Way of approach.

[praphul]

Hi all ,

I am now in a dillemma on the approach to photograph subjects.Its infact on the two approach i am confused about. Thus i thought it will hold good if i have a discussion here.The gears i use is a canon 550d with kit lens. The genre of photography include

approach 1 - you reach a location (eg. beach) , walk the entire place and shoot the frame which u find interesting and that comes up while u are walking.


approach 2 - you reach a location , and find out the place where maximum activity occurs , go there and wait there till the moments relish by themselfs..


i follow the approach 1 most of the time. i wonder while doing so i.e whether walking from place A to place B can lead to lose the moments happening in place A.


which of these approach should one normally use? and why? should one always have a previsualised image in mind before going for shoots.?what r ur opinions .

[jeeperman]

Using your senario of going to the beach. It is surely going to depend apon what kind of image you are looking to make. If I am not set apon a particular image, I would first check two things......1} Where is the light #2} Where is the tide, in/out going/coming?

Having this knowledge I can better use my time to perhaps not miss something that I want. As I gather info on what is going on I usually decide apon what I am looking for.

[revi]

I see no way to answer, as it will depend a lot on what subjects you are looking for.

As for missing a shot in location B while being at A, that cannot be avoided.

And as Paul said, checking local conditions would be first (no good if the beach disappears in the next two hours)

[Manfred M]

While I prefer scouting out a location; but that does not always work out. If I get to a place right before sunset, I will shoot right away because by the time I scout the area, the light may no longer work. The same thing goes if there is an event that will be over quickly, I will take my chances and shoot, but will move around to work the scene if time permits.

In a perfect situation, I will scout things out and then come back to shoot later. Taking your beach example. I was out and saw this scene, which was nice enough, but I knew I wanted to come back closer to sunset.




When I did, I got this. The bonus was I got the lighting I was hoping for and the fog rolling in which I did not expect.

[Donald]

My approach is the same as Manfred's, above.

I would suggest that the process of making a successful picture on a location outside your home home starts before you leave your house. It starts with the question - Why am I taking my camera with me today? In other words, what are you intending to achieve? What sort of picture do you hope to end up with?

This starts your thinking process and you are beginning to plan your shoot.

Now, it may be that once you get to the place you are visiting, other opportunities emerge and you pursue these. But you are doing so from the baseline of having planned the sort of images you wish to make.

Even in the case of something like street photography when it is impossible to predict what situations you will discover, you have gone out to do street photography. So your mind/thoughts are focused on that.

I would suggest that if you just go out with no plan just to shoot everything and anything that might arise, then you will not have a high success rate

[Colin Southern]

I'll often visit a location with an "that might work" in my head, but once I get there the 3 most important things (in order) are:

1. Thinking

2. Thinking

3. Thinking

Think composition (wide? Tight?) - thinking exposure (foreground detail? Silhouette?) - thinking aperture (DoF?) - thinking shutter speed (motion effects) - thinking ISO (DR limitations) - thinking about changing conditions - thinking thinking thinking.

Back in my flying days (light twin engine aircraft) we used to be subjected to engine out drills quite often -- there's a procedure to go through (long list of things) and it's a case of think think think all the time or (in a real situation) you're probably going to die ... and I think that I'm thinking just as hard during a studio or location shoot.

[Shadowman]

it sounds like you are trying your hand at street or candid photography and either approach will work, the first will probably maximize your opportunities but will also tend to work against the quality of your shots, that is depending on the length of your travels and the weight of your gear. You will probably be shooting while moving or trying to focus on your subjects in a swift motion. Both methods will increase camera shake and increase blurred photographs. Some candid photographers prefer the slightly blurred images and will also manually focus their camera beforehand to overcome the lag time needed to autofocus. You'll be more relaxed in a central location than you would walking around, also your movements will be more distracting to your subjects as you raise and lower your camera.

[praphul]

While I prefer scouting out a location; but that does not always work out. If I get to a place right before sunset, I will shoot right away because by the time I scout the area, the light may no longer work. The same thing goes if there is an event that will be over quickly, I will take my chances and shoot, but will move around to work the scene if time permits.

In a perfect situation, I will scout things out and then come back to shoot later. Taking your beach example. I was out and saw this scene, which was nice enough, but I knew I wanted to come back closer to sunset.




When I did, I got this. The bonus was I got the lighting I was hoping for and the fog rolling in which I did not expect.

wonderful image there the second one.

[praphul]

tanku all for the reply.. it did help .