I'm going to do something a little bit different with today's post. I'm going to take a shot at describing how I expand an idea into a photograph.
The first thing for an evolving idea is to come up with the idea in the first place. Well, that's not entirely true. Even before that you have you have to have a problem. Ideas are a response to a problem. My problem came in the form of "I want a picture of my new lens and I want it to look good". Problem established: make it look good. So, I made it look good. Ideas are easy as pie when you work things out like this!
Ok, so it wasn't quite that easy. I had to take two pictures.
Or three.
Or five rather.
Or more then five, but let's leave the actual number up for debate.
The point is that deciding that you want to make it look good isn't enough. You have to answer the question of how. The answer to this question is your idea. The problem should be thought about, pondered, sketched out, debated and so on and so forth. Once you have an idea that is "workable", that is to say enough of an idea to do something, you can move into the do something phase.
So, back to taking a picture of my lens. My workable idea ended up something like this, "I want a shallow depth of field and I'll put it on a black surface with wood in the background." Not overly complex, maybe not the most original or the greatest but it's a good starting point and more importantly its workable. So I set up that shot and took this picture:
Ugh. Not what I wanted. Back to the drawing board, right? Not quite so fast, there are a significant number of things we can get out of this picture. I do like the black surface, but let's lose that ugly wood and I don't like the framing or how the lens is sitting.
Stop.
Did you catch that? The idea just evolved, based on what was working and what wasn't. This is key. Experiment, evaluate, repeat. So, I made some adjustments and took this:
Ok, so the wood is gone, that's a big plus! But you know, I kind of liked it on its side and wouldn't it be great if it was reflecting off the black surface? You know, I like where this is going, but let's put the camera on a tripod and drop in some flash to have some better lighting and a better quality picture. The idea evolves, adjustments are made, and another picture is taken.
Hey, my knees just might willing to forgive me for that abuse I put them through! And that flash really added a lot, but that background just doesn't do it for me anymore. Let's drop in a black background. Evolved, adjusted, new picture.
Nice. But, now there is a funky difference between "shiny black" and "black". Can we just make the whole thing "shiny black"?
Hey! How about that? It's a picture of my new lens and it looks good!
Ideas, in particularly good or great ideas (not that this one is particularly revolutionary) are the result of iteration upon iteration of identifying the problems and trying it again. They are rarely the result of a spontaneous epiphany, but instead are the product of hard work.
I find that it is much better to build upon a bad, but workable idea then to sit around waiting for the perfect idea to hit. That isn't to say that doing your homework ahead of time isn't important, but that experimentation, being flexible with your ideas and learning from your mistakes will go along way.
I'll finish this up with a couple of pointers for evolving your ideas:
- Plan out your idea before hand. Think about it. Sketch it out. Mull it over in your mind. Only then try and execute it.
- DO NOT be overly attached to your plans or to the previous ideas. They had their shot, but now it's time to build on top of them. They served their purpose in getting you here, but keep moving forward.
- Do not edit in camera. DO NOT edit in camera. DO NOT EDIT IN CAMERA! Just because you think that you are going down a good path does not mean that you are. That shot that just wasn't what you wanted, could end up being your best shot in the set. Just because you hated it on the camera does not mean that you won't love it on your computer.
