How to take terrible photographs

Do you ever notice that people seem to vanish the moment you suggest showing them your latest photos?

Whether or not you do, these suggestions might help you to rethink your photography.

Think of three photographs that you love. What is it about them that makes them standout? Which elements are common between them?

This might be the use of colour, composition, the use of the foreground, background, or both. Whatever it is, jot it down and start incorporating those elements (and how they've been used) into your photography. See if you can get a different reaction!

It's time for another podcast...

Thank you for listening. Please remember to take a look at the website as I have a few things going on, including mini-workshops to help you with your photography: www.ge.photography

Or join the mailing list... and I'll tell you myself!

Transcript

>> Speaker A: 0:17

I think it was about three years ago, I had, a free webinar, and it was called something like how to take terrible photographs. And, it actually got quite a good response, because most people, when they're listening to what a photographer says, they're not really expecting to hear how to take terrible photographs. And, I thought it was worth revisiting, at least in this form, in the form of a podcast, because a lot of people, while they are not striving to take terrible photographs, that, in fact, is what they're doing. So one of the themes in these podcasts is to try and give you ideas of how you can improve your photography, maybe highlight areas where people often make mistakes. And so they come up with pretty boring photographs. So if you're, if you're one of those people who experience, or have that experience, when you offer to, share your photographs with somebody, maybe a trip you've been on, or a holiday vacation, whatever, I. And you find people suddenly disappearing or climbing out of windows and that kind of thing, just to get away, then maybe you need to have a think about your photography. So the idea of this podcast was just to go through, again, a few things to bear in mind. And it doesn't matter what you're photographing, whether it's wildlife, whether it's nature, it could be travel, it could be your family, it could be sports, it could be your area, anything that you're photographing. All of these suggestions have a role to play, and if you implement them, then they can just, I think, very positive impact on your photographs. And hopefully you're listening to this because you like my photographs. And what I'm sharing with you in all of these podcasts are, simply, my experience and things I've learned in, decades of photography. And one of the things that I've done a lot is mess things up. So, first of all, I've learned a lot through making mistakes, which I think is actually a very valuable, valuable way to learn. But what I'm trying to do is help you to avoid a lot of those mistakes so you can, get to where you want to be in terms of your photography much faster, than it took me in a much. So take a much shorter time. So the underlying theme here, and this is something I've spoken about a lot, I've done webinars on it. It's a central theme to my photography courses. Whether you're looking at DSLR mirrorless, or whether you're looking at smartphone, photography, the underlying theme is what I refer to as the visual storyteller. And just to recap on why I use that theme, we, as people, are hardwired to listen to stories. If you look at what we spend our money on, or at least for leisure, a, lot of it is movies, perhaps not so much as books, tv shows. We spend time on those. You know, if you, if you look at the channel tv things like Netflix and all of these others, it's a huge industry. And what underlies all of that? Well, it's because we love stories. We are hardwired for stories. Even before the technology we have today, and movies and all of that stuff, was happening. Think about going back 4500 years. Think about the time of Shakespeare. We love stories, plays. And that was just playing into the way we like to get information. Go back even further, and you can imagine people in, the bronze age, sitting around a campfire telling stories. Near where I live, there's Lascaux, cave paintings. And, obviously they go back thousands of years. So we, as a species, if you like, we love stories. It's a great way for us to not only learn about things, receive information, but we get an emotional connection with what's going on in that story. We begin to learn about the people who are involved. We care about them. I mean, that, that's one of the elements of a good story, is that we care about the people that we're hearing the story about. So what we can do in photography is use that. And again, if you think about photographs that have made a big difference to you, maybe, they might be famous photographs that have really inspired you in some way to take some action. They might be private photographs, maybe of somebody who you were close to, maybe who is no longer part of your life, for whatever reason. So what's powerful about those images, and I'm going to suggest that one aspect, at least of that, is that there is an emotional connection. The photographer, whoever took that photograph, has managed to capture something either about the person who is the subject of the photograph, or the situation that that person is in. Or it may not be people, it could be animals, it might be something in nature, it could be, like a hurricane, something like that. But whatever it is, whatever's inspired you, think about the elements within that photograph that make it stand out from other photographs that you look at, and you don't get the same response. And once you've done that, once you begin to understand which elements are important for you, as somebody who enjoys photographs, enjoys the end result, once you understand what those elements are. and in my courses, I drill in a lot deeper than what I'm going to do on the podcast. But if you want to learn more about this, courses are there, think, about what they are, and then you can begin to incorporate them in your own work. And in that way, you're going to start producing photographs that have far greater impact. And I think if