Shoot with Intent
When I started with photography, I really spent time to learn how to shoot in manual mode that provides me full control of my camera. I shoot in manual mode 100% of the time now and some would say that there would be a possibility to miss some shots because of it and since I’m into street photography, that is indeed a huge possibility.
Having that full control and knowing how to utilize it well is very important. Knowing how to use what you can control makes it easier to adapt accordingly to things beyond your control.
The first thing that I always try to do is to have my initial settings setup right away. There are a few questions that I should answer for that: What do I want to shoot? Am I going to shoot during the day or during the night? Is it going to be indoors or outdoors? If it’s indoors how is the light in the room, how tight is the space? If it’s outdoors is it a soft light, harsh light or a gloomy day?
If I am going to do street photography during the night then I know that my initial settings would be ISO 2500/3200, SS 1/80-1/125 and depending on the lens that I have with me either f2.8 or f2. Once that’s all set then I can just focus on composing my shots and just fire away and adjust to the scene accordingly but then it would be easier since often times, I only need to adjust one thing either the aperture or the shutter speed most of the time.
Shooting during the night provides some limitations due to the lack of light and for me, it makes things easier than shooting during the day. Let’s say I’ll do street photography during the day. My initial settings would probably be ISO 200 (the lowest in my camera) SS 1/200 and up and f2/f2.8. This has been my standard initial settings before I learned a few more things like do I want to shoot for the details or use the light to isolate the subject.
It’s more complicated since by shooting for the details, I must then increase my aperture to at least f5.6 or even f8 then my ISO will have to be increased as well or/and along with the reduced shutter speed. Or if I want to isolate the subject using the light then I would probably have to set my aperture to f11 and above and adjust the rest accordingly again.
With those examples however, the intent is clearer. I want to shoot for the details, I want to isolate the subject using the light or it can even be I want to the waves to be smooth to create reflection, I want to shoot for the stars, I think the place doesn’t have a good background so I’ll just blur it out, I can edit this to enhance this photo, I will crop this to focus more on the subject, etc.
In photography it’s important to know how to adjust to capture what we really want. It just feels so much better to compose and to capture a photo that was intentionally made; even if there are a lot of great photos that were not really intentional.
It also applies to pretty much anything that we create, in writing I can write hasjhdjhajdas to prove a point if I want to, in cooking I will add more chili if I want it to be spicier or add sugar or honey to make it sweeter and not just because the recipe says so, in programming it is important to know why the architecture is laid out like that and what each line of code pretty much does; why are we making this feature in the first place, etc.
When we create something, we can’t just continue to do things because it is what we are told to do, we need to learn why we should do it the way we are told to because it may not be even the best way to do it or we can come up with a better way to do it ourselves especially if what we do affects the lives of others.
As creators, we always have the control with how we want to change our lives and the lives of other people. It is our responsibility to know understand what we are doing and why we are doing it so that we are sure that we are doing it right and it will provide a positive change in the lives of others.
/// thebenjmedina