Leveling, Layers and Aspect - Three Take-Aways From the Workshop
So, I am going to start this with a rhetorical question, and I emphasize the rhetorical part, “Is it possible to be not a good enough street photographer to take a workshop?”
Gosh, I struggle to take upright photos. I suspect my choice of camera is not helping me. I am fairly persuaded that getting a picture when looking through the view finder is much more likely to produce level results than looking at a screen. The Ricoh does not have a view finder. I do have a leveler on the screen, but even when I am trying, I have a hard time getting the camera level. I suspect that on those occasions when I have the scene level, as I push the shutter, it probably moves the camera off level a little. Okay, I am not going too far down that “poor me” path. It occurs to me that I can practice taking level pictures day by day and build that skill which I so desperately need to build.
I cannot level this photo because, if I do, I loose the graffiti message, which I think adds to the photo. Also, if I had stepped just a little to the left and held my camera just a little lower, I could have framed the man’s head on the column and gotten rid of the red sign, which looks kind of like a flag coming out of his hat.
Mind you, to some extent, you can do in post the leveling you did not do in-camera. I am reasonably teed up for that. I tend to over shoot what needs to be in the scene, so I almost always have to crop. That often gives the space to level. Of course, then you have to decide what line to level on. I have often said post processing is not my strength. It turns out, I have no idea how to make that leveling choice. Here is where I am now: If there is a horizon, level on it. Otherwise, level on the vertical line nearest your subject.
This is not a great image. I took it because my assignment was to take photos head on. I originally rotated on the white door, which is unpleasantly coming out of the guy’s head.
I should have rotated on the wall next to my subject.
I have long understood the goal of getting layers where objects and people are separated from each other. And yet, little of my work has layers. I struggle to execute getting such a picture. I now have a little better idea of how that might actually be accomplished. It is a good practice to keep moving around while being mindful of how the scene is changing. Sometimes the smallest movement of the camera will deliver the separation you want. I actually had a chance to study on that phenomenon. I was taking pictures between the rails of an iron fence of people walking down the stairs to the subway in Union Square. With just a little camera movement right or left, I could get them positioned between the rails. I am looking for rails in Nashville.
It took a lot of pictures to get this separation. I still had one overlap. Vineet gave me a “buy” on that one.
I am aspect challenged. If there is a single thing, I would tell myself as a new street photographer, it is that you should choose an aspect, preferably the traditional 2x3 aspect of 35 mm cameras, and stick with it, through thick and thin. I got tangled up because I used the Olympus 4/3rds camera for so long. I love that camera. It has some elegant functionality, but its native aspect is 3x4. That would be great if I was primarily a street portraitist, because it crops beautifully to an 8x10.
Because I was never committed to aspect, I would just crop to any aspect that I thought was optimal. My idea of optimal, it turns out, is a bit flawed, but we will save that for another day. You will almost always do better if you present photos with a consistent aspect. That is certainly known in Instagram galleries. I am very committed to building a large Nashville project, Nashville Playing. I have lots of pictures. I have lots of aspects. It is really hard to go back and figure out if I can actually crop an archived picture to the 2x3 aspect. I have wasted a lot of time, which is super valuable to me, producing a mishmash of pictures that may never really go together.
I am going to close the blog with a reflection on the opening question, bookending the rather mundane topics of leveling, layers and aspect. It is discouraging to me that I know what I want to do and I basically understand how to do it, but I am still unable to execute it. There is always a creeping fear that the limitations are age related. The reality is that my lifetime mantra is stated eloquently by the Cognitive Psychologist, Scott Barry Kaufman, “Talent matters but sometimes passion and drive matter more.” I cannot change my talent, but I sure can use my passion and drive in the pursuit of photography.
Now for a little color theory.
Triadic Colors
Triadic color palettes are made up of three colors that are equally spaced around the color wheel. My favorite triadic scheme, maybe my favorite of all color schemes, is the triadic palette composed of the primary colors red, yellow and blue. The secondary triadic color palette is composed of green, violet and orange. Two other triadic color palettes that are not shown on the color wheel below are: yellow-green, blue-violet, red-orange and blue-green red-violet, yellow-orange.
Triadic color palettes help create visual continuity. They are eye catching because they are convey energy and vibrancy. They can help increase the sense of playfulness, but they can also add a sense of discord or help illuminate dissimilarities.