July 14, 2009...................................................................................HOME............................................................"Photography and Football"
Lorem
Lorem
Technical Details
Nikon D300
Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8 lens
ISO 200
1/1000 second @ f/8
NEF capture
Lexar 4G compact flash card
Thunderbolt CF card reader
Apple MacPro 3GHz
Mac OS X 10.5
Adobe Photoshop CS4
I would never fault you for thinking you’re about to read a sports photography column. Tips on action photos, access, releases... I’m certain that column has been written and is out there somewhere. But that’s not how thoughts of football and recently creating a dynamic photograph crossed paths in my mind this morning. That’s no surprise to those of you familiar with my writing and personal insights into photography.
I’m a relatively recent football fan and only became one when my son Evan’s interest in the game became my interest during his high school years. After gaining some familiarity with the sport, I found watching one team attempt to execute plays in the face of constant challenge to be a rewarding drama. Although I revel in a beautifully thrown pass play, I was puzzled one day by a quote from the coach of the team I was following.
“Football is a game inches.”
Of course at the time, my first thoughts were, well sure, occasionally an inch or two makes a difference, but the reality is it’s all about yards and yards. That is what wins games, not inches. But over the years I came to see that time after time, the important games frequently came down to a single play, where that matter of inches made all the difference. His philosophical quote took on new meaning as my understanding of the game matured.
Now, football and photography...
To the photographer early in their involvement with the medium, making good photographs is a lot like my initial appreciation of football. The perception is it’s all about equipment. Pros make amazing shots because they can pull out a three foot long lens that weighs 20 lbs and cost $5000. Like a dazzling long pass play, that’s the reality behind pro quality shots.
As they stick with the medium and eventually want those amazing shots to be their own, they finally decide, “I need that lens too”. They plunk down $1000 or $1500 for a great piece of glass, and do get a new perspective, that is perhaps sharper, but still wonder why those amazing shots remain elusive. Some come to the realization that maybe there is something to learn about good photography, so they take a class, or two. A few will embark on years of courses, digging into technical underpinnings of camera operation and Photoshop mastery that can leave your head spinning. Much of this is a good investment, and does contribute to a foundation that is undeniably important in becoming a better photographer.
But if you persevere long enough, you come to a point where you see that the difference between a good picture and a great photograph “comes down to inches”.
How so?
One of the tenets you’ll hear over and over as you take those courses, is “never shoot just one shot of a subject”. As you embrace the concept of “working” a scene, you begin to shoot more of each subject. Then you face the sometimes daunting task of selecting which of 20 shots (or 100 now that you’re shooting digital) is the best one. This process of making selects is actually a critical step in your work, yet one that is hard to teach. It’s difficult because the decisions are based on criteria that can be hard to define. Of course, when you have nine frames made in a second (isn’t technology awesome) the subjective differences fall by the wayside and it’s relatively easy to say, that’s the sharpest, it’s a keeper. But after that round of the selection process (kinda like the football draft to select players isn’t it), you’re still faced with probably four or five technically good images. Which one is the best?
Hmmm. We’re getting to the point where only small differences separate the images.
Small as in “inches”.
Now it becomes time to step back, and let emotion hold the reins a bit, guiding your eye and looking for how those small differences touch your heart and mind. For people who don’t often swim in these waters, all of this sounds a little nebulous. But trust me, learning to recognize those small clues are the inches that separate “first downs”. And as you evaluate your work, and those “first downs” add up in the course of shooting, selecting, and processing your images, eventually you end up with a “touchdown” photograph.
It’s easiest to start approaching your work with this sort of critical eye in the processing stage, when you’re at your computer. Here there are no distractions from the real world and you have lots of time to study your frames. Wrestle with the details. The philosophy even carries through to your processing in Photoshop. Each step in developing your file introduces a change. It’s then up to you to critically assess whether the result is a good thing, a no change thing, or a bad thing. Inch by inch your image works its way along. Sometimes you’ll get to a point, after investing considerable energy, where you just realize, “This image just isn’t going to work”. Well, not every possession in football leads to a touchdown. Get over it. Eventually though, as your critical eye gets more and more trained at the computer, it spills over into the field. One day you will begin to look at what is in your viewfinder with the same degree of critical judgement that you focused on those 100 flower photos back at your computer. When that happens it’s all good, because it means you’ll be bringing home much higher quality images for your next selection process.
I was in NYC this past weekend and happened to be around Rockefeller Center (no... I didn’t see Tina Fey). The plaza at the base is ringed by American flags, and it was after all Memorial Day weekend. It seemed just the right thing to try and work those into the frame. And a skyscraper... what can you do with 70 stories of straight up besides squeeze it in with a wide angle? I was shooting with a D300 and had brought my 10.5 mm fisheye because it’s small and when you need it you need it. Seventy stories straight up and flag poles a foot from my face... I needed it. In fact the flagpoles become the perfect framing device for the building itself. Great perspective. I found my niche and started shooting, varying exposure, experimenting with where to place focus to maximize depth of field, in other words “struggling for the inches” that would make the difference.
Then, during a relatively still morning, a small puff of breeze happened. For a fleeting moment, the flags blew backwards, over my head. That motion, in an otherwise static frame, became the final “inches” that scored the touchdown. Blown back, the flags were backlit, bringing a whole new dimension of color and dynamic shape to what would have otherwise just been more sky in the top of the frame. Of course I kept shooting anyway, now hoping for another breeze that didn’t come. Back in Photoshop the selection process went just as you’d expect. Narrowing down, then choosing the one composition of flag movement that spoke to me. Then processing the file to bring colors and detail to life. Yep, a lot of time and energy into just one photograph. But it was also another touchdown for the home team.
