Monday, August 25, 2014

Seeing the light vs Creating the light

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/500
Are you impressed with my photo of Jack Sparrow? The way you get this photo is no different than shooting any concert tour or theater production.

Set the white balance and get a good exposure and then wait for a great moment.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/200
Now just like everyone else at PhotoShop World like me most likely took the photo above and this one below.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/4, 1/450
Someone else found all the props, the model, the backgrounds and then even set up all the lights for me. All I had to do is set the white balance and the right exposure. The models would even stay in a pose for minutes at a time to help anyone with figuring out a "moment." So there are no "kudos" for this photo if you are showing it as your work.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/105
Everyone with a camera is going crazy shooting photos that if they showed to any art director and if they get hired to shoot the same photo themselves most likely wouldn't have a clue on how to make it happen.

Photography is writing with light and when you had nothing to do with the light you really did very little with the photograph, especially in these situations where without the lights there is no photograph.

Fuji X-E2, 18-55mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/2.8, 1/250
What can you learn from these set up situations?
  • Find interesting subjects
  • Find interesting settings
  • Use light creatively, by not lighting everything equally in the photograph
Fuji X-E2, 55-200mm, ISO 6400, ƒ/5, 1/140
While we all will continue to shoot stage productions and concerts, remember if you are a photographer showing your work around and you have nothing that shows you know how to create photos like this from scratch then they can hire any photographer to shoot the photos.

Learn how to create these photos rather than just getting them properly exposed.

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