we do, if we produce photographs that we like ourselves, that's kind of pretty obvious, really. We wouldn't really want to be creating photographs that we hate. Well, I suppose some people might. but if you do that, then you start to inspire yourself and then you get into this kind, of loop of inspiration where you just raise the bar again and again with, the quality of your photographs. So I'm going to talk about a few things now. I actually got some of these just by, looking. It was, just something I came across online. And it was actually a whole list of questions to ask, if you were considering hiring a photographer, and the sort of questions to ask when you look at their work, when, you look at them. So I haven't used all of this. it just gave me the idea, but I picked out one or two aspects and added a few of my own. So, first of all, when you look at a photograph, what do you see? So I'm going to start this from the perspective of somebody looking at a photograph. It could be somebody looking at your work, but I want you to think about it as, let's say, the end user looking at your work. If you sell, your services, then your client, what are they going to be looking at? both with the work you've done specifically for them, and also work that you've done generally that might attract them in the first place. So when you're looking at this photograph, what do you see? So that's an important question, because photographs need to be about something. Otherwise, what are they? And I often refer to snapshots, which is a term that was in common use when I was growing up. And, to me, a snapshot is simply what most people take. They'll point their phone, they'll point their camera at something and just take a photograph, but they're not really thinking too much about the elements of the photograph. It's just a photograph. It's just quick that, you know, it's done in a moment. The thought that goes into it is a little more than a moment, and they get some result. And this is where we get boring photographs, in my opinion. And it's because whoever's taken the photograph hasn't really thought about what they're doing. They've just seen something they like, they've taken a photograph of it and it's great in one sense, they documented it. You could argue that potentially, and also with some of the things we do and because of what I do with wildlife, this is definitely the case. You often don't get the chance to set the shot up in the way you would like to. And what I mean by that is different elements that make up the picture, things like depth of field, what's in the background, what's in the foreground, all these kind of elements that come go to make up, ah, the overall photograph. So the place to start with this is what do you see? And when you go back to a photograph that has inspired you ask the same questions, what do you see when you look at that photograph? And in particular, what are the things that really stand out for you and make that photograph different? So what is it about? This is where we get to the visual storyteller. What's it about? What has prompted you, let's say, the photographer, to take that photograph, or what prompted the photographer, if it wasn't you, to take that photograph, what have they spotted that they want to capture? And presumably having captured it, they want to share it. That's primarily why we take photographs, so that we can, share something that we've seen, something that's moved us, and also to act as a reminder for us in the future. It's something we can look back on and maybe reconnect with the feelings that we had at the time. So having looked at what you see there, let's dive in a bit deeper. So if there are people, what are they doing? How are they presented, if you like? So I'm thinking of it in terms of when the photographer took that photograph. How have they, in any way posed the person? So if you're doing a portrait, obviously most good photographers know how to, pose their clients so that they look good, and also remembering that most people don't particularly enjoy having their photograph taken. So one of the skills that a portrait photographer needs to have is an ability to connect with people and to get them to look relaxed in the photograph, even if in practise they're not that relaxed. But that's one of the skills and it's one of the things you, practise. So how are they presented? And that's what I mean by that. So what kind of, portrait is it? If it's portrait of somebody, if there are people doing something else, what are they doing? What's the visual context that they're in? Are they at home doing something they normally do to relax? Are they at their work, whatever that might be? are they doing something special? Are they volunteering somewhere? Are they, helping somebody? are they running a marathon? You know, what is it that they're doing? And how has the photographer captured some sense, some emotional element maybe, of what they're doing? I mean, if they're running a marathon, for example, are they looking full of energy? Are they confident? Are they struggling? Have they hit that point in the run where, their body is really screaming out and saying, okay, enough. so what's going on there? So these are the sort of questions, if they're doing their own thing, let's say they're just relaxing at home. What is it about their home that you want to capture? Do you want more background in there? So again, looking at the, the different aspects of the shot, what begins to make up that shot? Does the background have value? When I talk about doing portrait photographs, one of the things I like to do, if I can, is to have something in the background that gives context to that person. And an example that I, often use is somebody who designs boats. So you can do a, picture of them. And I would generally use the rule of thirds and put them off to one side. But that leaves a lot of space, the frame there that you can use. And that space can be used to tell whoever's looking at the photograph something about that person. So in the case of someone who designs boats, you might have them in their office, maybe a picture of their computer screen, if they do it on computer. Maybe a drawing board if they, are, more, traditional in the