[swanlefitte]

The first stage is - what am I trying to capture here. Then try to frame it the best way to express that idea. Now set the focus to suit the point of interest.
(I still have the habits of a film shooter - think first, then click).

I think our points compliment each other.

[clackers]

I think it was a photojournalism professor who explained to sports pro Matt Cohen that you get the background right first - position yourself for the very best light, and peer all around the corners of the frame to see if you need to move to the side or closer to get a better image, then work with your subject in the context of that position.

Below, we were taking photos with her standing against the bridge rail, when I asked her to sit down to get the converging lines going through the pic (reinforced by her eye direction) and the hard light coming through the holes.

K-1, FA77 Ltd:

[biz-engineer]

I think it was a photojournalism professor who explained to sports pro Matt Cohen that you get the background right first - position yourself for the very best light, and peer all around the corners of the frame to see if you need to move to the side or closer to get a better image, then work with your subject in the context of that position.

That's interesting. I would say that there is a difference between landscape/architecture composition and designing a photograph when the subject can be moved. For anything fixed, there are only two degrees of freedom: time (waiting for the light) and space (moving the camera / changing focal length, to modify what's in the frame). When the subject can be moved, it more of an active design approach, the background can be selected, the subject can be moved, on top of moving the camera and lens focal length and modifying light with a strobe, there are more degrees of freedom, it is an activity closer to that of a painter. I'm starting to believe that photographing people is more rewarding than landscape photography. Landscape photograph is difficult because it involves travel, and rely on elements that can't be controled and it's a more lonely activity. Photographing people is more fun, there is the shooting experience between the photographers and the models, at the time of shooting and also before and after, and people makes photographs more alive.

[clackers]

That's interesting. I would say that there is a difference between landscape/architecture composition and designing a photograph when the subject can be moved. For anything fixed, there are only two degrees of freedom: time (waiting for the light) and space (moving the camera / changing focal length, to modify what's in the frame). When the subject can be moved, it more of an active design approach, the background can be selected, the subject can be moved, on top of moving the camera and lens focal length and modifying light with a strobe, there are more degrees of freedom, it is an activity closer to that of a painter. I'm starting to believe that photographing people is more rewarding than landscape photography. Landscape photograph is difficult because it involves travel, and rely on elements that can't be controled and it's a more lonely activity. Photographing people is more fun, there is the shooting experience between the photographers and the models, at the time of shooting and also before and after, and people makes photographs more alive.

Yes, I've shot with landscapers in landscape workshops, and portrait guys in portrait workshops, and a broad generalization is that if I was to be stuck at a dinner table with either, it's the portraiters. Make of that what you will!

Sports photography really relies on scouting out the locations beforehand and waiting for the movements of the players and action to be favourable. For instance, I ignore anything at the other end of say, a soccer pitch, the photos will be terrible even with a tele lens because the background (especially the fencing/signage) is closer to the subjects than the camera, and the subjects are often facing the other way.

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Last edited by clackers; 02-20-2019 at 02:56 AM.