Think like a Digital Camera
Students often tell me of their disappointment in looking through their photos, especially holiday snaps. The reason for this is that their camera had a different understanding of the event than they did! This has led me to outline some ways to overcome this dilemma, by thinking more like a camera (in taking pictures) instead of hoping your camera can live up to your eye’s expectations.
Here are some basic tips.
1. Squint.
Digital media is limited, compared to what you see, because your eyes are more sensitive, in tonal evaluation, than a digital camera can record. This is why contrast is often higher, and tone range lower, than your eyes will see. To predict the results your camera will give, try squinting your eyes very tight. You’ll notice in previewing a scene this way, that you lose more detail in the shadows than in the highlights. The most effective way to overcome this limited tonal range is to take several exposures of the same scene (at least + and – 2 stops, though I often use a +3, +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, and -3, seven stop bracket (changing only shutter speed to retain the – manual – focus). This is the basis of an HDR (high dynamic range) image, where the separate exposures can be merged togehter, in “auto – merge to HDR” with Photoshop. I’ll do a post on this.
2. Close one eye.
You always put the camera to the same eye, so you are by default, right or left eyed. Closing one eye mimics how the camera sees the scene, by going from three-dimensions, to a two-dimensional representation of what you see. The limitations of two dimensions are that actually you lose all relative distance between any subjects, and it is only your brain that is telling you these distances (just like you need to use both ears to hear the direction from which a sound comes). Use other means like leading lines, curves, sky, designing the composition (see my post, “a list of artistic things”) to make sense of what you are recording and ‘lead you in’ to an image of only two dimensions.
3. Take more than one photograph of the same thing.
Unlike your vision, which sees everything in continuous time (like film or video), when you push the shutter, that’s it. You only have one image, from one unique frozen moment of time. People blink, change expression. Light changes. Things move. The sun goes in and out of clouds. Give yourself more chances of having a good result by being able to edit out the best photo. You can’t have a choice with only one. Try sequencing.
4. Preview the zoom range, or change your position.
Your eyes see everything in one perspective (which is matched in 35mm format, by a 50mm lens, which gives the same perspective you see). Wide angle lenses (or the wide end of your zoom lens) distort perspective by exaggerating it, and give you a larger field and angle of view.Telephoto lenses (zooming “in” and magnifying the scene) distort perspective by compressing it, and give you a smaller field and angle of view. Look at the choices you have with your zoom lens by trying different settings (zooming in and out) before choosing one. Or choose several.
5. Learn how to predict the limits of your zoom lens.
There’s no point in going in close and using a wide angle setting if your lens won’t cover as wide an angle as you want. Or, zooming out and hoping for a tight crop if you’re too close. Using your hands straight out at either sides (180 degrees), learn how to estimate the limits, from wide to narrow, of where your zoom lens will be at both ends, and the middle, of the range.
6. Make conscious framing choices.
As with no. 5 above, be aware that while there is no limit to what you see (hold your hands outstretched on either side of you and wiggle your fingers; you have almost 180 degree peripheral vision!), as soon as you point your camera in front of you, you limit the view of something by putting a frame around it. Make good decisions in your choices, and only include in your viewfinder ‘design’, what is necessary for a good photo. Too close or too wide, and you might miss the point of visual focus or interest.
©James Bartholomew
Email:james@jamesbartholomew.com
Photography Made Simple 
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