....are made how?


From carefully planning out time of day, subject, lighting, etc...

or...

you took a picture and were suprised that it looked as well as it did?

Just wondering how everyone does it. I tend to luck out (alot), but my best photo was planned out ( result was better than expected). There are some very good photographers here and I wanted to know if you could honestly say lucky or talent?

I would like to say talent......but reality is.....I'm lucky with my shots and PP them to get them good.

I'm a work in progress

 

Every factor counts.

I'm not a professional, nor am I even near to being one, but every factor has to be taken into consideration.

But for me it does.

Not sure about anyone else.

 

the planning part for me is where am i going to shoot my car, is there going to be a nice background in my picture or should i take what i can get (i'm a little sketchy on where i shoot in fear of someone coming up to me and saying i'm doing something wrong by shooting here)...

once i find my spot, i just start shooting any angle i feel will look good and try to use my surroundings in one way or another in my shoot...

of course i'm only talking about shooting my car here, but i would say planning is finding the spot you're going to shoot and at what time and the luck is getting just the right shot either from just taking the picture or post-processing it later...

personally, i don't think you can call a shot 100% talent unless you setup every single detail (subject, lighting, background, surrounding objects, etc.)...if you involve nature at all, then some of it has to be luck...

 

Unless it's a planned shoot or an event involving specific poses people want, my strategy is pretty simple: I basically shoot what I come across -- not much planning involved, not much technical merit.

Dan is the more technical shooter -- I'm more spontaneous and candid.

 

I think there are few of us in this forum who are so hardcore as to actually plan place/time combinations. That's the ideal, but most of us do this for fun, and that's definitely starting to cross into the 'more work than fun' border.

I might not be understanding the question, but I think it's rare for me to take a picture and be surprised how well it came out.
Except for technically difficult stuff like say, Servo shots, or perhaps high contrast scenes where I need to HDR it or something.
Usually it's the other way around, the picture isn't what I expected or wanted.

If I hit the shutter button on my camera, it's because I saw something I wanted to capture. So either I got it, or I didn't. (blur, depth of field issue, whatever I can't really check on the LCD). Some pics come out better than others, of course, but surprises should be rare. I've always believed that 90% of a picture has been decided before you even hit the shutter button.

As rimz said, unless it's a studio shoot, there are elements of chance that can totally change what you end up shooting. So there is an element of luck.
For every great photo I've ever taken, there's a hundred that could have been great if conditions were different. But they weren't, and that's okay. (otherwise they'd all be 'average' I guess!)

I don't do anything fancy, but I do the following to minimize my 'luck':

1) Always be ready. I always have a camera by my side, or fairly easily accessible. The hardest part of photography is finding something great to take a picture of. Don't let opportunities pass you by!

2) Be patient. Especially in a dynamic environment, fun stuff happens all the time. Just camp out with your camera and see what happens.

3) Just be observant. Of your surroundings. Of others. Of when things look better, and when they don't. You can make things look better, through angles, lighting, etc. You may not get everything you want, but take advantage of what you have, and make the best of it.

Don't sweat it - We're all works in progress.

Anything that you can correct in PP is a problem that you should be able to fix through better technique. Can you give examples?

- Frank

 

Playing with exposures mainly, but there is also WB and cropping. The reason I was asking is I see some real talent here at times and wondered , with some having put some serious money into this "hobby", how they go about shooting. Like me and wait 'til something catches my eye, or more of the planner type who envisions a photograph then goes out to try and make it.

Really, just wondering aloud.

 

As Street Spirit mentioned, we have very different styles and we take completely different approaches to our shots.

I like to get an idea of what I'm going to shoot and think about how I'm going to shoot it before I do it. For example, if I'm traveling and planning on doing some landscape photography, I like to research where I'm going, what time the sun rises and sets, and figure out where the best position would be before I get there. Google Earth is great for that stuff. Of course I have to be flexible when I get there, but I like to have a plan vs. driving around and trying to find a shot.

Studio work is the same. I sometimes even sketch what I want to shoot, so I can visualize where the lights will be and what modifiers I will need. I just find it makes setups much quicker if I have a plan. However, I do like the unexpected surprises that happen from time to time. The ice cube shot I entered into this month's contest wasn't my original idea for that shot because I forgot to turn on my backlight strobe, but I preferred the "on black" look the shot ended up having.

Street Spirit on the other hand is a great candid shooter and likes to let things unfold naturally around her and capture them as they happen. I suck at that. I think it might also have something to do with the fact that I'm not the stealthiest of guys out there.

 

i need a lot of planning or at the very least, a look at the place/what im shooting. if not, im just wasting my time and the client's time.

 

I shoot in RAW so I have more flexibility with exposure & (almost) complete control over WB. I don't even think about WB when I shoot. I will sometimes tighten up cropping, but it doesn't usually radically change the picture.

I don't plan pictures before they happen, but once I do find myself thinking a lot when I do find something to shoot. Just exploring the situation, looking for the best way to shoot it.