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kenny123 · Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 10:42 pm

On Seeing Creatively:(Developing the"photographer's eye)

Developing a creative eye is about seeing things in a different way. A personal visual focus rather than obvious point of view. When we first use a camera we take pictures of all the obvious things around us, landmarks, people we know, family pets, etc., and after some while taking these mundane, overdone subjects, boredom starts to take effect (hopefully) and If we get bored enough, we, (well, some of us anyway) tend to look further than the obvious for our photographic endeavours, hopefully encouraging us to present our personal view of the World. Remember back when you were a kid?, where anything could be whatever you imagined it to be?. We, as adults have set-in-concrete ideas of how something should look, and that’s where the problem lies. How about, (photographically, anyway,) Going back in your imagination to that child-like innocence, and start looking at things the way you decide how they should appear? What would a worm see- if it looked up? Or a bird-looking down- I recall reading somewhere a woman and her 3-year old were out shopping, in a department store, at Christmas-time, and the child was crying. “what’s up with you?” the mother asked,” We are here in this beautiful shop, and we are going to buy some nice things to take home with us-look at all the lovely things they have here”. She looked down and noticed the child’s shoelace was undone. In bending down to re-tie the child’s shoelace, she understood why the crying- all the child could see from his height, was a forest of grown-up’s legs-he couldn’t see all the beautiful Christmas decorations or gifts-he wasn’t tall enough to see above the counters. Here’s a challenge: Spend a day taking photos of everyday things from a height of 600mm to 800mm, how a small child would view them. isolate part of an overall scene, using the camera’s viewfinder -Show things how they are not normally viewed. Use light creatively, to show texture, give mood or to produce silhouetted shapes. Use telephoto lenses for landscapes-wide angle lenses for portraits - take photos into the sun - take pictures while jumping in the air -
Place horizons where you want them to be. After a while creative vision becomes as natural as breathing, and when this occurs, you can concentrate on capturing the moment : The peak of action -a fleeting glance- certain lighting conditions. Learn all the “Rules” of composition-then see how many you can break, while still communicating powerful images. Try not focusing on the point of interest, instead focus on shape, or form. Decide what you want to emphasise-what message you want to convey to the viewer. Look for pictures within pictures. try looking at a scene through a 28mm wide-angle lens, change to a 200mm telephoto lens, and see how many different pictures you can isolate within that scene.

Working the subject

Instead of just taking the one picture from the angle you first saw it, try “Working the subject”, that is, cover the subject from as many angles as you can, to get the best from each photo opportunity. Here’s a checklist:
-From the front
-From behind
-From the left
-From the right
-From up close
-From far away
-From above
-From below
-Capture detail
-Unusual angles
-Into the light
-Include foreground

robhainer · Joined: 03 May 2010 Posts: 2743 Location: Dallas, GA, USA

I like the concept. The only changes I would make to improve it would be:
1. Clone out the writing. It will help prevent a trademark trigger, and it's a little distracting from your focal point. I stop to read the writing before I look at the eye. Always try to avoid writing in your images when possible.
2. Reduce the saturation or work on the white balance in the center part. The skin tone looks a little too red-orange to me.
3. Consider cloning out the blood vessels in the eye.

rinder99 · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:28 pm

rinder99 · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 12:38 pm

semmickphoto · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:30 pm

semmickphoto · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 3:22 pm

All suggestions implemented. Also changed the camera body a bit so it looks a different to avoid copyright. End result.

jeffbanke · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:23 pm

Looks good, although I disagree with the removing of the blood vessels as it is more realistic with them left in.

I did notice that the eye was wearing a contact lens:-)

I found it interesting that some thought the eye was too large, I on the other hand being a nerd thought it was perfect!
What happens when you look through a magnifying glass (and what is a lens if not that), it enlarges things, so thought that you had it just right.

Anyway as I said before good strong concept, good luck with it.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:40 pm

semmickphoto · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 2:36 am