Art of Photography

Photography will always be here to stay with us. It answers for our different needs to have images photographed and saved. Some reasons may be for photographs to connect us to our past, to be a good form of hobby or art, or as a personal expression. Photography uses black-and-white or colored illustrations whether in the traditional or digital approach. The field of photography covers all ranges of themes in whatever image that could possibly be caught by a camera. Nowadays, digital photography has greatly improved the quality of the images captured by a camera. With this, the art of photography has flourished into something more than taking a picture. Other images and designs can now be added to the original image. Hobbyists taking up photography as an art use photography as a medium for personal expression of what they see creatively. The following are tips on how to use the art of photography as a personal expression:

1. Choose a subject matter that exudes a strong message to the viewer- Sometimes an ordinary child brings out the hopelessness of a situation through his eyes, his lips, or his over-all facial expression. A single flower amidst chaos infuses to the viewer a belief in peace despite the existence of chaos.

2. Use light to enhance the general expression of your photograph- Light plays a vital factor in adding to the mood of your image. It also highlights certain details of your subject. Shots taken outdoors are best taken when daylight and sunset meet or an hour or two before sunset. Another dramatic time would be when the last streak of dawn meets within two hours the rising sun. Noon shots are too glaring except when it is a hazy or foggy day.

3. Create a collage of a particular theme- Collage is something that requires creativity, especially in photography when images might clash with one other with each different “personality.” Knowing when to subdue or project a certain photograph is very important. Separate your photographs as personal expressions into different categories that include those that should be for the main expression, the expression enhancers, and those that silently remain as a silent witness to the whole scene.

Photography lenses are the key elements in photography. The quality of an image is mainly determined by the lens being used. If you are interested in photography, you should understand the various types of lenses used in photography. Once you have your basics right, you can begin your photography experiments.

The most common photography lenses used are the Wide Angle, Normal and Telephoto. These lenses are defined according to their focal length, which determines the amount of magnification and angle of view a lens can see.

Wide Angle Lenses

A Wide Angle lens has a small magnification and a wide angle view. Lenses with 20mm to 35mm are called Wide Angle lenses. These lenses are the preferred choice when it comes to photographing landscapes, sweeping panoramas and other outdoor scenes. They are also good for group shots. These lenses offer deep depth of field, thereby making constant refocusing less important. This is why they are usually used in photojournalism, in which a subject is frequently moving.

Normal Lenses

Traditional or Normal lenses consist of 50mm focal length. They offer an angle view close to the human eye. These are the standard lenses that are supplied with an SLR.

Telephoto Lenses

Telephoto lenses offer high magnification and narrow angle view. Anything with a focal length of above 135mm is referred to as a telephoto lens. These lenses are used in sports, nature, and documentary style photography.

There is another type of photography lens which is known as Medium Telephoto lens. These lenses have a focal length of 85-135mm. They are perfect for portraits and that is why they are usually used in portrait studio photography. These lenses are able to isolate the subject from the background. Studio photographers use the increased focal length to slightly flatten the image and give it a more natural and flattering perspective.

One thing that becomes clear here is that you simply cannot use a single type of lens for all sorts of photography. For instance, studio photography is very different from wildlife or outdoor photography. Telephoto photography lenses are best suited for wildlife photography, while Medium Telephoto lenses work great for family or kid portraits.

Practicing

Once we have the basic knowledge about various lenses, we can begin honing our photography skills. The best thing to do is start taking pictures of your family. Good family photographers are always ready and are able to anticipate a photographic opportunity. Do not let the subjects know that you are taking pictures because that way you will get natural images. Plus if you set the aperture setting pretty low to narrow the depth of the field you can get some really cool images.

Tips

Another great way to practice your photography skills is to create children’s portraits. In fact, kid photography is a very rewarding experience. It is all about being quick and understanding the psychology of the kids. Here are few tips to help you get great pictures.

-Get the kids interested in the settings. Let them explore the surroundings. That way you will get natural pictures.
-Choose the location very carefully. Beach, park, or a bridge over a creek offer a natural setting in which the kids can be kids. Moreover, you get an awesome background.
-Be quick because you never know when you can get that magic moment.
-You have to be patient because it might take some time to get the right pictures.
-Choose your lenses and equipments wisely.

The controversy about whether photography is art is one that has been raging in the art world for a long time and we are not likely to totally solve it here. But it can be an important decision you have to make if you are considering a career in photography with the goal of producing quality art works. If that is where you are, the idea that someone would say “That’s not art, you just took a picture” is pretty disturbing. So it’s worth looking at the question from several different angles before we pick which side to weigh in on.

Of course, art is a subjective thing. Many people would look at a Jackson Pollack “splatter” artwork and determine most definitely that modern art is not art because it “doesn’t look like anything.” And if you spend any time in the modern art world, you will definitely see something at some time along the way occupying space in a perfectly respectable art museum that, to you, could never be considered art.

So is it just a matter of opinion? To some extent, yes. But there is an art world and an industry behind it that depend on there being some standards upon which art is judged. One such standard is the intent of the artist. If you produce a photograph or an art work derived from a photograph that is intended to be viewed as art, then the viewer is obligated to try to see the artistic merit in it. Whether the viewer sees that merit or not may depend on the viewer’s abilities, how good you are at getting your artistic message across or many other factors.

But just wanting something to be art doesn’t make it art does it? As a layman in the art world, I sometimes go with the “I don’t know art but I know what I like” system of evaluating pieces I see. Art, after all, has a tendency to touch us in another place that is above and beyond the image. It is an emotional place, a place of reflection and understanding. Maybe we would say it touches our “soul”.

For a work to be art, there should be a message, a feeling, a reason the artist made the work because he or she wanted to say something, even if how I interpret the statement is different than what the artist meant.

So that might also be an evaluation of a photograph as to its artistic merit or not. Now the primary objection to whether photography is art sometimes is that a photograph is often a realistic depiction of a moment taken with a machine and some would say that “anybody can take a picture.” The implication is that the same mechanical skill it might take to paint a picture of sculpt a statue is not needed for photographic art.

It’s true that the mechanical skill that the guy at Wal-Mart might need to take baby pictures may be the same as a great photographic artist might need. But the objection doesn’t hold up because the same human language is used to create great poetry as it takes yell out obscenities at a baseball game. So it isn’t the skill that makes it art.