I am often asked about the so-called “secrets” behind my photography work. Because I believe in sharing knowledge, I am unveiling some of the crucial moments I always consider during my creation process.
Motivation plays a big role in our work. We all lose it sometimes, but we must always find a way to grab our gear, feel confident enough to go somewhere, and write pixels on our cards. Forms of art, such as a piece of music, a person, a book, a movie, can all trigger your motivation for photography. I shared an in-depth article on motivation here.
Imagination has always been a nightmare to me. Many of my friends laugh about this or think I’m joking, but the truth is I consider myself to be an unimaginative person. Perhaps it’s because I came into photography in my late thirties, or it’s my own personality, but I always have a difficult time building my imagination. How do I find it? The secret is, there’s no exact formula. You either have imagination within you or you don’t. I still try to shoot and compose as many images as I can, finding inspiration in them, and hoping they will set off my imagination.
To tap into this more, I always sit down with a notebook and I write down my ideas that I could combine in a single image someday.!
This moment is very challenging and motivational. It allows you to find and explore ways of deciding what you think is really important in your shot. So the first step is to analyze the moment. Find out why you want to capture a particular scene.
This article isn’t about composition rules, but you still have a lot of ways to create beautiful compositions. The most common of all is the Rule of Thirds. Other rules like Leading Lines and Depth are what I often use a lot in my own work. Taken individually, or combined, these techniques often deliver an amazing way to compose a great scene. For instance, if you want to create depth in a landscape, you need to include a variety of scales in your composition. For this to work, you will need proportions by giving a sense of different scales between the foreground and background. Another important thing is the light, another factor you must use to enhance your scene.
Don’t be afraid these tips. You´ll be surprised with how much they will boost your work, trust me.
Our brain decides almost instinctively if the image is pleasant or not. When you share or show your photo, you have a small window (let’s say about 10-15 seconds) to grab the viewer’s attention. Creating a simple atmosphere that your viewer could relate to gives you extra time. Afterwards, your viewer may start to connect with your photo. There’s no better reward, at least to me, than when someone says to me, “I can´t stop looking at your picture.”
I never use more then 3 subjects or elements in my work. Anything beyond that becomes a slippery slope to distraction. Including negative space (or an empty area) gives your image some room for the subject to breathe and reinforces your subject’s main role. So the greater an image is, the less elements it will have within the frame. It’s an inverse proportionality rule.
The same line of thinking should be applied to colors. A simple color palette with subtle tanning differences is much better then a vast array of coloring. Again, the simplicity principle is applied to the brightest area and shadows in your image. The subject should be clearly seen above the rest of elements in the frame.
On the other hand, there’s another secret you should know about. I always view my images in two or three devices, with a different scale. I do this for two reasons. First, to get an idea of what viewers will see on their screens. Second, to see how good a photo looks in a smaller scale. If the photo gets my instant attention on my mobile phone, it means it has potential.
Furthermore, you need to find Color Harmony. Discovering and capturing the most pleasing color scheme isn’t easy. There are many theories around this subject. Some defend the use of analogous colors (the closest on the color wheel), while others are all about the opposite or complementary colors. The first ones are usually found in nature, and they’re pleasing to the eye. In my work, I tend to go with the opposite method when I want something to stand out. I also apply other color combinations, such as the triad, the rectangular, the square, and the split complementary. All are based on shapes you can find in the color wheel. There are many sites that can help you get this done in an accurate way.
