I don’t always do what I did
I get a lot of ideas for my posts from both my online students with the BPSOP, and from the many WORKSHOPS all over the world. This post is from an online student in my part one class. FYI, my part one class, (four weeks), is all about showing my fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of visual design and composition into their imagery.
In the second week we work on ways to create depth and also visual tension. Let me digress for a moment and say that I want students to meet the challenge and get their composition to look the way they want before they click the shutter.
In other words, no cropping is permitted. BTW, I’ve been shooting for fifty-three years and I’ve never cropped an image…and my photos seem to come out pretty good.
I read once that when you crop, it’s a sign of sloppy technique and a lack of discipline…but that’s another story.
I also want students to try shooting on manual throughout the four weeks. This way they are in complete control and they make all the decisions…not the camera. In the long run, it will make you a much stronger photographer…if that’s what you want.
In any event, this particular student continued to shoot on a program and didn’t know how to adjust the setting while shooting. Also, even though I said that I would not critique a cropped photo, she submitted one that was cropped.
Now she took my class because she wanted to improve her skills, start seeing things with the right side of her brain…the creative side, and take advantage of the elements of visual design as well as the elements of good composition.
I said to her that in the class if you always do what you did, you’ll always get what you got…make sense?
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