way that they, draw up their designs. Or it could be in a workshop, maybe if they're made of wooden woodworking, shop where boats are being made, if it's fibreglass, whatever's going on there, it could be at the harbour or the quayside, wherever the boats are, moored up. So the thing about creating photographs and in this instance, a portrait, you've got a lot of space you can work with in your photograph to make it more interesting, start to start telling the story. And one of the things that I really enjoy about certain photographs is that the more I look at them, the more I see. And one way of doing that, one way of creating these little elements that maybe aren't, m so obvious initially is to use background and foreground to add something to the image that, maybe at first glance the viewer wouldn't see. And then use elements that take the viewer on a journey through the photograph. So one way of doing that is to use leading lines. And this is something I'll often talk about in, webinars. when I talk about composition. It's one of the things I'll go back to because it's, leading lines are very simple technique and a very powerful technique. And all they are is a line of something. It could be a road, it could be a river, it could be a row of trees, it could be a power line, it could be a row of lampposts, anything. Once you start looking around, you begin to see lots of examples of leading lines. One that I used to use a lot when I was doing photo walks was in the rocks in Sydney. When you walk around there, there was a bench I used to love because it was on the pavement next to the road. And if you parked, your camera actually sat at one end of the bench and look down the bench. You've got these slats that make up the wooden bench. It's made up of these slats. And they created leading lines that led you to a, telephone box which was down the street a little way. So it just added one of those little elements that was visually interesting. And in my opinion, it was visually interesting because it was a, composition that people wouldn't normally use. So again, think about where you can find leading lines. And leading lines generally will draw the viewer from somewhere in the foreground to the subject, wherever that is. Usually somewhere else in the photograph. If you're using rule of thirds, then usually at one of the crossover points. and it makes use of that space and it starts to take the viewer on a journey through the photograph. So they go from the foreground, ground, something that will immediately catch their eye. Then you take them on a journey through the image down to your subject, whatever that might be. So leading lines are a simple technique. They're a simple way of taking three people through the photograph. And in doing that, there might be other elements there that were not immediately obvious. But when you start looking at it, you see more things there. So, for example, another favourite place was, circular quay in Sydney. And I would sometimes put my camera on the ground and take a shot and I would use leading lines. I can use lines in the pavement, anything that's about really. And, on some of those because they were quite dark and I would do a longer exposure. As you looked at the image more you'd begin to see people. They were blurry because they were walking and I was using maybe a second or two of exposure to get that kind of blurriness and also to use, make, take advantage of the low light situation. But as you started to look at this particular image more you begin to realise there are more people there. And you hadn't realised they were there at first because of the combination of light and movement. You had to spot them as you looked through, as you worked through the image. So there are many techniques you can use. I'm not going to go through them all here. again, certainly on the courses I do. So if you choose to take one of the courses then go for it. So think about these elements. So just to recap a little bit what is it that you see? What has prompted you to take this photograph and having done that how you making use of what's in the frame? So background and foreground are really important aspects because they can make or break an image even if you're just using aspects of either foreground or background to frame the image. Maybe. another example I like to use is there's a shot, the Sydney Opera house from the botanical gardens misses Macquarie's chair. And it's a nice shot of the, the opera house across circular quay. But a lot of people just take that picture and I. It's just sky above the opera house. But what you can do if you move around a little bit and you know what you're looking for. There are some trees you can use to make foreground and you can use their branches in the top of the image to act as a frame. And again it's personal taste but to my mind that makes a much more interesting photograph particularly during the day when there's no special light going on or anything like that. Another thing you can do is to think about are you going to use portrait or landscape format and something I like to use. And again I've shared this story quite a few times. I went to, I used to go to talks in Sydney by different photographers because I'm always I'm always learning this. One of the things I love about photography. In my opinion the best photographers are always learning. They'll develop a style and it will develop on, it'll develop on but they're experiencing other things, they're seeing other work. They're trying ideas of their own out and you're constantly growing. And one guy I went along to see, it was, a, photo, well, lecture that I wasn't really expecting that much from, because this guy photographed trees. That was his thing. And I'm photographing wildlife primarily. So to me, trees are often things that get in the way because they mess up my focus or there are leaves and things and my. This animal I'm trying to photograph is somewhere deep in the trees and it's really hard to see them. So I wasn't expecting too much from this particular talk, but this guy was showing how he used the space in the frame and how he would often have the tree. He would use, portrait format and put the tree itself very low down in the frame. So there