5 Photo Composition Hints. The Third Element - Subject
The third element of composition is Subject. The aim of this article is to help you form your attitude to the subject of photography,
to ask yourself some interesting questions, to find answers, which
unfortunately are not so obvious, because photography is an Art, an
inspiration, a way of development and self-cognition.
III. Subject Composition
Subject composition is a sum of different mental forms. And mental forms differ from material forms with their impersonality and university. It's a concrete viewer thing that makes them personal.
For example, you've photographed the house you used to live in childhood, but the subject
of this shot remains to be a house only. It may have a number of
additional attributes: material, style, signs of time, etc. - but your
own emotions are only yours. Inspite of it, using creative strategy, a
photographer can produce the form that includes not only the house, but
also childhood, passing time, sadness, joy, recollections, not the
author's ones but the concept itself, the concrete word. So every
viewer can fill this form with his own feelings. The secret of a real masterpiece lies in the imparting of your idea with an adequate demonstrating form. Subject composition is the notes, a photographer is a composer and a viewer is a musician.
Subject Composition As a Method and Content
1. The range of creative methods can be performed between the following ideas:
Stage - "first think, thån photograph" (scenario, model, collage, still life).
The photographer is an active thinker, everything, every detail should
be under control. But the problem is that flashes of inspiration are
uncontrolled. Our mind helps us set the right shutter speed and aperture, but the mind itself doesn't know what the art is and where its source can be found.
Instinct - "shoot, don't think" (lomography,
shooting without looking at the viewfinder, shooting with your eyes
closed, shooting on the hip level, etc.) The photographer is passive in
the shooting process, he surrenders to the method of shooting. This
extreme has appeared as a result of negation of the first method.
Probably, these methods are suitable for making interesting shots, but here we try to speak not about such methods but principles of Art
as an evolution of a concrete man and, thanks to him, of many other
people. So, we're not really interested in subject as it is, which can be
shot in some cases by a surveillance camera or a cat, but we speak
about that level of author's perception and the direction of this
perception, through which subject composition is to be formed in
photography. And from this point of view these extremes of creativity
don't appear to be effective.
2. If we consider subject composition through the content, it is placed between kitch and abstraction.
Kitch - an active subject, appealing to the viewer. The subject of the shot is concrete, curt, loud and single-valued.
Abstraction
- passive subject, making the viewer think actively and offering a
huge area for it. The subject is indistinct, multiple-valued, for
arbitrary interpretation.
-
The golden mean both in method and content lies between the mentioned extremes.
-
Try to take a broad view of single-valued and simple things and in the
same time find the support point in the formal emptiness.
-
Depress in yourself a personality as a limited one but develop yourself as a person in harmony with everything.
-
Look through the most famous classic photo works
and you'll see that there is no thing without sense, and when you try
to hide anything (even a small light spot) - the shot becomes
unbalanced and incomplete. A photographer doesn't bother life but also
doesn't exclude himself from its flow.
- It is a good photography if you can't
tell for sure weather the glass is full or empty, - this decision
should be made by a viewer.
- It's important to remember that the
aim of Art is not the finished artwork itself but the process of
development, evolution, cognition. Without this growth it's hard to
create something valuable.
Extremes in the subject composition
The thing is that we try to follow the easiest path towards a result,
which in most cases leads to extremes in the subject composition.
Having no external marks of correctness, which can be given by a real
master, a photographer has to be guided only by his own experience.
This process has created its own terminology, its own "new words", one
of them is "catchy". We can "feel" it, what, from the one hand,
indicates a high level of blindness, and, from the other hand, shows an
emphasized tendency towards perception. Although, it is a normal
process of cognition, which could result in acquisition of an "artistic
vision".
But until the time, when a person doesn't understand what exactly
"catches" him, he tends to consider every "catchy" photo as a value. In
such cases extremes are quite usual among amateur and advanced
photographers. In the first place it concerns the most "strong" visual
stimulus, such as a naked body; scenes of sufferings and death; scenes
of joy (including weddings). Or the authors fall into the abstract
extreme, which are multi-expositions, collages, installations; the more
complicated the scene is, the "better" effect it brings on the audience.
Every mental form corresponds to a word, and the number of words is
countable just like a language vocabulary. This is just where the
phrase "everything is already photographed" comes from. But this idea
tells us that the drive towards being "original" just for the sake of
originality - is a wrong and unavailing motivation in art. Art is the
Way, but not a sphere of original objects' production to decorate our
life, otherwise Art doesn't have sense, because every life has an
ending...
Hints and Tips On Subject Composition
Unfortunately, Subject Composition is hardly evaluated by educational
methods, because it's a sphere of a person's attitude to life and art,
it is hard to be reeducated because mind's inertia is high in order to
save our mental health. Common recommendations cannot be given here,
for the exception of sense of harmony in everything.
1. The quality of subject composition depends on mental and spiritual qualities of the author.
The subject is always a screen of the life pattern, where the author's
personality is focused. The viewer sees that level of sense, which he
has been developed to.
2. WHAT and HOW are not important, comparing to WHO and WHY. Everyone gets just what he was really hoped for. So, search for the right motivation in the first place, which defines the right goal, being followed by the right Way.
3.
Refuse from effective and casual, extravagant and unoriginal; try to
search for beauty in casual, and for casual - in beauty, in order not
to be original, but to strive for balance, the center of perception.
4. Don't invent any "specialization" and don't put yourself in any frame.
5. Don't
be mistaken if you think that the lack of experience and education
could allow you to do something reasonable with the model, especially
if you have nothing to say or if the model is not prepared. Any field of activity requires skills and practice.
6. Have patience,
because certain things cannot be reached yet due to age, and other
things cannot be reached already due to age. "Make haste slowly" - this
is the rule; don't wait and don't run, because there is always
something, which is mostly featured for this exact place and time.
7. C&C. Don't
compliment unfairly and don't expect to be praised. Don't criticize
anyone and don't look for criticism, - hopefully you know already a lot.
8. Don't expect any help, rely on yourself only, even despite master's support.
9. Improvise.
It is the knowledge that can be studied - you can learn to play from
music, you can learn solfeggio, but nobody will teach you to improvise.
Improvisation is a harmonic activity you can comprehend only with your
own help, basing on your own knowledge. And it can be developed and has
to be developed.
To be continued...
The First Element - Texture
The Second Element - Color
The Fourth Element - Space
The Fifth Element - Light
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