Developing Your Thought Process
I often wonder how photographers see, or what is the thought process before taking a photograph. Is it hours of visualization of the subject, studying how to take it, what to show or just a moment of inspiration? Granted the answer depends on what genre of photography it is, but how it all plays out before getting the ultimate photograph is quite intriguing.
I can only tell of my experience. Thinking back, it is quite enlightening to re-trace back how my thought process developed. When I first started, it was mostly about trying to nail down the technicalities. DIfferent techniques give different results, and however boring the subject be, it didn’t matter to me. I just wanted to get the techniques right. Once the technique is right, I try to master it and be done with it. The hard part is next. Making photographs.
I tried to emulate many concepts. Note that I said concepts, not subjects, as I believe we shouldn’t just photograph a similar subject, but to try to understand the concept behind it. Every time a photograph interest me I don’t just view it, I try to re-construct the concept that goes with it, and implement it on my next image. But that’s easier said that done. Most of the time we just click at something that interest us, and as a beginner, most of everything will interest us. But as time pass, as I take more photographs, I begin to see things as my own. I still keep the technicalities and concepts at the back of my mind, but my vision of the photograph will take precedence.
This is the hardest part I believe. I don’t think it’s a conscious effort, but just something quite natural after practicing, taking hundreds of images (and more needed!) and looking at other photographers’ work. Having found my own niche or interest, I can now purely concentrate on making photographs, and surprisingly the process is fluid, natural and almost subconscious.
But the journey is only just beginning. I am proficient in the camera, adept in the negative, but still very much a greenhorn in the print. So this is the next step in the photographic thought process, to integrate all of the above to produce a final print of the image I see in my head.
I would love to hear how the others work their photographic thought process and also what are your steps in making the images. Maybe we can all learn a thing or two from each other.
On a final note, here is an excerpt from the autobiography of Ansel Adams regarding how he achieved his ‘first true visualization’.
As I replaced the slide, I began to think about how the print was to appear, and if it would transmit any of the feeling of the monumental shape before me in terms of its expressive-emotional quality. I began to see in my mind’s eye the finished print I desired: the brooding cliff with a dark sky and the sharp rendition of distant, snowy Tenaya Peak. I realized that only a deep red filter would give me anything approaching the effect I felt emotionally. I had only one plate left. I attached my other filter, a Wratten #29(F), increased the exposure by the sixteen-times factor required, and released the shutter. I felt I had accomplished something, but did not realize its significance until I developed the plate that evening.
I had achieved my first true visualization!
I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print.
—Ansel Adams, Autobiography, p. 76
