Previsualization

O no, I'm visiting my parents in the suburbs of New Jersey right now....


mhmmmm


exactly....
apperently there's a high school party somewhere, that sounds exciting =\
 
nikon_sam said:
Being the owner of a 4x5 View Camera, I can understand this article completely and have gone through this process many, many times...
I often tell people that it can take me up to one hour of setting up before actually putting film in and tripping the shutter...who wants to wait that long just for a photo these days...not too many people...but I feel it's worth it and that's why I do it...
Also the cost of doing Large Format photography (8x10, 5x7 or 4x5) will cause one to be very careful before just shooting away...
In digital photography one could just shoot like there's no tomorrow and why not it's not costing you anything...

Digital or Film it doesn't matter which one you use if you follow what this article is saying your photographs will get better...
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I agree. It is the one single thing that will pretty much guarantee anyone better photos.
 
gns said:
I just don't believe that it's possible to see it before you see it. And if you could, wouldn't that be kind of boring?

Cheers,
Gary
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Yes it is. I plan nearly all of mine out ahead of time. No it isn't boring. What seems to me would be really horribly boring would be just clicking a shutter without any artistic input other than framing.
 
dmr said:
Other times I >THINK< I have a winner and some kind of technical error or limitation or just a Stupid Photographer Trick proves otherwise. :)
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The author is suggesting that you avoid the technical errors by thinking through the entire stage of making the photo before pushing the shutter release, not just "Aw, how cute ..." snap! You get fewer photos but better ones.
 
Solinar said:
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the "Spaghetti Approach".

That is if you throw enough spaghetti at the wall, some of it will definitely stick.
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I always called that the typing monkeys approach. If a monkey bangs away on a typewriter long enough, sooner or later he'll spell a word. He will never be Shakespear though, no matter how good that word is.
 
ferider said:
Doesn't everybody do it ? Seriously, even the decisive moment is based on it, if I remember HCB quotes correctly ...

Roland.
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Apparently some don't. Apparently some use what Solinar calls "the spagetti approach." Given that pushing the shutter button is only the first stage of making a photo, and that all that follows is nearly infinitely more creative, I don't see how it is possible to get anything good, with any degree of consistency, without planning it. Maybe those are the guys who drop their photos off a Walmart and think they are creating art? They ought to give the guy in Walmart most of the credit.
 
FallisPhoto said:
I always called that the typing monkeys approach. If a monkey bangs away on a typewriter long enough, sooner or later he'll spell a word. He will never be Shakespear though, no matter how good that word is.
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Um...

Yes he will.

If he types for all infinity, he will sooner or later produce the complete works of Shakespear(e). It's one of the classic definitions of infinity.

Well, strictly, of course, he won't BE Shakespear(e). But a reader, presented with the (selected) finished work, would be unable to tell the difference.

Cheers,

R.
 
Why am I making this photograph?

Why am I making this photograph?

Fallisphoto,
Thanks for the post about previsualization. I'm someone that continually fights against spending too much time thinking about why I'm taking this picture or that. But I must admit to myself that I haven't created any substantial body of work that I'm proud of. Recently I read a book about the photographer Bill Jay. He says a photographer must have a "project" clearly in mind before decent photos can be made. When I read that, I bristled. I like to relax with my camera, on walks around the neighborhood, taking pictures of whatever strikes me as interesting or beautiful or ... whatever.

Then your post comes along, again suggesting that it might be helpful if I gave a bit more thought to what I'm doing with the camera.

I think I'm 'turning the corner' on this issue. I've been going back through a lot of the photography books I've collected over the years, looking at composition & themes. But also reading about what each photographer says about their thinking process. I haven't found one photographer in all these books that doesn't seem to have given some serious thought to their picture taking. This thinking doesn't always take place at the moment of exposure... sometimes, like in the case of Bill Jay, they've done the thinking far in advance.

I've noticed recently that now when I go out with the camera, I'm more often asking myself "Why am I making this photograph?" I think its helping me consider, even if only for a few seconds, what the answer is to that question and then how can I best create the picture that meets my need. Even if its just a nice garden picture.... I'm now thinking a bit more about composition, depth of field, etc..

So, clearly for me some sort of "previsualization"is helpful... pre-thinking the details as suggested in the article you referred us to, or even just asking myself "why am I making this photograph?" Thanks again.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Um...

Yes he will.

If he types for all infinity, he will sooner or later produce the complete works of Shakespear(e). It's one of the classic definitions of infinity.

Well, strictly, of course, he won't BE Shakespear(e). But a reader, presented with the (selected) finished work, would be unable to tell the difference.

Cheers,

R.
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The monkey experiment was tried, on a smaller scale and not a single sentence was produced.
 
Jamie Pillers said:
Fallisphoto,
Thanks for the post about previsualization. I'm someone that continually fights against spending too much time thinking about why I'm taking this picture or that. But I must admit to myself that I haven't created any substantial body of work that I'm proud of. Recently I read a book about the photographer Bill Jay. He says a photographer must have a "project" clearly in mind before decent photos can be made. When I read that, I bristled. I like to relax with my camera, on walks around the neighborhood, taking pictures of whatever strikes me as interesting or beautiful or ... whatever.

Then your post comes along, again suggesting that it might be helpful if I gave a bit more thought to what I'm doing with the camera.

I think I'm 'turning the corner' on this issue. I've been going back through a lot of the photography books I've collected over the years, looking at composition & themes. But also reading about what each photographer says about their thinking process. I haven't found one photographer in all these books that doesn't seem to have given some serious thought to their picture taking. This thinking doesn't always take place at the moment of exposure... sometimes, like in the case of Bill Jay, they've done the thinking far in advance.

I've noticed recently that now when I go out with the camera, I'm more often asking myself "Why am I making this photograph?" I think its helping me consider, even if only for a few seconds, what the answer is to that question and then how can I best create the picture that meets my need. Even if its just a nice garden picture.... I'm now thinking a bit more about composition, depth of field, etc..

So, clearly for me some sort of "previsualization"is helpful... pre-thinking the details as suggested in the article you referred us to, or even just asking myself "why am I making this photograph?" Thanks again.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. I don't see how it is even possible to seriously improve anyone's skill level without doing this. Dumb luck only takes you so far.
 
Yes, I've been trusting "dumb luck" for the past 20 years or so and it doesn't appear to be paying off. Possibly posthumous discovery of my negatives will prove differently, but... :)
 
I was fading out of this thread. Now I'm glad to see someone's turning it back a little bit.

(I'm not going into the discussions about all the metaphors used here. They are carrying us further and further away....)

Let me use my own experience for an example. One thing pre-visualization helps me is about those shots that I DIDN'T take, which I would've had if I didn't think before I shoot.

Pre-visualization is not boring. Boring is when I got the photos from a roll and couldn't find any to keep....

My 0.02.
 
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