Snapshots or PHOTOGRAPHS?

[YEKCIM]

I think most of us on this board aspire to produce the latter, to a greater extent than the former, with varying degrees of success. I think most of us try to get into our "creative groove" when looking the world through a camera's viewfinder and I got to wondering how different people "see" the world, in order to produce photographs instead of snapshots.

Would anyone like to share their thought process when they are shooting, whether it be at WDW or elsewhere, in their quest to capture memorable images?

~Ed

 

[jann1033]

interesting question
to me a snapshot is a personal event i want to memorialize, ie graduation, day at the zoo that means something to me or those i know but not necessarily to anyone else( ie think looking at someone's home movies) so while i think about lighting, composition etc the characters and what they are engaged in are the most important things and it's more a "spur of the moment" shot during an outing

a photograph though i know generally what i want to shoot for the most part beforehand and set out to just do that.( ie barns vs bridges vs skyscrapers, landscape vs details) if it's a local location I try to scout it out some beforehand and consider what i want to do as far as time of day, what i need to take, whatever. i really would rather go alone cause i want to experience the scene and think about how it hits me emotionally and have time to walk around and scope things out but if it's kind of a "dangerous" location ie uneven footing or something, usually hub will go with me (he worries as i fall a lot and like that old lady in the commercial i can't get up and if he isn't with me he calls every 10 mins anyway so neither of us get anything done so now he just takes a book). naturally if something happens i'll take that but it's in the context of where i planned to go ie i know gulls are going to be at the beach. usually i have already considered something i want to do with it via post processing ie textures or black and white or more "botanical". i find that is easier for me so i can get rid of backgrounds if i want to do textures or something that mean selecting it out pp.

so i think about/plan it a lot more before i go out would be the short answer from all this rambling i do try to take my camera in the car with me most times i go somewhere but really snapping shots on the fly never works all that well for me.

 

[RBennett]

Great topic. For me, I try to take more of jann's definition of photograph's than anything else. Almost everything that I try to take has no emotional tie to me (unless it's a family moment.) Whenever I try to take photographs my biggest thoughts are: how is the lighting going to affect the picture, how do I want this framed, and will the shot be more artistically interesting if I intentionally rotate the shot maybe 25-40 degrees. My photographic goal is to get those three things ingrained in my head. I'll be the first to admit, composition is my BIGGEST weakness; not my camera (even though I like to blame it on that.)

 

[ukcatfan]

There is always a place for both IMO. One of my biggest problems in processing is spending too much time on the snapshots.

 

[tnhillbilly]

ukcatfan - Know why you spend so much time on them? Because they are the special ones to you. I am looking forward to spending time on mine after this comming trip. Probaly too much time also.

 

[Groucho]

Part of what I do is try to see as it I'm looking through a particular lens. (This is one of the reasons that I like prime lenses and fisheyes as they give you specific looks rather than an all-in-one zoom lens.)

Fisheyes are an obvious example of a very different look... but if I have a fast lens mounted, I'll think about where I can use short depth of field... a macro lens will encourage getting closeup to something... etc, etc. At the end of the day, I often find that I like my photos best when I've forced myself to use only one particular lens for a little while and I get "in the groove" with it.

 

[Villainess]

I became fascinated with photography when I was looking for a wedding photographer. When I found that person, I loved how every had a part in telling the story. When I'm taking photos, I always try to keep that in mind so that each photo tells a part of the story. Sometimes with success, sometimes not.

 

[Chikabowa]

I think photography is one of the most intensive art forms - where the viewer can see so much of who the photographer is just by looking at their work. It is essentially a physical depiction of how the photographer see's the world - an insight to how their mind, experiences, abilities all meld together. It is intensely personal.

While I do think that some people have just a natural interesting viewpoint in the world, I also think it is definitely something that can be taught and learned if the photographer wants to put the time and effort into retraining their brain to look at different things in this world.

There are a lot of differences between a portrait (be it person, place or thing) and a snapshot. A lot has to do with technical ability, the ability of the photographer to show what they find interesting about that particular subject, the personality of the photographer to bring out the personality of the subject, etc. It has been my experience, while photographers are intense people, most are extremely charismatic and have an 'it' factor about them.

Anyway... there is a definite difference between a snapshot and a portrait. I think a portrait is well thought out on many different levels. Thinking something through doesn't necessarily take hours (although some do take hours and days of planning and patience), it can be a snap-decision that something is portrait worthy. But none the less, the photographer has seen that moment and had the technical skill to pull that moment into a stunning portrait. These little moments happen a 1000 times a day - the photographer has just tuned themselves into finding those moments.

Snapshots are taken to document people, place, thing and don't necessarily have the time and thought process put into them. A lot of times, snapshots are forced both in terms of subject and/or technical aspects.

I think the more time you cultivate taking a portrait, the more your imagery results in that endeavor. When I take a picture, 8 times out of 10 I feel confident that I have a stunning portrait to show someone. But that is because I've put years of practice and thought into that portrait, it's something I practice every single day, and an eye that I've cultivated. While I think I might have some kind of natural eye (not much, but a little), I do continually ask myself - WHY am I taking this picture? WHAT am I trying to say? HOW do I intend on displaying this to the world? WHAT can I do to make this more interesting or different? If I can't answer those questions, I don't necessarily take the shot.

I had an interesting experience on Memorial Day... I had been shooting a lot that particular weekend and I just wasn't in the mood to take my gear along with us on a family outing. So instead, I pulled out my sorely neglected D80 and stuck it on Auto. I don't think I've used Auto in about 5 years... Anyway, I stuck it in Auto with the express decision that I was just going to take snapshots that day. I wasn't going to think about ANYTHING in terms of exposure, composition, or any artistic form what so ever. I was just going to shoot just to shoot. It was fun and liberating. I came home with a bunch of snapshots of the day - but very liberating to not think for once. While it was liberating... I actually had to think about not thinking... and ironically, I came home with an amazing portrait of my father in law playing with my daughter. Because I just couldn't turn that part of my training off!

 

[Chikabowa]

double post... sorry!

 

[boBQuincy]

For a photograph I walk around a lot to set up the angles and the perspective. Once that is done I can select a lens that will give the framing I want. Then the aperture and shutter speed are selected to give the depth of field and/or amount of motion desired. Finally the ISO is selected to support the exposure settings. If I am really serious I take some spot meter readings to determine the range of the scene and determine what exposure compensation is required, or if I need to go to HDR capture.
Then I decide this is not the angle I want and start all over again. In this regard a photograph takes considerably more time to setup than to actually take the photograph.

I rarely use JPG so at home the files are downloaded and run through Adobe's Raw Converter. HDR captures are run through Photomatix. All of the images are opened in Photoshop and edited, mostly to clean up some details, dodge & burn, straighten horizons...

For a snapshot I stand where I am and zoom to fit the scene into the frame. It sure is a lot easier and faster!