was a lot of empty space above the tree. And that did give, first of all, a really good impression of space. But emotionally, and, you know, I'm probably not going to get too emotional about a tree in most circumstances, but I just love this feeling of how small the tree was compared, to the other things in the frame, which was essentially the ground and tiny bit of foreground. But then this space around the tree. And to me, what that photograph meant to me was a lot about how you use space, in a way, how insignificant we are and what we do. And I've used that technique, that same technique when I've been photographing animals. So I've got, elephant photographs where I did exactly the same thing. Because, an elephant we generally think of as being quite a big animal. And most of the pictures I see of elephants, they're pretty much filling the frame. And that's what you've got. And I like to do tight portraits of, all animals. So I certainly got my share of, elephant portraits. But another thing I like to do is to make the match quite small in the landscape because then again, this is, what motivates me. I'm looking at the environment they're in and how harsh that environment can be. And maybe being one example of that where I, where I was photographing elephants in the media, it was very harsh, very hot, very dry, very tough for any animal to, survive, really to, survive and be successful. So I would do quite a lot of wide shots of elephants, sometimes a group of them against this background of, a, ah, very harsh environment. I'm trying to think of another word for it, basically not green, a very brown, dry environment. I, did the same in South Africa. was out at a reserve there and saw an elephant actually quite a distance away, walking through some trees and got a picture of that elephant. Again, very small, a very wide angle shot really, although I telephoned it because it was quite a distance away. But again, making this point that the elephant in its environment is actually quite small. It's quite vulnerable in many ways, as we all are, ah, in our environment. And all wildlife is vulnerable in its environment, because we're at the mercy of what the weather does, how much rain there is, how much vegetation, essentially, can we get food, can we get shelter, can we get water? Those kind of fundamentals. And, for wildlife, that is something that really drives, where you're going to find them. So from the perspective of doing wildlife photography and knowing where to find certain animals, one of the key, things to consider is where can they get food? Whether it's, a predator or an animal that might be eaten by something else, they're all going to go where they can get food. So if it's very dry, water holes are great places to hang out because there's not that many options for these animals to, to get food. but if you've had a really good rainy season and there's lots of food around, so the grazing, animals are very well spread out, it makes it much harder to find predators. If you, if you are doing that, even if not, if you're just looking for the grazing animals, they can be quite difficult to find as well because they could be in hundreds of square kilometres. You might have, you know, a small number about in there somewhere. And so you need local knowledge then to at least increase your chances of finding these animals. So I've digressed a tiny bit, but hopefully, this has given you some ideas about your photography. So think about, as I said, you know what, when you, if you go to photographs that you really love, if there's two or three photographs you love, try and look for common elements in them. And so if you don't already know what floats your boat photographically, that will certainly help you. And once you've got that shortlist, you can think about, okay, I've acted as a viewer, for this work. Now let's switch it around. How can I use those elements as a photographer in the work I'm producing and hopefully inspire other people, create that same reaction. So I've spoken a little bit about it. Composition, I think, is absolutely key, which is why I've gone on about it a bit. when it's people, what are they doing? Think about the context, though, you know, use the visual storyteller idea and let the photograph, if it can't fully tell the story of that person, at least contribute to the story of that person. So think about foreground, think about that background, think about how you link them. Think about things like leading lines. And another thing I haven't mentioned so far is colour, because colour is another powerful one. looking at winners of wildlife photography competitions, something I've seen quite often is that the colours are very saturated. if you don't know what that means, it means they're much brighter. They're very bright, let's say. And they are probably much brighter than the subject was in real life. So the photographer in post processing has just umped, the intensity of the colour. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, per se. And if people enjoy that, if that creates a photograph that they find, or they're able to connect with much more, then, then great, because these vibrant colours are a great way, you know, there is a connection. I think people love colours. If you look at how a lot of people like to dress and how certain cultures dress. And here I'm thinking about actually indian, culture. If you go to India, the, the colours there are absolutely lovely, very vivid colours that people wear, in their clothing. So there are definitely, certain societies love colour and that might resonate more with people. When you take a photograph and you up the intensity of the colour. On the other hand, going to the other extreme, another powerful thing to do is to use black and white. Because black and white photography is about shapes and textures. It's also about contrast. And because we see in colour, photographing something and then producing a result in black and white kind of prompts the viewer, to look at that subject, but maybe look at it in a way they hadn't had looked at it before. And this, I think, is another powerful aspect of photography, getting people to see something that they might see every day, but showing them a way