One of the things that stood out at this year’s Photoshop World was contradiction. There were inconsistent messages from some of the instructors, and yet there was concurrence. That’s sort of a contradiction within itself.
Jay Maisel said that he’s afraid every time he takes a picture. Zack Arias says he has no fear. Both were speaking in the context of getting the image they wanted. So, should you be afraid or not when you’re shooting? It depends on the source of your fear, and if you were paying attention or not when they spoke.
Jay’s fear is that the shot will disappear before he can make the click. Will the subject move? Will someone interrupt the scene or you as the photographer? Sometimes we see something interesting, but the opportunity to capture it is fleeting. It’s enough to make you a little nervous.
That’s good. You’re nervous. You’re afraid of losing the shot, so you do what you need to do to get the shot. But what if you aren’t good enough to get the shot? What if you’re just a hack like Ansel Adams (Mongo make joke)? Now you’ve stepped into a lack of self-confidence. Your very fear about not getting the shot is going to cause you to miss the shot. Hmm. Maybe that’s what Zack is talking about. Don’t get your panties in a twist about it, just make the shot.
You can let fear motivate you, but don’t let it control you.
One of the other contradictions that came about was cropping. Moose Peterson doesn’t like to crop; he wants his image composition created in-camera. On the other hand, Jack Reznicki said, with all deference to Moose, he’ll crop the image in post. Here we have two great photographers with disagreement about a fundamental element of composition. Which one is right?
Both of them, of course. You can learn from others, but the objective isn’t to mimic them. Listen to what they have to say and develop your own style. Moose and Jack decide what works best for them. They each tell us why they do what they do. In the end, it’s your choice.
You can let others tell you what they do, but make your own decisions.
On the surface, I heard these and other apparent contradictions. However, I actually came away from Photoshop World with a pretty consistent message from photographers like Jay, Zack, Moose, Jack, Terry White, Joe McNally and Scott Kelby.
Get it right in-camera.
Yes, there are times when you know that you can invert an image or move a slider in post. However, don’t let laziness at the scene cause you more time in post than necessary. Don’t let fear distract your attention while your subject disappears. Is it going to take you longer to move an object of clone it out in Photoshop? Do you want to help flatter your subject with a slightly different pose or do you want to break out the Liquefy tool? Should you adjust your lighting or try to fix it in Photoshop?
While taken as individual statements, I heard many things that sounded like complete contradictions. As a central message, though, the instructors at Photoshop World were pretty consistent. Pay attention to the details, ignore the distractions, and get the shot you wanted.
