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Some Key Elements to Great Photography
By: Jay Dickman
Excerpt from "Perfect Digital Photography" by Jay Dickman "Perfect Digital Photography"
When you employ the understated Power of KISS (Keep it simple, shutterbug): many great photographs have a commonality in their simplicity and directness.
But this simplicity is part of the photos elegance; the photographer has used the viewfinder like a canvas. Everything in the photo is relevant to the message of
the image. You pick up the image, study it, move it closer or further away, and absorb the moment…the beauty of still photography is how personal and powerful it
can be, when it is at it's peak.
Great photography consists of a few key elements: composition, lighting, and a great moment. Sounds easy, but these three components, in various forms, are
what are missing in most photographs you see. To combine the three is the aim of all good photographers, and a time-consuming, laborious, frustrating effort
it can be. BUT, when it does come together, when that magic image appears on your screen, not much can touch that feeling.
Caption: the ability of the camera to capture a simple moment and allow us to share that image is one of the great powers of photography. On a walk by a pond
I've passed many times, I noticed a frog sticking its head out of the water. Using the monitor on the compact digital camera I was carrying allowed me to put the
camera at water level providing a frog's eye view of this guy. 35mm lens 1/60th second @F3.5
This is one of the major differences in still photography and video…the personal aspect of the still image. TV or video requires a person to watch from start to
finish, in a continuum, the story contained in the clip. The still image, at its peak, is that perfect moment that says volumes in 1/125 of a second. "A picture
says a thousand words" may fall short…think of how many words are required to describe certain photos. The mind absorbs, describes, and defines the photo rapidly…leaving
the viewer, at the least, a sense of place and event.
Improvisation is a powerful modality to the emotional things we love; music and cooking come to mind as examples. When we have instinctual control of our craft we
can "stir up" images that have more feeling than imagery that follows a recipe, typical of the unstudied, uninvolved, and emotionally unattached photographer. At no
time in the history of photography have we had more control of the image-making process, and now is the perfect time to get really good at making images.
Still photography archives our personal lives, just as it archives our history as a people. With a few basic principles of composition along with an understanding of
what different lenses can do for you, improving the power of photography in your own work will be within reach.
Purchase Jay Dickman's Book Perfect Digital Photography
Jay Dickman's Bio
A portfolio of Jay's work can be viewed at www.Jaydickman.net.
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