DSLR Photography Forum

G'Day all,

This is really two questions here, but they're related so I'll stick them in the same topic. How many of you meticulously plan a shot well before taking it? By this, I mean how many of you think to yourself when you wake up "right - I'm going to get a shot of the city cutting about a third of the way up, and I want a boat going across right to left in the bottom right corner" etc etc? I'd imagine the guys going out to dedicated shoots would already have a pretty good idea of what they want the finished photo to look like, but I guess there'd have to be an element of spontinaity (if I spelt that right ) in there... For me, I think I fall in half half - half the time, I'll go out with a specific shot I intend to capture, whereas the other half of the time, I'll just take a camera and see what goes. The planned shots always seem to look a lot better than the spontaneous ones though - I think that's something I need to work on...

Secondly, how many people have shots planned out now that they want to take? I guess this question is like fisherman with their fishing holes - some people might not want to share ideas until they're taken, and I'd respect that. I think it's good to get some creative juices flowing though, so I'll share a few ideas of shots I'm planning.

One of my favourite series of shots is those really dramatic ones with one word down the bottom - like "Destiny" and stuff like that (with a catchy phrase to boot!). I've got two shots planned that I would like to take along similar lines... the first "Determination" and the second "Perseverance". For "Determination", I can see a B&W photo of a guy (high contrast) straining as hard as he can to push up a weight. It's a close crop on his face (and in my mind I can actually see his face), and using a long lens, the point of which is to get the drops of sweat and his face razor sharp, but the entire background out of focus, showing concentration.

For "Perseverance", this is actually an idea I had a while ago. You know the big trees you always see in a rainforest? Well they drop seeds all the time, and little trees grow from them (funny how that works ). These seeds grow into trees about a foot or so high, and they remain that way, for upwards of 50 years, just a tiny little tree in the big forest. Now the cool part comes along when one of the neighbouring trees falls down. As soon as sunlight can penetrate the canopy and strike the tree, it takes off, growing many, many meters in only a few months. To me, that's perseverance The actual shot would be wide a very wide angle lens (probably not fish eye, they're too wierd for me) showing a tiny little tree, all on its own in a little cleared area. Surrounding the tiny clearing are the big thick trunks of all the other rainforest trees. From the right (or maybe left hand) side, I want a beam of light, like a spot light, coming from the top corner, looking like the sun shining just on that one little plant. It looks really good in my mind, honest

Finally, a last idea I had, just something different. We were talking about panning before, and I thought I'd have a go at this. Rather than take the traditional "car on the road" apprach though, I've shrunk it a bit. Last week they had 20% off kids toys in K-Mart, so I bought myself a mini F1 Lego car. You wind up the wheels, and it blasts off driving. I want a panning shot of this car on a mock up road. It's good practice - I tried for about an hour the other day, but had to wind it up myself, let it go, then race around to the camera. Needless to say, more practice required

Cheers,


Brad

I rarely know what I want to shoot in any detail, but often will aim for a type of shot before I venture out of the kennels. Having said that, the probability is that I wont get what I wanted, but will get something else entirely! :/

As far as the panning is concerned, well.......... Sounds like you are attempting something extremely hard! Cant you find someone to release the car? (A model release, perhaps! ).

Wow, some great creative thoughts there, Brad. I admire people who can visualise and conceptualise such vivid shots. Maybe you should consider a career in advertising!

As for myself, I think I'm an opportunistic photographer. When I get to a location, I just see if I can spot anything that would make a good photo, and take it. Sometimes, I will plan things like time of day and perhaps find out which spots are best beforehand, but I don't really visualise a shot in my head before shooting.

Hey Brad,

What a great topic! I'm glad I'm not the only one who asks myself these kind of questions

As far as my approach, I also tend to take about half/half planned and spontaneous shots. And looking back at my photos, the better ones are probably fairly evenly split between the planned and spontaneous shots, so I pretty much have a similar hit rate with both. But I think I enjoy the spontaneous shots more, simply because I never know what I'll get next.

But I think the planned shots are very important to me, even the ones that don't work out. They get me out and about to a location with my camera when there is good light, looking for other good shots. Without these planned shots I would never find most of the spontaneous shots I get, or if I did I wouldn't have my camera with me.
I actually find myself going back to the same place several times, simply because when I'm leaving I usually notice something else worth photographing another time, so I go home and think about how I might take that shot next time. I think this is a good little learning process.. and I'm now getting into the habit of deliberately leaving shots "for next time", to give me an excuse to come back to that location.

I try to get as many shots as close to home as I can - within walking or bike-riding distance if I can. Before I started riding my bike around here, I used to dislike the suburb where I live. Since I started riding my bike around here I've noticed so many things I miss when driving my car. It has actually made me really appreciate where I live a lot more and start to understand the history of the place. I am now always looking for things to photograph whenever I drive or ride anywhere, and it has made the drive to and from work a lot less boring!
I'd love to photograph my travels as well, but I don't see being stuck at home an excuse not to shoot.

I do have a few shots planned in my head, but mostly I simply plan the location and lighting conditions and effect I want to achieve, and then see how it works together and what else is around when I get there. I always plan a "look" to a photo when I take it, which I try to remember and replicate when I download the photo to the PC. Most of the RAW-editing and Photoshopping I do is in pursuit of a mental image I had when I took the shot - I rarely experiment or just "play" with an image on the PC.

One shot I have in my head is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek poke at a little craft shop I drive past on my way to work. It has a display in the front window with heaps of little felt cut-out animals in green and blue, and the words "green and blue should never be seen, but art breaks all the rules" proudly displayed in front. They are such rebels!! Even just a photo of that scene with a caption of something like "The great craft rebellion of 2005" would be amusing, but I'd love to do a really complex staged photo or composite from across the street with references hidden throughout the scene to famous 20th century artworks from artists that really did break with convention and help shape the art world.
For example, a shirtless guy (a girl would attract too much attention) walking down some steps in the background (reference to Duchamp's Nude Descending the Staircase), or a couple of guys walking past carrying a urinal (reference to Duchamp's Fountain), a few poles that might be in the scene painted blue (Pollock's Blue Poles), maybe a sunflower sitting somewhere (Van Gogh), a can of campbell's soup (Warhol), perhaps a comic book with a Lichtenstein-style image on it, a guitar reference to Picasso, and so on and so on. It would be a good little challenge to see how many such references I could hide in there without making the scene look unnatural. I reckon this photo could really work if I can do it well, as the craft shop is like its own little world where being rebellious means puting green and blue together.. While all these other things are happening in the world outside that the craft shop owner is oblivious to. I need to be careful not to make it look like an insult to the craft shop though - I just want to show a contrast between two very different "art worlds".
I also think I'll need to do a lot of it in Photoshop. I can't imagine being able to coordinate all the elements at the same time and place (it is a craft shop on Hay St, Subiaco - a very busy street).
I think that's enough to keep me busy for a while. I only noticed the shop window last week, I hope it is still there this week.

You sound like you are setting yourself a challenge with the panning there loopy!

Cheers
Adrian

Hi

on my part, i always try to visualise my shots first. If it is a big shoot I draw ideas, yes in paper with pencil. Sometimes I discuss the shots with the people that I will be working with, then we work from there if it works or how we can make it better. For journalism there are a few basic framing tecnics that one can used the is just been in the right place in the right moment.

As a matter of interest sometimes if is a big shoot i sleep very late thinking on the shoot for thefollowing day. I try to imaging my shoot and consecuenses and ideas how can shoot will be better. hope I make sense.

Regards

Christian