As many students have witnessed in my on-location workshops, I go out of my way to get it ‘right’ in camera and I don’t mean just the right exposure but I also mean the right composition, the final arrangement. This kind of get it right in camera began back in 1970 when I first picked up a camera. Although I started out shooting black and white, it wasn’t long before I started shooting color slides and when shooting slides, getting it right in camera WAS really your only choice! And despite all of the ‘advances’ that digital offers the photographer today I still prefer to get ‘it’ done in camera for the simple reason of personal satisfaction.
Having said that, I have for sure come across a subject or two (or three) over these past ten years where, without the aid of a program like Photoshop, I could have never achieved the clean composition that I was seeking. So, in the interest of full disclosure, the image you see here, required some cleaning up, some ‘removal’ if you will; removing an unsightly air-conditioner and nearby related wires.
I will add that IF the man seen here in the window was NOT in that window, I doubt seriously that I would have spent anytime on this composition. I had initially noticed this window and called my students attention to it but quickly added that it was missing ‘something’ and as luck would have it, the loud chatter that was coming from my group caught the attention of this man who lived in this apartment and as he approached the window, we were quick to shout, “Come closer, please, and look out the window” and as he did, I fired off several frames, one of which you see here.
Despite feeling ‘lucky’ to have felt that the missing ‘something’ was answered by the man in the window, I still felt frustrated at knowing that IF this were going to be a compelling image, I would need to perform some ‘surgery’.
Obviously and as is evident in this original photo, I did the surgery, but I must confess, I often feel conflicted when doing so. It is times like this that I feel ‘cursed’, ‘trapped’ by my old school ways in contrast to the ‘youth’ of the photographic world today who don’t even think twice about performing surgery, let alone full on ‘transplants’. I doubt seriously if I will ever fully become a ‘youthful’ photographer and it has nothing to do with feeling like my way is ‘superior’ or somehow more ‘pure’ in so far as the creative process, but rather it has everything to do with the old saying, “It’s damn hard to teach an old dog new tricks!”
In the meantime, you be you and I’ll be me and let’s just keep shooting!
BPSOP Founder- Bryan F Peterson
Bryan Teaches: Understanding Exposure & Your DSLR, The Art of Seeing, Mastering Nikon Flash Photography
