home © Lloyd Godman

Perceptive Vision - Developing a Personal Style

Learn to look critically

Once you have shot some images look at them critically from the following three perspectives and ask what you could have done that might have expressed the subject more effectively – (we can also look at other artists work in the same way)

Technical – How is the image created

• the perspective - perhaps you could have used a different focal length lens – explored view point- vanishing point
• the depth of field - perhaps it would work better with less depth of field or more, perhaps the subject might be more challenging completely out of focus
• the exposure - perhaps it might work better as a low key image with less exposure - perhaps more exposure- if your using a digital camera check the histogram.
• the shutter – perhaps you could have used a slower shutter speed to extenuate movement, perhaps faster to freeze any movement.
• the sensitivity – perhaps you could have used a slower ISO – perhaps faster

• the Lighting – look critically at the lighting from three perspectives – quality, intensity, angle and direction, ask how you could have utilized the light in a manner more sympathetic to your intentions with the subject.

Aesthetics – What the images look like - What the images look like - Look to divorce the representational nature of the camera - Imagine this as a series of abstract marks rather than a recognizable subject.
• the camera view point – perhaps you could have got closer to the subject, perhaps lower down
• the image design – perhaps the design is too symmetrical
• Perhaps there are forms that repeat too much – perhaps not enough
• Perhaps there is too much extraneous detail
• Perhaps the colour has no counterpoint

Content – How and audience might read the work - What the work might mean or express
• Ask if the image caries the concept you had in mind – are there aspects that conflict
• Ask what the images might communicate to a viewer - Remember that there is most often a gap between your experience of the subject and the actual image, while you carry the memory of the place to the image, the audience can only read the image
• Perhaps the image suggest something you had not envisaged

While these areas can over lap, in developing a project it can be useful to look at the source material, proof prints and working prints from all three perspectives.
Remember that you carry a memory of the experience of the place – the audience can only read the information in the photograph – so while you should approach the subject with as much subjectivity as possible – look objectively at the image and describe exactly what you see.

Writing two lists as a comparison can be a useful strategy. Without looking at the image, write a list down on a piece of paper of what you think is in the image – list the aspects in visual importance. Then after a day or two, look at the image and write a list of what is actually in the image, again list the aspects in visual importance. Then compare it to the first list to se how they relate.