The Impact Of Our Choices

MEG member Alan Sislen illustrates the impact of different choices behind the camera.  

Before and after the photographer presses the shutter release, there are many, many

Alan in the field

choices which impact what photograph will be made.  There are processing and printing choices that can have a critically important impact on the final photograph, and there are other planning decisions, such as deciding on the location, the best time of year, time of day, ideal weather conditions, etc.

In this blog post I’d like to concentrate on just a few of the many choices that are consciously made behind the camera, so that the photographer is in control of the photograph created in the camera.  On a recent trip to the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, I made photographs of a number of waterfalls, which I will use as examples of just some of the photographer’s choices. 

Camera capabilities 

The choices made depend on the capabilities of your camera.  Cameras with manual controls and multiple lenses or zoom lenses, have the most choices.  Point and shoots have fewer.  However, with a an understanding of the built-in shooting modes of point and shoot cameras (like action, sports, flowers, portraits, landscapes, etc.) you can be in more control than you first might imagine.  For example, in the “sports” mode, the camera will pick a high shutter speed to try to minimize the blur of fast moving figures, whether a sports photo or not.  In the “flower” mode, the camera will choose a large f/stop so background objects will be out of focus.  The ever present cellphone has a camera with fewer shooting control choices, but more immediate processing choices, using “apps.”

For interchangeable lens cameras (SLRs, DSLRs, etc.) with manual controls, before shooting, you need to consider:

•  Which lens to use 
•  The focal length of lens or zoom position 
•  The shutter speed 
•  Which f/stop to choose to help control what’s in focus, and what’s out of focus

Focal length

Below are four photographs of Multnomah Falls.  Notice how different the photographs are, based on the lens and zoom choice.  For those technically oriented, the focal lengths ranged from 22mm to 116mm. 

In addition to the lens and focal length choices, notice how the rock in the last image looks much larger that the image to its left.  The position of the photographer and the camera, plus the choice of lens and focal length can impact the perspective of the elements in the photograph.  Telephoto lenses compress the elements and wide angle lenses make the foreground elements appear larger relative to the rest of the scene.

Click Image To Enlarge

Shutter speed

A related choice was the shutter speed used.  A very high shutter speed would have “stopped” the water, so that you could have seen the individual droplets.  I choose relatively long (slow) shutter speeds (around 1/6th of a second) to provide a more silky look to the water.  This was a conscious choice, but another photographer might have approached it differently.  It should be noted, that using a tripod was necessary to take the longer exposures.  If I had handheld at 1/6^th of a second, everything will have been blurred, ruining the shots.  So, to make these photographs the way I intended, a tripod wasn’t a choice, it was a necessity.

Depth-of-field

In all cases I decided that the more that was in focus, the better.  Understanding the impact of different focal lengths on depth-of-field enabled me to maximize the range of what was in focus.  f/stops of 5.6 (for the most wide angle focal length) to f/11 (for the medium telephoto focal lengths) were used.  Those choices determined what would be in focus.  For the more knowledgeable, you might ask, “Why not use even larger numbered f/stops, like f/16 or f/22 to maximize the range of focus.”  The answer is that diffraction begins to slightly degrade images as the f/stop number gets larger, so you don’t want to use an f/stop larger than you need to accomplish your objective.

In addition to focal length and f/stop, here are just a few of the other choices, regardless of camera:

• Position of the camera (height) 
•  Position of the light source – front-lit, side-lit, back-lit 
•  Composition  - What to include, what to exclude, including foreground, etc. 
•  Aspect ratio/orientation – make a vertical, square, horizontal or panorama photograph?

Camera position

Here are a few examples of Elowah Falls.  The focal lengths were very similar at 28mm, 24mm and 32mm.  But the position of the camera and the distance to the falls made a big difference in the composition and what was included and what was excluded in each composition.  While you might prefer one photograph to the others, it is really the intent of the photographer that determines the photograph you ultimately see.  The photographer’s desire then narrows the choices which are used to get the desired result.

Click Image To Enlarge

 

Take time to experiment

To be in control of the final photograph, the photographer has to make many choices.  Choices before the shot is taken, and choices after.  Knowledge, experience and experimentation make it easier to make those choices.

Maybe in another blog post we’ll discuss post-shooting choices; things like:

• Is the photograph best processed as a color or black and white? 
•  Is further cropping, dodging and burning desired? 
•  Do I want a “straight” photograph or something more “artsy?” 
•  Do I want to modify the colors, the saturation the contrast? 
•  What is the optimum print size for a particular photograph?

Alan Sislen has been a MEG member since 2005. Information about Alan and his photography can be found at www.AlanSislenPhotography.com.