of looking, looking at it that they haven't, that they haven't seen before, if that's making sense. So that, would actually be a challenge I would throw at people when we do photo walks. When, ah, I was doing photo walks in circular Quay in Sydney, because it's a very popular tourist spot. There would be literally hundreds of thousands of photographs taken every day in circular key, maybe more than that. And I would challenge people to take a photograph knowing all of that, but take a photograph that nobody had taken that day. And the way you do that is to really look at what's around. And this is, I think a very important, attribute of a good photographer. They will have a good look at what's around, they'll really look at what's around and perhaps see things that people walk past every day. So Colin, Seaton, who I is one of the guys who is still doing photo walks as I record this in Sydney, he had a really good eye for seeing everyday things and then photograph them, photographing them in such a way that you would think, what is that? And it's something that you walk past every day. And one that springs to mind at the moment is down at Secla Quay. It's touristy areas. They have these small shops which, And the way they close them up, they have these doors if you like. They go across the whole of the little shop front and they're made of glass panels. So when they're closed you've got these glass panels so you can still see inside the store but you can't go in because it's got these glass panels. But what they do when they open the shore, they sort of push them back to one side. So they, they kind of close up. And I'm struggling to give this a good description but it's just that they, they sort of close up like an accordion a little bit if you think of it that way. So you've got these glass panels one in front of another over at one side of the shop. And What Colin saw this evening when we were doing it, he noticed that. And he also noticed that the way the light, because the store was open so there's a lot of light and there was colour in, you know, this stuff behind these doors, for the back in the shop. And he was able to pick up the lighting and the colour and it created this amazing photograph, these vertical lines and these amazing colours. And I must admit I looked. Where did he get that from? And another one that's quite fun to do is if, And again, I was with him on another walk we did with a group. There was a, We're walking past the house. The wall was painted but it was all starting to peel off. And if you just put your camera, against the wall. So shooting up the wall because of the colours and the way the wall was peeling, when you looked at the photograph it looked like a seascape. So again, this is just something else to think about. And the reason I'm sharing this is to create more interesting photographs, which is what this is about do be observant, really have a look at what's around and also think a little bit outside the box if you like things that are slightly abstract. And if you do, you've already been looking, I'm sure, at photographs anyway on instagram or wherever you look at photographs. So keep an eye out for situations, again, that people will walk past and you'll get the photograph and you've just shown them something about that place that they were blissfully unaware of until you showed them the photograph. So that probably I'm going to wind things up for this podcast now, but I hope that's given you some ideas of how to start shooting interesting photographs. So just to recap, I guess first thing is look at photographs that inspire you. if you're taking photographs of people, you will need to be able to work with them to get them to look relaxed. And that, and that is the important thing, to look relaxed, even if they're not a good photographer can handle all of that. think about how you're using foreground and background. Think about the visual storyteller. Ah, you know, what is it that you're trying to convey to the person who is looking at the photograph? Think about how you're using composition. So use rule of thirds. If you haven't used that, it's a really good, it's a great place to start, and it's a great place for reason, because it's a very good composition technique. Think about leading lines, think about, as I said, context and story. Think about colour. Think about the abstract. Look around and you might see small details that people walk past every day and photograph them, and maybe even photograph them in the context of where they are. To just make the point to people that you know, have you seen this? Ask the question. And if you haven't, well, there you go, m, you know, maybe have a look around next time you're in the area. So that is it, for this podcast. I hope you found that useful and I'll speak to you again in the next podcast. Bye for now. Just before I go, I wanted to remind you that first, of all, I have an offer running with a, my free download. So if you go onto the website and there's a link at the bottom of the description of this particular podcast, and that will take you to a link, to where you can give me your email, I will send you a PDF, which is ten simple steps to improve your photography today. So it includes the kind of things that I talk about in the podcast. So it's all there in black and white. With some examples, you can see what's going on. And also remember, I offer, online photography courses. I do fine art. If you haven't checked out my galleries, please do. The links are, again below the description of the podcast. And don't forget to help me out. So you're welcome to subscribe both to the podcast, and you can become a member of my Patreon membership and, join me there. So in that membership, you get access, to me. and also you get advance notice of things that are coming up. I'll tell you about other things that are going on that I don't share in my Facebook group or on Instagram or anywhere else, really. So it is, just a membership where if you like what I do and you just want to be a part of it, the subscriptions are really low. It's just a cup of coffee a month. So, how much better could I be than that? So please take a look and, I'll speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.