have only the subject in focus with everything else blurry. That can get rid of a nuisance background and make the subject pop. LINK

[fimgirl]

"............. Is it something you can learn? Something you're born with? Something that comes naturally to some but not to others?"

I think yes can be applied to all the above. If you're fortunate to be naturally gifted then it must be a lot easier, but with practice surely the results will come.

For me "seeing" is the secondary stage of "looking". Looking then fine tunes my ability to see. I never leave home without a camera. I'm always looking for a shot. Often I visit a location with a pre-conceived idea of what I'm after. If I see it I shoot it, and I keep looking until I see it. Maybe the light is wrong and a different time of the day (or night) will improve it. If so, I make a mental note and return. Obviously opportunist shooting as in street doesn't present such fine tuning but attention to the time of the day, lighting, shadows, form and content will then come into play.

One of my early guidelines which I still apply is to take the first shot I see. After all, this is what caught my eye. Then I look at the other angles to maybe improve composition, lighting or perspective.

There's stuff all around us. If you look you'll see it.

But where to look is the trick eh?

Just my 2 cents.

[FracturedRabbit]

I have purchased some of Ming Thein's videos. His ability to see a potentially interesting image amongst what I would dismiss as mundane is extraordinary.

Not sure if his teachings have helped me to "see", but they are inspirational.

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