BTW, Happy Birthday... to me!
I’m a relatively recent football fan and only became one when my son Evan’s interest in the game became my interest during his high school years. After gaining some familiarity with the sport, I found watching one team attempt to execute plays in the face of constant challenge to be a rewarding drama. Although I revel in a beautifully thrown pass play, I was puzzled one day by a quote from the coach of the team I was following.
“Football is a game inches.”
Of course at the time, my first thoughts were, well sure, occasionally an inch or two makes a difference, but the reality is it’s all about yards and yards. That is what wins games, not inches. But over the years I came to see that time after time, the important games frequently came down to a single play, where that matter of inches made all the difference. His philosophical quote took on new meaning as my understanding of the game matured.
Now, football and photography...
To the photographer early in their involvement with the medium, making good photographs is a lot like my initial appreciation of football. The perception is it’s all about equipment. Pros make amazing shots because they can pull out a three foot long lens that weighs 20 lbs and cost $5000. Like a dazzling long pass play, that’s the reality behind pro quality shots.
As they stick with the medium and eventually want those amazing shots to be their own, they finally decide, “I need that lens too”. They plunk down $1000 or $1500 for a great piece of glass, and do get a new perspective, that is perhaps sharper, but still wonder why those amazing shots remain elusive. Some come to the realization that maybe there is something to learn about good photography, so they take a class, or two. A few will embark on years of courses, digging into technical underpinnings of camera operation and Photoshop mastery that can leave your head spinning. Much of this is a good investment, and does contribute to a foundation that is undeniably important in becoming a better photographer.
But if you persevere long enough, you come to a point where you see that the difference between a good picture and a great photograph “comes down to inches”.
How so?
One of the tenets you’ll hear over and over as you take those courses, is “never shoot just one shot of a subject”. As you embrace the concept of “working” a scene, you begin to shoot more of each subject. Then you face the sometimes daunting task of selecting which of 20 shots (or 100 now that you’re shooting digital) is the best one. This process of making selects is actually a critical step in your work, yet one that is hard to teach. It’s difficult because the decisions are based on criteria that can be hard to define. Of course, when you have nine frames made in a second (isn’t technology awesome) the subjective differences fall by the wayside and it’s relatively easy to say, that’s the sharpest, it’s a keeper. But after that round of the selection process (kinda like the football draft to select players isn’t it), you’re still faced with probably four or five technically good images. Which one is the best?
Hmmm. We’re getting to the point where only small differences separate the images.
Small as in “inches”.
Now it becomes time to step back, and let emotion hold the reins a bit, guiding your eye and looking for how those small differences touch your heart and mind. For people who don’t often swim in these waters, all of this sounds a little nebulous. But trust me, learning to recognize those small clues are the inches that separate “first downs”. And as you evaluate your work, and those “first downs” add up in the course of shooting, selecting, and processing your images, eventually you end up with a “touchdown” photograph.
It’s easiest to start approaching your work with this sort of critical eye in the processing stage, when you’re at your computer. Here there are no distractions from the real world and you have lots of time to study your frames. Wrestle with the details. The philosophy even carries through to your processing in Photoshop. Each step in developing your file introduces a change. It’s then up to you to critically assess whether the result is a good thing, a no change thing, or a bad thing. Inch by inch your image works its way along. Sometimes you’ll get to a point, after investing considerable energy, where you just realize, “This image just isn’t going to work”. Well, not every possession in football leads to a touchdown. Get over it. Eventually though, as your critical eye gets more and more trained at the computer, it spills over into the field. One day you will begin to look at what is in your viewfinder with the same degree of critical judgement that you focused on those 100 flower photos back at your computer. When that happens it’s all good, because it means you’ll be bringing home much higher quality images for your next selection process.
I was in NYC this past weekend and happened to be around Rockefeller Center (no... I didn’t see Tina Fey). The plaza at the base is ringed by American flags, and it was after all Memorial Day weekend. It seemed just the right thing to try and work those into the frame. And a skyscraper... what can you do with 70 stories of straight up besides squeeze it in with a wide angle? I was shooting with a D300 and had brought my 10.5 mm fisheye because it’s small and when you need it you need it. Seventy stories straight up and flag poles a foot from my face... I needed it. In fact the flagpoles become the perfect framing device for the building itself. Great perspective. I found my niche and started shooting, varying exposure, experimenting with where to place focus to maximize depth of field, in other words “struggling for the inches” that would make the difference.
Then, during a relatively still morning, a small puff of breeze happened. For a fleeting moment, the flags blew backwards, over my head. That motion, in an otherwise static frame, became the final “inches” that scored the touchdown. Blown back, the flags were backlit, bringing a whole new dimension of color and dynamic shape to what would have otherwise just been more sky in the top of the frame. Of course I kept shooting anyway, now hoping for another breeze that didn’t come. Back in Photoshop the selection process went just as you’d expect. Narrowing down, then choosing the one composition of flag movement that spoke to me. Then processing the file to bring colors and detail to life. Yep, a lot of time and energy into just one photograph. But it was also another touchdown for the home team.
BTW, Happy Birthday... to me!
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sapien platea morbi dolor lacus lacusnunc, nolor HOME