ever can't get the picture?

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grahamule

grahamule
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Maybe this is just a beginner thing: I find that I see situations every so often that are quite interesting, funny, ironic, whatever. But no matter how hard I try, I can't make the photo work. And I can't figure out why the photo isn't working necessarily (otherwise, I'd address it and hopefully get it right).

Anyone else here have that experience? You see a great photo but it won't give itself up?
 
grahamule said:
Maybe this is just a beginner thing: I find that I see situations every so often that are quite interesting, funny, ironic, whatever. But no matter how hard I try, I can't make the photo work. And I can't figure out why the photo isn't working necessarily (otherwise, I'd address it and hopefully get it right).

Anyone else here have that experience? You see a great photo but it won't give itself up?
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Happens often enough and to every photographer who is honest enough to admit it. 🙂 Most often it is the small details (wrong angle, wrong light, some distracting elements in the frame) and sometimes the technical part (forgot to set correct exposure, focus). The only thing that helps is lots of practice, concentrate on the subject and to be absolute comfortable using the camera. As important is to study the work of real good photographers, figuring out what way they have done to make a photograph work.
 
When I think about it, I suppose I am thinking about this issue compositionally. Composition is typically the first thing I look for, and I don't really count missing exposure or focus as "not being able to make it work." The technical details are easy enough to figure out and fix.

But sometimes I just cannot make the any composition work, no matter what I do. I'm also talking about things where I can take my time. If I miss a fleeting moment, then I chalk this up to missing the "decisive moment" and move on. I actually find it kind of humorous right now. I see things that are really neat, but the scene just won't release the photo to me after trying several approaches.

I'll give an example: Walking home from work today, I passed a neighbor's yard where they had a large row of scraggly hedges at the road, but one really pretty and large flower, very out of place, had found it's way out from among these hedges. It looked pretty funny to me. But no matter the angle, distance, etc. that I tried, I just couldn't get a photo that expressed the scene.

I think maybe it is my "seeing." I am learning to be more observant of things around me in general, but this isn't translating all of the time to "seeing" as the camera sees.
 
Yes. Too often. It could be a variety of things. In a rut with compositions. Shooting everything the same way. Could be a problem translating our binocular vision into a 2D image. Just takes practice.
 
One tool to experiment with cropping would be two "L's".
You would put them on a print and move them about to find a "better" composition.
Obviously this won't work in camera but by working on prints it does become second nature to recognize stronger design elements as you progress.

Cropping "L's"= pieces of mat board cut to shape(L) 🙂 and laid on a print so you have a square or rectangular shape between them. They need to be long enough to go from one side of a print to the other.
 
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kshapero said:
Even the great ones admit that one good shot on a roll of 36 exposures was considered a good day. Keep at it.
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I know the problem of the thread poster very well. Even with enough practice I have to accept situations where I feel: The subject was very interesting and inspiring but my pictures will be the other 35 ones.
 
I feel your pain. I seem to regularly find a great opportunity and then muck it up in some way; framing error, exposure error, too far away, too close, or an error in perspective. I may miss the focus or have the wrong depth of field. Sometimes I think I got the shot, then see the results and immediately know what I should have done instead.

I do see, as Chris said, that it gets better over time - I just may not have enough time left.
 
maddoc said:
Happens often enough and to every photographer who is honest enough to admit it. 🙂 Most often it is the small details (wrong angle, wrong light, some distracting elements in the frame) and sometimes the technical part (forgot to set correct exposure, focus). The only thing that helps is lots of practice, concentrate on the subject and to be absolute comfortable using the camera. As important is to study the work of real good photographers, figuring out what way they have done to make a photograph work.
Click to expand...

That, and knowing when to give up. It's a bit like dreams: you can sometimes 'see' things in your head (as in a dream) that won't work in compositional reality.

The other useful bit of advice to the OP is to shoot anyway, then, at your leisure, try to work out what went wrong. Sometimes you may surprise yourself with how it does work. If you don't play (= shoot) you can't win.

Cheers,

R.
 
shadowfox said:
... and remember, a scene that won't work as a standalone image, may work as a part of a set.
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This is a really good point - I will have to keep this in mind.
One has to be cautious though: instead of ending up with one bad picture of the scene I could end up with an entire series of bad pictures 😱
 
Roger Hicks said:
That, and knowing when to give up. It's a bit like dreams: you can sometimes 'see' things in your head (as in a dream) that won't work in compositional reality.
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I think this is really starting to get at what I was trying to express in the original post. I guess I wasn't aware of this phenomenon until it started happening. Maybe it's something like "overactive" seeing?
 
Happens all the time.
There are any number of places/situations that I'm convinced have a great image in them, just waiting for me to take away. Some of those I visit multiple times and never come away with the thing.
I decided long ago that I would not let that stop me from trying to get that image. After all, I'm a different person every time I approach a problem, so I might just find the solution.
 
I've shot enough that yes this happens, but also enough to know when I see a particular scene that I won't get it right so don't shoot it. There are times where although there is beauty in the scene, trying to photogaph it will never capture it. It might be the tricky lighting, the composition or the focal length of the lens will hinder any attempt to make the representation into a pleasing photograph.
 
grahamule said:
Maybe this is just a beginner thing: I find that I see situations every so often that are quite interesting, funny, ironic, whatever. But no matter how hard I try, I can't make the photo work. And I can't figure out why the photo isn't working necessarily (otherwise, I'd address it and hopefully get it right).

Anyone else here have that experience? You see a great photo but it won't give itself up?
Click to expand...

That is very normal... You should be worried if you start to think that you're getting it right all the time.
 
I never know if I get the shot...until I look at the negs. Even when I feel there's a pretty good chance I got a good one, I can't be sure that my exposure, developing regimen and printing will align in that singular way until it's hanging wet above the sink.
 
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