Pain vs. Pleasure - Making a Great Photograph

[Bruce Watson]

Content, content, and content ;-)

Agreed.

[David Martin]

Almost always, the photographs I carefully plan ahead of time fall far short of my aspirations.

I think I have somewhere between two and six photographs that I envisioned, planned and shot, and came back exactly as I intended or better. They are definite keepers.

Of the rest, I find planning does help. Being in the right place at the right time can be the result of chance or knowing what time of day/type of shot you want to get.

I have a list of locations to shoot, knowing when and how to get the best (IMO) from them. I also like found shots, but normally find shots to plan.

..d

[paulr]

For me, the most productive way to photograph is just to get into this spontaneous mindframe where I'm seeing and reacting, to become one with the landscape. Like most other things in life, trying too hard will only mess things up. A lot of photographers have this idea that if they put a lot more energy into producing a photograph that it's somehow better. Viewers of the photograph only see the end result, so the energy required to produce the negative or transparency is totally irrelevant.

i couldn't have said it better.

if you find a way to bottle that minframe, i'll be first in line.

[bruce terry]

Since I only need to please myself and not others, my for-the-fun-of-it PRIORITIES pursuing the "great photograph" are certainly different from those who have a reputation to develop or maintain: I work in only 8x10, kept the equipment SIMPLE, print only ziatypes, and have found on this narrow track I see better and fuss less.

VISUALIZATION seems the key, and I've never gotten a good image I didn't first see clearly in my head. The rest of it - setting up, framing, focusing, exposing, developing, even printing, is simply workmanlike follow-up. "Great" 8x10 images? Maybe three in eight years?

[Patrik Roseen]

Being the d**l's Advocate:
So what are you all saying: "I keep it simple ...and have not yet made any great photographs?"

Well, what do we mean by a 'great photograph'...for me it means fulfilling what I previsualized. And this does not stop at the time of exposure, it continues through development of film until the photograph is enlarged and framed. And for me this process starts in the library reading all the photobooks available, understanding how to achieve certain effects...not for the process alone but for the resulting photograph. It also means you need to practice this for it to work out the way you want it.

And as I said before...the content becomes more and more important ofcourse, but I would never say that content is everything.
Choose the 'wrong' MultiGrade-filter for your contact print and you will see. Choose the right one and imagine what extra qualities you could add by also using other techniques.

I also think that pain and pleasure live together. I assume that nature photographers who backpack several days into unkown territory to bring back wonderful photographs for us to enjoy also do it for the experience and tell the story of how difficult it was to make a certain photograph. They planned this journey for months, asking for advice how to best workout the exposure time (of several minutes) when the sun is rapidly rising from total darkness (as seen lately on this forum), working out their procedures and films to use under different circumstances etc...and they bring back great photographs! Ofcourse they will also tell you that the 'right moment' was only there for a short period of time...but the point is ...they were there in that moment and ready for it.

I admit I am a beginner in LF...but I have ambitions ;-)

[bruce terry]

Still, a bad photograph will always be....bad. I often succeed in making a good image bad but I've never been able to make a bad image good, no matter how much fun I have trying.

One of the reasons, IMHO, the great unwashed general public seldom considers a photograph "art" is that we all keep too much of our bad junk floating around instead of throwing it away. We are our enemy.

[tim atherton]

Well, what do we mean by a 'great photograph'...for me it means fulfilling what I previsualized.

So if you pre-visualised it, at what point exactly did you visualise it...?

[Patrik Roseen]

So if you pre-visualised it, at what point exactly did you visualise it...?

Well it must have been...at the time I said:... "Let there be light...." ?

[tim atherton]

Okay - maybe God can do that, but visualizing something isn't taking the picture...

"VISUALIZE: to see or form a mental image of."

So where or how exactly do you pre-visualize it? Where do you do this thing that precedes forming a mental image of the picture? Enquiring minds would like to know

[Patrik Roseen]

Tim, since you need to know...

Could it be that in some cases the process of forming a mental image starts by actually imagining a certain TYPE of photograph one would like to create and that this is the stage of pre-visualization, rather than visualizing what a certain scenery would look like as a final photograph/print.

Sort of being inspired by other photographs...triggering that thrilling feeling of 'this is what I will set out to photograph today'...: Waves rolling in, splashing against the rocks by the seaside, short exposure to freeze the furious water in that crushing moment, lots of contrast to really make the white of the splash stand out against the solid black rocks...the sun at zenit, no disturbing vegetation,...
Now where do I find that scenery, what is the weather like, when should I be there - ah it's just right...

The visualization starts AT the scene, before the film is to be exposed to light.

To really conclude the pre-visualization requires that the development, printing etc is done in such away that it is in harmony with the pre-visualized TYPE of photograph formed as a mental image!

This can actually be very inspiring. On a gloomy day another TYPE of photograph can be 'pre-visualized'...and off you go. Great isn't it! ;-)