Report: Bouldering at Zillertal 22/07/09

Spent a great day at Zillertal, Austria this week, both bouldering and shooting. I thought I'd use this as an example how I like to make the "standard" climbing images without any big setup or equipment. If I was focussing exclusively on shooting I'd probably bring more gear, especially a ladder which is extremely useful for shooting bouldering. Instead, this was a simple shoot with just my pal Duy and me, trying to make some cool images without missing out on the climbing itself.

Working the Plan

My main objective was a beautiful boulder called Moonwalk, which I wanted to take pictures of as well as working on it myself. Following up on my recent post on planning, I thought it might be fun showing you a sketch of the "planned" image as well as the final outcome:

That was the image I was hunting, and as the weather was great on our arrival, we headed for that boulder immediately. I quickly shot a row of images like that, tweaking and varying small things until I was confident that I had caught it the way I wanted it.

 
Improvise

Having a plan is important. But having a plan does not mean you have to feel limited by it. I like to get the "safe" (planned) shots out of the way first, but once I feel that I have a decent "padding" of good enough shots, I like to start experimenting. Go wild. Climb on trees, boulders or neighboring routes, use flash and try out different lenses. 

Think about your plan. Look at your camera's LCD. Does the image look the way you planned it? Look around. Is there something you might have missed before? Have you made the shots you wanted to make? Great! But that doesn't mean that there aren't any great shots left out there. Maybe there's an angle or a setup you didn't consider before. Don't worry, you're not going home empty handed, so now is the time to  try out something new.

 
Debrief

Back home, sorting and editing the images, I started asking myself what I would like to do better / different next time. Playing around, I suddenly noticed the rock's great structure and did a couple of close crops, clipping all the edges of the boulder. I like the look of these images but I wish I had noticed it while shooting as I lost a lot of resolution to the heavy cropping. I'm a little upset about that but I guess this is the price of learning. Another idea that I can add to my repertoire....

In fact, this is something I'd like to stress: in growing as a photographer, you build a mental library of photographic possibilities that you can use as a base for future shots. For example, I know that "cutting" the sun against a sharp object (rock, house, tree or person) can create sunstars which can add quite a lot of magic to your shots. Knowing this, my brain goes click when it recognizes a situation where such a shot is possible. The more images you take, and the more you think about it before, during and afterwards, the bigger this library in your head will become. As you build this repertoire, your odds of getting good shots regularly will increase over time and you will become more and more flexible.

Keep this in mind. Keep trying out new ideas while you're shooting. At home, write down any ideas you might have and take those notes with you the next time. There is an infinite number of great images yet to be made but most of the underlying principles stay the same and can be learned, studied and practiced. Expand your repertoire, I try to expand mine. 

Basics: Having a plan

"The average russky doesn't take a dump, son, without a plan..." 

-The Hunt for Red October

Everybody takes a good picture once in a while. Point the camera somewhere, bang away and a good image is bound to fall in your lap someday. I took the first image I got published in a magazine some 4 weeks after buying my first camera. How? I lucked out. I just started shooting, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Those images are fine and the fact that you lucked out in taking them doesn't diminish them. But if you want to sustain that and keep turning out good images on a regular basis, you have to become good enough to create good work without surrendering to fate and luck. 

So what makes a good image? Does it tell the truth? Is it accurate? Does it make your  palms sweat? Does it move you? Does it make you want to buy the pictured product? Does it make you want to climb El Capitan? 

How do we judge an image? We look at it, (subconsciously) recognize the image's purpose and compare it to the result. Judging an image is only possible by comparing it to it's intention. Now you might say that many people don't spend a single thought about anything when they're taking images. That might be true. Yet any image that is made intentionally (meaning you didn't just press the shutter-release accidentally) has an inherent purpose. This might be a conscious thought or just be the basic "Whoah that tree looks cool!" stimulation we sometimes feel. Yet even such an image has an intention as it was taken to express that this tree did in fact look cool. 

This is where having a plan comes in. Pointing the camera somewhere and hoping for the best might give you a great image. It's unlikely, but possible. The Gods of Photography might have mercy on you and inject an accidental meaning into a shot you took without thinking. This might work, but it is hardly reliable.  The only way to make good images on a regular basis is by planning. Think about the image. See it before you press the shutter release. Knowing everthing about f-stops, ISO's and off-camera flash helps you make that image real but that is only the second step. The first step is seeing it. Seeing it without thinking about the how, seeing it the way you want it. Once you see it, you can set up your flashes, boost your ISO and burn away with 20fps to catch that image. Do anything that will help you catch that image. But you have to know what to look for. Have a plan. 

Well great, so how do I do that, dumbass?!

