HOW TO TAKE GOOD PICTURES – STEP 4 – IMAGINATION

Photographers have a highly developed and practical sense if imagination – they can visualise variations of the picture they are about to take.

Snappers just lift their cameras to head height and shoot from where they are standing. Photographers know better and can visualise how the shot will look from a variety of positions, camera heights, angles and crops.

An example

Suppose you are in a nursery and young children are sitting at the feet of a story-teller. How would you go about taking a Good Picture rather than a snap?

A photographer will visualise at least three different pictures taken from different positions – each one will show the situation in a unique way. Here’s sketches to illustrate what I mean:

A view of the storyteller, taken low-level from the viewpoint of the children.

Taken from behind the storyteller, looking down to the children’s reactions.

Taken from the side showing intimate reactions between the children.

An exercise

Think of a simple subject, such as hanging the laundry, watching TV, or playing a game. Take a sheet of A4 paper and draw three rough rectangles, then scribble three different shots that would tell different aspects of the subject.

Try to fill each frame as if you were looking through a camera viewfinder, This isn’t a drawing exercise, but try to fill each frame.

This exercise will train you to think like a photographer and help you to take better pictures.

A snap taken in a Flea Market from a standing position. No imagination used.

The same shot taken with imagination. The viewpoint has now been chosen to add interest and depth to the shot.

I ask my students a trick question: “What is the most important piece of photographic equipment you will ever use?” Now you know the answer: “Your head!!!”