Sweating the details

In one of those 'not quite sure how I got here' web moments over the weekend, I came across this interview with Magnum photographer Chris Steele-Perkins. Amongst several interesting comments, the one that stuck in my head was this one: 'Photography is generally a question of rigorous selection.'

He's right, you know. How good are you at weeding out the duds? The brave new digital world has opened the floodgates to an unprecedented level of photographic activity, which is arguably a Good Thing. But there's no escaping the fact that the vast majority of it - I mean all but a tiny, tiny percentage of it - is garbage. I pity social historians a century from now, wading through billions of out-of-focus photos on millions of unreadable hard drives and brittle CDs.

The best way to improve your photography is to get tough. Take a really close look at your pictures, and reject anything that isn't right. I do it all the time. Back wheel in focus but rider's head out of focus? Bin it. Too much motion blur? Bin it. Boring composition? Bin it. Nothing really sharp? Bin it. You can do some of this while you're shooting - that's what the delete button on the camera's for. Not only will you save time later, you'll also free up a load of space on your hard drive.

Being ruthless with the chaff doesn't mean that shooting like a trigger-happy GI necessarily improves your hit rate, of course. It's important to learn from the shots that didn't work, so that you can move on and try to avoid making the same mistake next time. But there's no shame in taking, say, 50 pictures and only keeping a handful. Set your standards high and your ability should gradually improve to match them.

Plus, as a bonus, you'll save some future nosy parker from having to wade through piles of blurry photos of back wheels and headless riders. Now isn't that a nice thought?

Cwm Carn
Nikon D2X, 50-150mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, 1/200 sec f/2.8 @ ISO400

Is the rider sharp? In low light with a moving subject and with the lens wide open, this is the kind of detail that makes or breaks a succesful pic.

The rider at 100%: sharp enough in spite of being in a corner of the frame with the lens wide open (a good example of why good glass is simultaneously neither cheap nor a waste of money). There's slight motion blur robbing some detail in the trees and on the trail - the result of tracking with the camera to follow the bike. But with the rider sharp, it's a keeper.

Of the dozen or so similar pics I took from the same spot, only around half were sharp enough to keep. That's actually quite a high hit rate. When the light's low and you're up against the limits of your sensor and lenses, sweating the details becomes even more important than usual.

Comments

[Richard Winder]

Seb
I seem to fit in with what you said above. I went digital last year and was often disapointed with a lot of my shots off the film SLR. I can now quickly assess whether it's worth keeping and also learn what I did wrong at the same time - still plenty of learning to do, but the digital age at least make sit easier.

Love the screensaver BTW, very hard to think of work when looking at some of those shots.

Rich

[Seb Rogers]

Glad you like the screensaver, Rich.

Which reminds me, the Mac version is coming. Honestly. I understand the delay is software-related...