Practice. Seeing is a skill that takes practice like any other. Don't worry that maybe you don't have the "photographer's eye"! People are not born with it. This is not about talent. As a matter of fact, I don't care much for the concept of talent. Worrying about being talented, whether you think you are or you think you're not, blocks your desire to improve. People refer to themselves as being untalented much too often. In school, I always claimed I was untalented in math. I'm not. If anything, I was lacking the desire to improve. I didn't want to become good at it. Talking about lack of talent was nothing but a cheap excuse. 

Practice sounds like work, which sounds like a big zero on the fun scale. Don't worry, it's not. You can do this everywhere, all the time, no matter if you carry a camera on you or not. Simply allow yourself to dream. Dream about the next climbing trip, shoot or your next vacation. What do you want the pictures to look like? Look at other people's shots. What impresses you about those images? What can you use for your own shots? Let yourself be inspired. Pretty soon you will have a whole gallery in your head, full of shots you haven't yet taken, but where all the hard stuff is already done and you only have to press the shutter release to seal the deal. 

Is that all?

No. Having a plan doesn't guarantee a winner shot. Taking it and getting it the way you want it can still be tricky. You still have to be skilled enough to make it real. Look at the above shot. In my head this image is a lot better. The image in my head is a winner. The climber's shadow is better defined, the climber's face is lighted better and loads of little imperfections are improved. The plan was sound but the execution wasn't up to it. So far, I haven't been able to make this image the way I want it. But getting this image is now only a matter of the f-stops and flash settings and all that other technical stuff. The plan is there, I see the image, I only have to figure out the execution. I just have to make it real.

Vacation

Hi everybody!

Packing my bags for a short vacation / family visit. I'll be back on Sunday night. Probably won't have internet connection, so hang on until I get back! Thanks!

Working on some cool new stuff, stay tuned, will tweet, mail and holler when it's done ;-)

I might get a chance to check my emails, so if anything's pressing write me here. 

Have a nice weekend, see you next week!

Cheers

Bruno

Portfolio Page online

After changing around the visual appearance of this blog, I decided to update my portfolio page, too. You'll find it here or by clicking on the Portfolio link above. Let me know what you think! I hope this page displays correctly on different browsers / screens, let me know if anything is off!

Looking forward to seeing you there,

have fun!

Bruno

Big Picture - How much is too much?

One of the big issues with modern photography is the easy possibility to drastically alter shots in Photoshop and similar applications. In this context, the question of how much post processing is "allowed" is often asked and seems tricky to answer. Even a JPG directly from the camera is only an interpretation of the sensor data, done, in this case, by the camera itself. There are so many ways to change a photo that it seems practically impossible to draw a clear line between what's acceptable and what's not. 

When I started writing this post I didn't think I'd be able to provide an answer even for myself. I was torn between the fact that I love the possibilities of polishing my shots and the fear that some photoshop punk might steal my thunder by "faking" better images... But after rewriting this post a couple of times I suddenly realized it: everything goes! Why? Because there's nothing wrong with it. This fear that less skilled shooters might somehow fabricate a better picture by means of photoshop than experienced shooters can achieve by "fair means"? Forget about it! You cannot photoshop a great image out of a crappy shot. Don't worry, it doesn't work. You can polish a raw gem into a jewel, but you need to have this gem in the first place. 

Without this raw quality, no amount of post-processing will save your shot. Realizing that, I suddenly felt completely relaxed about the whole issue. There's no need defending something if it's not in danger. Being creative, working on your abilities and refining your technique, you will always be ahead. You've got nothing to worry about. Liking the look of an image -processed or not- is a matter of taste, it's not a question of what's allowed.

Some things I realized working on this post summed up:

-Don't mistake judging what's acceptable with what suits your taste! Photoshopping the crap out of a photo is the right of any photographer, not liking the result is the right of every viewer. 

-A great image cannot be faked, you cannot photoshop dogshit into art. Just as with polishing gems, post processing holds the danger of destroying the raw material. Think about the kid playing with his father's gun... 

-Time spent on bitching about manipulated images might be better spent on becoming a better photographer. 

-A great image is a great image is a great image; do what you like, the only thing to be judged is the final result.

Don't hesitate to disagree! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Bruno

Cosmetics Part III

Ok, as you might have noticed, the "I'll just change some colours on my blog" cosmetics idea from last night turned into a full blown plastic surgery... (I can think of about 10-40 very bad puns involving recently deceased people, but I'm not going there)

Anyway, I kinda like the result, some posts are not completely consistent with the new layout yet, but all the important posts are up to speed. I hope you like the new look, both praise and criticism is always welcome!

Take care

Bruno

Cosmetics Part II

Still working on my site and reaching awesome new heigts in screwing things up... Hang in there, I'll either manage to work things out or kill the whole thing altogether :-) Sorry for any inconvenience!